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George Westinghouse Quotes

10 quotes from George Westinghouse — Inventor and industrialist who founded Westinghouse Electric..

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“If someday they say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow man, I shall be satisfied.”

Welfare

“The alternating current will kill people, of course. So will gunpowder, and dynamite, and whisky, and lots of other things; but we have a system whereby the deadly electricity of the alternating current can do no harm unless a man is fool enough to swallow a whole dynamo.”

— As quoted in Francis Ellington Leupp, George Westinghouse: His Life and Achievements (1918)Safety

“[Pavel Yablochkov's electric lamp is] the starting point for the creation of a new branch of industry.”

— In 'Opasnosti elektricheskogo osveshcheniia', Elektrichestvo 4 (1890)Innovation

“They could have done it better with an axe.”

— On the first use of the electric chair, as quoted in New York Times (18 Aug 1890)Justice

“I have always known what I wanted, and how to get it. As a child, I got it by tantrums; in mature years, by hard work.”

— George Westinghouse

“Just as certain as death, Westinghouse will kill a customer within six months after he puts in a system of any size.”

— Thomas Edison, on alternating current

“Each Titan was determined to master this mysterious fluid, each vied to construct an empire of light and energy on a new and monumental scale.”

— Jill Jonnes, author of *Empires of Light*

“If someday they say of me that in my work I have contributed something to the welfare and happiness of my fellow men, I shall be satisfied.”

— George Westinghouse, inscribed on the monument at his Central Bridge birthplace

“He isn't the kind of boy you can shape against his will.”

— George Westinghouse's minister, to his father

“In the pantheon of American inventors he is surpassed only by Thomas A. Edison. As an industrialist he deserves admittance into a small circle, including Carnegie, Ford and Rockefeller. As an inventor/industrialist he stands by himself.”

— William S. Dietrich II, Pittsburgh Quarterly

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George Westinghouse

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George Westinghouse

Inventor and industrialist who founded Westinghouse Electric.