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Buckminster FullerRichard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller (July 12, 1895 - July 1, 1983) was an American visionary, designer, architect, inventor, and writer.
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Fuller was born on July 12, 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts. He began studying at Harvard but was expelled from the university. He served in the US Navy in World War I. In 1927 at the age of 32, bankrupt and jobless, living in inferior housing in Chicago, he saw his beloved young daughter Alexandra die of pneumonia in winter. He felt responsible, and this drove him to drink and the verge of suicide. At the last moment he decided instead to embark on an experiment, to find what a single individual can contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity. It was an extraordinary success. For the next half-century Buckminster Fuller contributed an astonishing range of ideas, designs and inventions to the world, particularly in the areas of practical, inexpensive shelter and transportation. Documenting his life, philosophy and ideas scrupulously in a daily diary and in 28 publications, Fuller was ultimately to be awarded 25 US patents and over 50 honorary doctorates.
His international career took off after the success of his huge geodesic domes in the 1950s. Now working as a designer, scientist, developer, and writer, for many years he also lectured all over the world on design.
On January 16, 1970 Fuller received the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects[?] and has also received numerous other awards and honorary degrees.
He died at the age of 88, a guru of the design, architecture, and 'alternative' communities. It is said that while visiting his comatose wife in hospital, he said "She's waiting for me," closed his eyes, and died of a heart attack within 2 hours. His wife died 36 hours later.
His concepts and buildings include:
His publications include:
An excellent discussion of his work on geometry and systems appears in A Fuller Explanation (http://www.angelfire.com/mt/marksomers/40.html) by Amy C. Edmondson. Buckminster Fuller also appears as a character in Paul Wühr[?]'s book "Das falsche Buch".
One of those affronts which women.html">women scarcely ever forgive
Painful to an honest man.html">man to resist desires already formed
Piety was too sincere to give way to any affectation of it
Prescriptions serve to flatter the hopes of the patient
Proportioned rather to her ideas than abilities
Rather bashful than modest
Read the hearts of others by endeavoring to conceal our own
Read without studying
Remorse sleeps in the calm sunshine of prosperity
Return of spring seemed to me like rising from the grave
Satisfaction of weeping together
Sin consisted only in the scandal
Sometimes encourage hopes they never mean to realize
Supposed that certain, which I only knew to be probable
That which neither women nor authors ever pardon
The conscience of the guilty would revenge the innocent
There is no clapping of hands before the king
Though not a fool, I have frequently passed for one
True happiness is indescribable, it is only to be felt
Tyranny of persons who called themselves my friends
Voltaire was formed never to be(happy)
What facility everything which favors the malignity of man
When everyone is busy, you may continue silent
Where merit consists in belief, and not in virtue
Whose discourses began by a distribution of millions
Without the least scruple, freely disposing of my time
Yielded him the victory, or rather declined the contest
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Widger's Quotations,
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