Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

James Dyson Industrial designer

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United Kingdom
  • Born: May 2, 1947
  • Died: Jan 22, 1990

Sir James Dyson, CBE, FREng is a British inventor, industrial designer and founder of the Dyson company. He is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2013, his net worth in 2013 was £3 billion.

I think if you have to pay for your education, you worry very seriously about you're going to do when you've got your degree.

Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success.

Britain's great strength is its innovative, design and engineering natural ability and we're not using it.

Arbitrary benchmarks cheat kids out of a fulfilling education.

The media thinks that you have to make science sexy and concentrate on themes such as rivalry and the human issues.

The wonderful thing about Apple technology is just how intuitive it is.

I don't particularly follow the Bauhaus school of design, where you make everything into a black box - simplify it.

Beauty can come in strange forms.

I don't do something necessarily to make a big profit or because it's a logical business decision.

I hate science fiction.

Fear is always a good motivator.

Today, computers are almost second nature to most of us.

My interest in film is sort of catholic - apart from science fiction and horror movies, I'll watch almost everything.

So I think the winners in recession are the people who produce new technology that does things better, which people really want.

Design and technology should be the subject where mathematical brainboxes and science whizzkids turn their bright ideas into useful products.

Business is constantly changing, constantly evolving.

When decisions on nuclear power stations and runways are delayed and the government dilly-dallies, people think they aren't important.

Failure is an enigma. You worry about it, and it teaches you something.

Anger is a good motivator.

People will make leaps of faith and get excited by your product if you just get it in front of them.

I don't design down to a price.

In the digital age of 'overnight' success stories such as Facebook, the hard slog is easily overlooked.