" „Well James,“ he said addressing me, as he does the officers in his command, informally, „it is true that many of our recent inventions will become much improved with use, and one day soon we may even have engines which do not break down with so much wheezing and groaning every two days of use, but I firmly believe that, while machines are perfectible, men are not.
Even a perfect machine must be run by men and, hence, subject to human errors. Take our situation as an example. Our machines keep us safe and warm, yet a simple mistake on our part, such as choosing one channel over another, could bring it all to naught and place us at the mercy of elemental nature. I believe we should work on the perfection of men before we worry overly about the perfection of his machines. "

― John Wilson , North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames