Machine Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old machine quotes, machine sayings, and machine proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

For the machine, because of the way it is built, can work only in a given direction, no matter who pulls its levers. Rudolf Rocker
No machines will ever truly fully figure the brain out, because the brain's performance is constantly altered or else constrained by this inanimate, rogue artifact you can't control, namely, speech. Tom Wolfe
Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time. But now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time. Moondog
Machines were, it may be said, the weapon employed by the capitalists to quell the revolt of specialized labor. Karl Marx
The arithmetical machine produces effects that approach nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. But it does nothing that would enable us to attribute will to it, as to the animals. Blaise Pascal
A learning machine is any device whose actions are influenced by past experience. Nils John Nilsson
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. Bertrand Russell
The machine enslaves, the hand sets free. Lanza del Vasto
Machines are neither Republicans nor Democrats and therefore can never be consciously or even unconsciously biased, James Baker
The first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control. Nick Bostrom
Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert. Donna J. Haraway
How typical of a machine to think it knows better. Vasileios Kalampakas
Only a well-oiled machine runs smoothly. Ron Kaufman
Machines have altered our way of life, but not our instincts. Consequently, there is maladjustment. Bertrand Russell
It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines. Donald A. Norman
As machines take over the decision-making that saves lives, we are left with fewer chances to save lives later. Greg Gutfeld
Machines can only find what ignorant men have programmed them to find. Poul Anderson
The machine does not control the mind of man, though it affects the mind of man; it is the mind of man that can and should control the machine. Hilaire Belloc
Our technology, our machines, is part of our humanity. We created them to extend ourselves, and that is what is unique about human beings. Ray Kurzweil
If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent. Alan Turing
If you want a machine to be able to interact with people, it better not do things that are surprising to people. Rodney Brooks
The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
To curb the machine and limit art to handicraft is a denial of opportunity. Lewis Mumford
The machines men are so intent on making have carried them very far from the old sweet things. Sherwood Anderson
No machine can wind a better sounding or tighter wind than a well trained person, Leo Fender
Machines need to talk easily to one another in order to better serve people. Nicholas Negroponte
Machines deprive us of two things which are certainly important ingredients of human happiness, namely, spontaneity and variety. Bertrand Russell
When a machine begins to run without human aid, it is time to scrap it - whether it be a factory or a government. Alexander Chase
You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steam-roller will not plant flowers. Walter Lippmann
Machines were devised not to do a man out of a job, but to take the heavy labor from man's back and place it on the broad back of the machine. Henry Ford