☆ Know that planning is important, but that imagination makes the extraordinary possible.
If the Commission is to enquire into the conditions “to be observed,” it is to be presumed that they will give the result of their enquiries; or, in other words, that they will lay down, or at least suggest, “rules” and “conditions to be (hereafter) observed” in the construction of bridges, or, in other words, embarrass and shackle the progress of improvement to-morrow by recording and registering as law the prejudices or errors of to-day.
- Brunel [ To the 1847 Royal Commission set up after the collapse of the River Dee Bridge, objecting to any interference by the State with the freedom of civil engineers in the conduct of their professional work.]