Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Men have become the tools of their tools.

The introduction of so powerful an agent as steam will make a great change in the situation of man.

A completely industrialized society is of no consequence to me.

As well might it be said that, because we are ignorant of the laws by which metals are produced and trees developed, we cannot know anything of the origin of steamships and railways.

We can go into no mechanic shop, into no manufactory of any description, upon no farm or plantation, or travel a mile on our railroads or in our steamboats, without seeing evidence of our originality and witnessing the fruits of our ingenuity and enterprise.

America’s history is the history of her transportation.

The railway, the steamship, and there telegraph are rapidly mobilizing the people of the earth. The nations are coming our of their isolation, and distances which separated the different races are rapidly giving way before the extension of communication.

In analyzing what made the Golden Century of 1870 to 1970 possible, it becomes clear that four physical infrastructure technologies provided the underlying foundation for growth: energy, transportation, health and sanitation, and communication.

Sometimes you might think the machines we worship make all the chief appointments, promoting the human beings who seem closest to them.

I came into the world at the same time as the auto, if you will.

So the major obstacle to the development of new supplies is not geology but what happens above ground: international affairs, politics, investment and technology.

Technology and industry have distanced people from nature and magic and human values.

Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.

In short, industrialism is over.

Futurism: This was a movement of intellectuals who wanted to replace tradition with the modern world of machinery, speed, violence, and public relations. It proves that we should be careful what intellectuals wish for, because we might get it.

Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.

Good intentions can often lead to unintended consequences. It is hard to imagine a law intended for the workforce known to Henry Ford can serve the needs of a workplace shaped by the innovations of Bill Gates.

The industrial revolution that defined the first half of the 20 century marked the start of modern business, typified by high-volume, large-scale organizations. Mechanization created a culture of business derived from the capabilities and needs of the time.

In the 20th century, we had a century where at the beginning of the century, most of the world was agricultural and industry was very primitive. At the end of that century, we had men in orbit, we had been to the moon, we had people with cell phones and colour televisions and the Internet and amazing medical technology of all kinds.

History is full of examples of poorer nations that become wealthy by exploiting their comparative advantage in cheap labor to become globally competitive in a range of manufacturing industries.... If robots are expected to take over many of the menial jobs currently performed by people, the concern should not be for the working class in wealthy countries but for the billions living in the developing world who will now have lost the only established ladder out of poverty.

Transformation in the nature of work tend to brings wrenching social changes in their wake.

Despite all the political sound and fury, little service-sector offshoring has happened to date. But it may eventually amount to a third Industrial Revolution, and industrial revolutions have a way of transforming societies.

Industrial forces set in motion by steam and electricity have materially changed the structure of our civilization.

We have an industrial-age presidency, catering to a pre-industrial ideological base, in a post-industrial era.

We have come to the point where a new machine invented in England deprives millions of Chinese workers of their livelihood within a year's time.