Clessie Cummins Quotes

102 Clessie Cummins Quotes (Clessie Lyle Cummins, Cummins Engine Quotes)

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Mechanical difficulty… can always be whipped.
Clessie Cummins

Our greatest trouble has been caused by following too closely old, accepted formulas.
Clessie Cummins

An amazing idea flashed before me….
Clessie Cummins

I am going after it and furthermore I am going to get it.
Clessie Cummins

Innovation you can depend on.
Clessie Cummins

I want to… make things.
Clessie Cummins

[On the world of work and wages.] The practical classroom.
Clessie Cummins

[In 1904 when he quit school in grade 8] I want to be a machinist and make things.
Clessie Cummins

[On setting up the Cummins Engine Company (Now Cummins, Inc) in February 20, 1919 and sizing up the company’s physical assets. Receiving $19,350 in stock for these assets even though he estimated them being worth $25,000] I much preferred to take a personal licking on the equipment, than to have a company with too little capital.
Clessie Cummins

[On the great depression in 1930 causing sales to evaporate on every front and W.G. Irwin saying on the 15th of December 1930 that it was time to cut their losses and liquidate the firm] As I sat along in the gloom of my tiny office. I picked up the latest issue of a trade magazine… An amazing idea flashed before me…. [Then he called H. L Knudsen and told him to bring a U Engine down to the office when asked why] We’re going to Indianapolis to find an automobile that will take Model U engine. [Then beginning the course of events that ultimately drew Cummins Engine into the automotive market, saved the company, and chartered a successful course for the future.]
Clessie Cummins



[In 1932] one of my big dreams is the substitution of the Diesel for the steam locomotive.
Clessie Cummins

Looks like we can count on a nice share of business in this big yacht field…
Clessie Cummins

People who have plenty of money and the desire for high speed… will go to any extreme to get it.
Clessie Cummins

I am trying to find out… whether I am up against a real for sure wall.
Clessie Cummins

[P. T.] Barnum and Bailey days.
Clessie Cummins

We ran a three ring circus with racing…
Clessie Cummins

A Cummins diesel engine could go 10,000 miles without stopping.
Clessie Cummins

Astronomical odds against such a procedure…
Clessie Cummins

Best and safest…
Clessie Cummins

We were caught with a heavy inventory on our hands.
Clessie Cummins



We were assured that in taking out a license … We were all more or less misled…
Clessie Cummins

I constantly had in mind an engine that would not be subject to the weaknesses…
Clessie Cummins

If we go after it…
Clessie Cummins

I am going to get it.
Clessie Cummins

We had found the answer to the problems confronting us…
Clessie Cummins

They… leave the manufacturer out in the cold.
Clessie Cummins

We are just out of the early experimental stage.
Clessie Cummins

We have enough ammunition laid up here to snow you under…
Clessie Cummins

The first plan is to get engines out in some manner and establish ourselves…
Clessie Cummins

It is pretty hard to sell anyone except a good friend on the oil engine idea at this time.
Clessie Cummins



I have worked hard…
Clessie Cummins

My salary is about what I could make in a good machine shop with no responsibility…
Clessie Cummins

I believe… we should do everything in our power…
Clessie Cummins

Being discouraged… has kept me in a quandary. I am blowing hot one day and cold the next.
Clessie Cummins

I am trying to find out in my own mind if I am allowing my own personal needs of the moment to warp my judgement or whether I am up against a real for sure wall.
Clessie Cummins

Self preservation is a strong instinct and hard to dismiss.
Clessie Cummins

I picked up the latest issue of a trade magazine…
Clessie Cummins

We’re going to Indianapolis to find an automobile that will take Model U engine.
Clessie Cummins

[In April 1929] The common use of diesel engines for motorcars is not near. Eventually it will come, but there is no economic need for it now. [Six months later the need came.]
Clessie Cummins

[On driving his Cummins diesel powered Packard to the National Automobile Show in New York on January 6, 1930 when it had logged only a grand total of ten miles with the Cummins power plant] We ran a three ring circus with racing, transcontinental runs, endurance tests, bus and truck records, and what not… [P. T.] Barnum and Bailey days.
Clessie Cummins



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