Search
Search people, companies, models, and more.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Quotes
12 quotes from Isambard Kingdom Brunel — Victorian engineer who built the Great Western Railway, SS Great Britain, the Thames Tunnel, and iconic bridges and shi….
“The railway now is in progress. I am thus engineer to the finest work in England. A handsome salary, on excellent terms with my directors & all going smoothly. But what a fight we have had, & how near defeat, & what a ruinous defeat it would have been.”
“Cornwall is such that no railway can be constructed at moderate expense without either sacrificing all consideration for the interest of localities & the position of the population to the mere choice of levels, or without steep gradient and sharp curves.”
“My confidence in the shield is not only undiminished—it is, on the contrary, tried with its full effect, & it is manifest now that it will soon replace us in good ground, & in a safe situation. No top staves have given way. That is our real protection.”
“Of all the wonderful feats I have performed, since I have been in this part of the world, I think yesterday I performed the most wonderful. I produced unanimity among 15 men who were all quarrelling about that most ticklish subject - taste.”
“If we must have heroes and wars whereinto make them, there is no war so brilliant as a war with the wrong, no hero so fit to be sung, as he who has gained the bloodless VICTORY of truth and mercy.”
“I am opposed to the laying down of rules or conditions to be observed in the construction of bridges lest the progress of improvement tomorrow might be embarrassed or shackled by recording or registering as law the prejudices or errors of today.”
“The railway now is in progress. I am thus engineer to the finest work in England. A handsome salary, on excellent terms with my directors & all going smoothly. But what a fight we have had, & how near defeat, & what a ruinous defeat it would have been.”
“Cornwall is such that no railway can be constructed at moderate expense without either sacrificing all consideration for the interest of localities & the position of the population to the mere choice of levels, or without steep gradient and sharp curves.”
“My confidence in the shield is not only undiminished—it is, on the contrary, tried with its full effect, & it is manifest now that it will soon replace us in good ground, & in a safe situation. No top staves have given way. That is our real protection.”
“Of all the wonderful feats I have performed, since I have been in this part of the world, I think yesterday I performed the most wonderful. I produced unanimity among 15 men who were all quarrelling about that most ticklish subject - taste.”
“If we must have heroes and wars whereinto make them, there is no war so brilliant as a war with the wrong, no hero so fit to be sung, as he who has gained the bloodless VICTORY of truth and mercy.”
“I am opposed to the laying down of rules or conditions to be observed in the construction of bridges lest the progress of improvement tomorrow might be embarrassed or shackled by recording or registering as law the prejudices or errors of today.”