Charles Franklin Kettering (1876–1958) was an American automobile engineer. He was one of the leading inventors of his time.
Born in an Ohio farmhouse, Kettering founded Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO,) which was sold to the General Motors Corporation (GM) in 1916. He became the head of research and later the vice president of GM.
During a long career as an inventor, Kettering was responsible for the development of the synchromesh gearbox, automatic transmission, power steering, electric self-starter, four-wheel brakes, and quick-drying paint for automobiles, among other devices. He also discovered the use of tetraethyl lead for an antiknock agent in petrol fuel.
Together with Alfred Sloan, Kettering founded the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research (1945.) He also established the Flint Institute of Technology (1919) and General Motors Institute (1926,) now named Kettering University.
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Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. The only time you don’t want to fail is the last time you try something … One fails forward toward success.
—Charles F. Kettering
Topics: Failures, Mistakes, Success & Failure, Achievement
One fails forward toward success.
—Charles F. Kettering
Topics: Failure, One liners
Industry prospers when it offers people articles which they want more than they want anything they now have. The fact is that people never buy what they need. They buy what they want.
—Charles F. Kettering
Topics: Business
Nothing ever built arose to touch the skies unless some man dreamed that it should, some man believed that it could, and some man willed that it must.
—Charles F. Kettering
In America we can say what we think, and even if we can’t think, we can say it anyhow.
—Charles F. Kettering
Topics: Thoughts, Thought, Thinking
People are very open-minded about new things — as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.
—Charles F. Kettering
Topics: Change, Tolerance, Open-mindedness
My interest is in the future because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there.
—Charles F. Kettering
Topics: Future, Vision, Tomorrow, The Future
We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.
—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
Topics: Ideas
You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.
—Charles F. Kettering
The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.
—Charles F. Kettering
Topics: Change, Ideals
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
Topics: Risk, Perspective
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