Looking for the best R. Buckminster Fuller quotes? Then look no further.
Richard Buckminster Fuller was an American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, and futurist.
Driven by curiosity and an eternal optimist, Fuller dedicated his life to making the world work for all of humanity. He operated as a practical philosopher who demonstrated his ideas as inventions he called “artifacts”. What’s impressive is that he didn’t limit himself to one field but worked as a ‘comprehensive anticipatory design scientist’ to solve global problems surrounding housing, shelter, transportation, education, energy, ecological destruction, and poverty.
Throughout the course of his life, R. Buckminster Fuller held 28 patents, authored 28 books, received 47 honorary degrees. He’s attributed with coining or popularizing terms such as “Spaceship Earth”, “Dymaxion” house/car, ephemeralization (doing more with less), synergetic, and “tensegrity”.
And while his most well-known artifact, the geodesic dome, has been produced over 300,000 times worldwide, Fuller’s true impact on the world today can be found in his continued influence upon generations of designers, architects, scientists and artists working to create a more sustainable planet.
Being hailed as “one of the greatest minds of our times,” I hope these R. Buckminster Fuller quotes inspire you to think about what valuable contribution you can bring to the world in your own unique way. Only you have the power to do so.
55 Inspirational Buckminster Fuller Quotes
1. “If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do… How would I be? What would I do? ” – Buckminister Fuller
2. “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.” – Buckminister Fuller (This is one of the most inspirational R. Buckminster Fuller quotes!)
3. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminister Fuller
4. “There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes.” – Buckminister Fuller
5. “You cannot change how someone thinks, but you can give them a tool to use which will lead them to think differently.” – Buckminister Fuller
6. “The minute you begin to do what you really want to do, it’s really a different kind of life.” – Buckminister Fuller
7. “Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.” – Buckminister Fuller
8. “Mistakes are great, the more I make the smarter I get.” – Buckminister Fuller
9. “I’m not a genius. I’m just a tremendous bundle of experience.” – Buckminister Fuller
10. “The purpose of our lives is to add value to the people of this generation and those that follow.” – Buckminister Fuller
11. “It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a ‘higher standard of living than any have ever known.’ It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary and henceforth unrationalizable as mandated by survival.” – Buckminister Fuller
12. “Nature is a totally efficient, self-regenerating system. If we discover the laws that govern this system and live synergistically within them, sustainability will follow and humankind will be a success.” – Buckminister Fuller
13. “If I ran a school, I’d give the average grade to the ones who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I’d give the top grades to those who made a lot of mistakes and told me about them, and then told me what they learned from them.” – Buckminister Fuller
14. “‘The further art advances the closer it approaches science,’ said Leonardo da Vinci, painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and inventor of the wheelbarrow, and other useful instruments from the speaking tube to a mechanically gyp-proof whore-house, ‘the further science advances the closer it approaches art.'” – Buckminister Fuller
15. “We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.” – Buckminister Fuller
16. “To do more and more with less and less until eventually, you can do everything with nothing.” – Buckminister Fuller
17. “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” – Buckminister Fuller
18. “We were deliberately designed to learn only by trial and error. We’re brought up, unfortunately, to think that nobody should make mistakes. Most children get de-geniused by the love and fear of their parents – that they might make a mistake. But all my advances were made by mistakes. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn’t.” – Buckminister Fuller
19. “Humans beings always do the most intelligent thing…after they’ve tried every stupid alternative and none of them have worked.” – Buckminister Fuller
20. “It is not for me to change you. The question is, how can I be of service to you without diminishing your degrees of freedom?” – Buckminister Fuller
21. “Real wealth is ideas plus energy.” – Buckminister Fuller
22. “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.” – Buckminister Fuller
23. “You never change people by fighting their existing reality.” – Buckminister Fuller
24. “The things to do are: the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done – that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual.” – Buckminister Fuller
25. “You can rest assured that if you devote your time and attention to the highest advantage of others, the Universe will support you, always and only in the nick of time.” – Buckminister Fuller
26. “Don’t try to make me consistent. I am learning all the time.” – Buckminister Fuller
27. “War is obsolete. We are not here to fight something or tear something down; We are here to be the example of what is possible. Any sane individual will tell you that violence is … not the way.” – Buckminister Fuller
28. “Search others for their virtue, and yourself for your vices.” – Buckminister Fuller
29. “Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.” – Buckminister Fuller
30. “Don’t fight forces, use them.” – Buckminister Fuller
31. “Take the initiative. Go to work, and above all co-operate and don’t hold back on one another or try to gain at the expense of another. Any success in such lopsidedness will be increasingly short-lived. These are the synergetic rules that evolution is employing and trying to make clear to us. They are not man-made laws. They are the infinitely accommodative laws of the intellectual integrity governing the universe.” – Buckminister Fuller
32. “The nearest each of us can come to God is by loving the truth.” – Buckminister Fuller
33. “There is enough for everyone. People think that there isn’t enough, so they get as much as they can, so many people don’t have enough.” – Buckminister Fuller
34. “Sharing is having more.” – Buckminister Fuller
35. “Humans have always unknowingly affected all Universe by every act and thought they articulate or even consider.” – Buckminister Fuller
36. “Our power is in our ability to decide.” – Buckminister Fuller
37. “You cannot question an assumption you do not know you have made.” – Buckminister Fuller
38. “The reward for being a good problem solver is to be heaped with more and more difficult problems to solve.” – Buckminister Fuller
39. “People should think things out fresh and not just accept conventional terms and the conventional way of doing things.” – Buckminister Fuller
40. “Most of my advances were by mistake. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn’t.” – Buckminister Fuller
41. “Man knows so much and does so little.” – Buckminister Fuller
42. “You can’t better the world by simply talking to it. Philosophy to be effective must be mechanically applied.” – Buckminister Fuller
43. “If you are the master be sometimes blind, if you are the servant be sometimes deaf.” – Buckminister Fuller
44. “Wealth is the product of energy times intelligence: energy turned into artifacts that advantage human life.” – Buckminister Fuller
45. “Wealth is a measure of a person’s ability to survive so many days forward.” – Buckminister Fuller
46. “Integrity is the essence of everything successful.” – Buckminister Fuller
47. “Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.” – Buckminister Fuller
48. “Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.” – Buckminister Fuller
49. “The more for whom we strive to serve, the greater effectiveness we will have.” – Buckminister Fuller
50. “You can never learn less; you can only learn more. The reason I know so much is because I have made so many mistakes.” – Buckminister Fuller
51. “The more we learn the more we realize how little we know.” – Buckminister Fuller
52. “Each one of us has something to contribute. This really depends on each one doing their own thinking, but not following any kind of rule.” – Buckminister Fuller
53. “Always tell only the truth, and all the truth, and do so promptly – right now.” – Buckminister Fuller
54. “Controlled time is our true wealth.” – Buckminister Fuller
55. “Everything we see is inside our own heads.” – Buckminister Fuller
Did you like these inspirational quotes?
As you can see from the R. Buckminster Fuller quotes above, Fuller has a philosophy that inspired contribution to the universe and to all mankind.
He believed that we could be more and do more. That we all have a purpose and a unique contribution for being on earth. So the question is, who are you and what is your purpose?
What are your favorite R. Buckminster Fuller quotes? Did I miss any out? If you liked this post then please share it to help inspire others.
