30 Buckminster Fuller Quotes From The Influential Architect
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Once you make up your mind about what you actually want to do in life, you’re just an inch away from success.
"The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it's a different kind of life" is a R Buckminster Fuller quote that truly reflects this personality. Richard Buckminster Fuller was an American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, and futurist.
Buckminster Fuller developed the geodesic dome, which is the only large dome that can be set directly on the ground as a complete structure. B. Fuller has had a lot of wise things to say about the future, success and how people should live their lives. Here are Richard Buckminster Fuller quotes that you surely should check out.
Also check out our quotes on Frank Lloyd Wright quotes and [funny artistic quotes] once you’re done with these R. Buckminster Fuller quotes.
R. Buckminster Fuller Quotes
R. Buckminster Fuller quotes are truly inspirational and motivational to all readers in the world. Here are some of the best R. Buckminster Fuller quotes that you will truly enjoy.
1. “Dare to be naïve.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
2. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
3. “Love is metaphysical gravity.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
4. “We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
5. “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
6. “American labor will realize that its function is not to increase jobs, but to multiply the wealth and to expand the numbers benefited by the wealth at the swiftest possible rate.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
7. “There are over 2 million cars standing in front of red lights with their engines going.
Then we have over 2 million times approximately 100 horsepower being generated as they are idling there, so that we have something like 200 million horses jumping up and down and going nowhere. Now, we have to count that in our economy when we begin to get down to what is the efficiency of the economy.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
8. “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
9. “We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living.
It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living.
We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
10. “I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process – an integral function of the universe.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
Inspirational R. Buckminster Fuller Quotes
R. Buckminster Fuller quotes have enjoyed a great fan following all over the world. The work of the gentleman speaks a lot. Read on for some truly inspirational R. Buckminster Fuller quotes along with several other interesting R. Buckminster Fuller quotes. Which of these quotes is your favorite?
11. “Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren't any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn't be here in the first place.
And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life's challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
12. “Humans beings always do the most intelligent thing…after they’ve tried every stupid alternative and none of them have worked.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
13. “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty...but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
14. “You can’t change the way people think, all you can do is give them a tool, the use of which will change their thinking.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
15. “I'm not trying to counsel any of you to do anything really special except dare to think. And to dare to go with the truth. And to dare to really love completely.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
16. “The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it's a different kind of life.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
17. “When I was born, humanity was 95 per cent illiterate.
Since I've been born, the population has doubled and that total population is now 65 per cent literate. That's a gain of 130-fold of the literacy. When humanity is primarily illiterate, it needs leaders to understand and get the information and deal with it.
When we are at the point where the majority of humans them-selves are literate, able to get the information, we're in an entirely new relationship to Universe. We are at the point where the integrity of the individual counts and not what the political leadership or the religious leadership says to do.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
18. “If humanity does not opt for integrity we are through completely. It is absolutely touch and go. Each one of us could make the difference.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
19. “Physics has found no straight lines. Instead, the physical universe consists of only waves undulating back and forth allowing for corrections and balance.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
20. “I just invent. Then I wait until man comes around to needing what I've invented.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
21. “It is essential that anyone reading this book know at the outset that the author is apolitical. I was convinced in 1927 that humanity's most fundamental survival problems could never be solved by politics.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
22. “Dear reader, traditional human power structures and their reign of darkness are about to be rendered obsolete.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
23. “I am a passenger on the spaceship Earth.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
24. “Love is omni-inclusive, progressively exquisite, understanding and compassionately attuned to other than self.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
25. “The purpose of our lives is to add value to the people of this generation and those that follow.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
26. “The courage to cooperate or initiate are based entirely on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as the divine mind within you tells you the truth is.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
27. “Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well but their manners should be of the greatest concern.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
28. “The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.””
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
29. “Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
30 "It really does require a courage and a self-disciplining to go along with that truth.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Buckminster Fuller quotes, then why not take a look at Basquiat quotes, or William Morris quotes.
Main Image Editorial credit: Olga Popova / Shutterstock.com
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in English and Drama, Master of Arts specializing in Performance: Design and Practice
Luca DemetriouBachelor of Arts specializing in English and Drama, Master of Arts specializing in Performance: Design and Practice
Experienced in writing and sub-editing, Luca holds a Bachelor's in English Literature and Drama from the University of Birmingham, where he served as the culture editor at Redbrick Paper. He is currently pursuing a Master's in Performance: Design and Practice at the University of the Arts in London, showcasing his passion for the arts, performance, and history. With a keen interest in traveling, Luca enjoys exploring new cultures and experiencing diverse perspectives.
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