Buckminster Fuller
Inventor of geodesic dome, systems thinker
Most quoted
"We are blessed with technology that would be indescribable to our forefathers. We have the wherewithal, the know-it-all to feed everybody, clothe everybody, and give every human on Earth a chance. We know now what we could never have known before—that we now have the option for all humanity to make it successfully on this planet in this lifetime. Whether it is to be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment."
— from Critical Path, 1980
"If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday's fortuitous contrivings as constituting the only means for solving a given problem."
— from Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1969
"The function of what I call design science is to solve problems by introducing into the environment new artifacts, the availability of which will induce their spontaneous employment by humans and thus, coincidentally, cause humans to abandon their previous problem-producing behaviors and devices."
— from Critical Path
All quotes by Buckminster Fuller (245)
The highest purpose of the universe is to make more of itself.
There is no such thing as waste in nature. Everything is recycled.
The universe is a comprehensive integrity. It is not a collection of separate parts.
I am not a thing, I am a verb.
The world is a great school, and we are all students.
The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create.
The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.
The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.
The most important fact about Spaceship Earth is that an instruction book didn't come with it.
The universe is always trying to tell us something.
The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
I am a comprehensive anticipatory design scientist.
The world is a laboratory, and we are all scientists.
We are all here to help each other.
Whether humanity is to continue to enjoy its occupancy of the cosmic craft depends entirely on the integrity of the craft's crew and their ability to comprehend and cope with the craft's operating instructions.
The highest function of the architect is to make a better world.
We are all born with a certain degree of creativity, but it is up to us to cultivate it.
There is no such thing as a straight line in nature.
The greatest discoveries are made by those who are not afraid to fail.
The ultimate purpose of technology is to make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.
Contemporaries of Buckminster Fuller
Other Architectures born within 50 years of Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983).