Charles F. Kettering Quotes

Charles Kettering was born in Ohio, United States.

He held many different jobs, such as an inventor, engineer, and scientist. He also was a farmer, schoolteacher, mechanic, social philosopher, and a salesman. In the automotive industry he was a leading researcher. When the automobile was first invented it was started by a crank, Charles Kettering invented the battery-powered electric starter.

As you will see by his quotes, he was a determined man with a simple philosophy on life.

Below are words of wisdom in the form of inspirational quotes and motivational quotes by Charles F. Kettering:

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something,
perhaps when you are least expecting it.
I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.
Charles F. Kettering

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.
Charles F. Kettering

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.
Charles F. Kettering

The opportunities of man are limited only by his imagination. But so few have imagination that there are ten thousand fiddlers to one composer.
Charles F. Kettering

The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.
Charles F. Kettering

An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously.
Charles F. Kettering

People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones.
Charles F. Kettering

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Charles F. Kettering

Don't be afraid to stumble. Any inventor will tell you that you don't follow a plan far before you strike a snag. If, out of 100 ideas you get one that works, it's enough.
Charles F. Kettering

You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.
Charles F. Kettering

Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier.
Charles F. Kettering

High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
Charles F. Kettering

Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.
Charles F. Kettering

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
Charles F. Kettering

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.
Charles F. Kettering

A problem well stated is a problem half solved.
Charles F. Kettering

Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need.
Charles F. Kettering

It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.
Charles F. Kettering

My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
Charles F. Kettering

It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.
Charles F. Kettering

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.
Charles F. Kettering

An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.
Charles F. Kettering

There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.
Charles F. Kettering

I think that the greatest education in the world is the education which helps one to be able to do the right things at the time it has to be done.
Charles F. Kettering

The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution.
Charles F. Kettering

You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.
Charles F. Kettering