Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldberg – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Delve into the life and legacy of Rube Goldberg (1883–1970), the American cartoonist, engineer, and satirist whose whimsical cartoons of overcomplicated machines made his name synonymous with absurd complexity. Explore his biography, signature inventions, impact, and memorable lines.

Introduction

Rube Goldberg is one of those names that has transcended biography: his cartoons gave birth to a cultural motif, the “Rube Goldberg machine,” a fanciful contraption that accomplishes a very simple task through a convoluted, chain-reaction series of steps.

But behind that popular legacy was a thoughtful, witty, and deeply creative mind. Goldberg was not merely a purveyor of mechanical absurdity: he was also a political cartoonist, sculptor, author, and pioneer in satirizing technology, bureaucracy, and human folly.

In this article, we explore his early life, major works, distinct style, influence over culture, and a selection of his memorable quotes.

Early Life and Family

Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (better known as Rube Goldberg) was born on July 4, 1883, in San Francisco, California, to Jewish parents, Max and Hannah (née Cohn) Goldberg. He was the third of seven children, though four of his siblings died in infancy or early childhood.

From a young age, Goldberg showed a propensity for drawing. He traced illustrations as early as age 4. His only formal art instruction came from a local sign painter in his youth.

He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied engineering (mining) and earned a degree in 1904. His early professional career began in municipal engineering: he worked briefly for the San Francisco Water and Sewers Department, mapping sewers and water lines.

However, Goldberg’s passion for drawing drew him away from engineering. After about six months, he left his municipal job to pursue cartooning full time.

In 1911, he married Irma Seeman. They had two sons. Later in life, Goldberg had his sons change their surname to “George” because of concerns about antisemitism and keeping a more neutral or less recognizably Jewish name.

Career and Achievements

From Sports Cartoons to “Foolish Questions”

Goldberg’s early career in cartooning began in San Francisco newspapers, where he drew sports cartoons and humorous sketches. He moved to New York in 1907 and joined the New York Evening Mail, where his cartoons gained wider attention and syndication.

One of his earliest syndicated successes was the cartoon series Foolish Questions, launched around 1908. During these early years he also produced other humorous strips and sketches.

The Invention Cartoons & the Rise of the Rube Goldberg Machine

Goldberg’s signature invention cartoons began appearing around 1912, illustrating convoluted contraptions to perform mundane tasks. Over time, he formalized a recurring series around “The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, A.K.”

These inventions were drawn like schematic diagrams, with labeled parts, arrows, and chain reactions—mixing technical style with absurd imagination.

Goldberg used this device to satirize the mechanization of life and the American infatuation with technology, efficiency, and complexity.

His cartoons became so associated with these machines that the term “Rube Goldberg machine” entered the lexicon: meaning an overly complicated or absurd contraption to achieve a simple goal.

Later Work & Recognition

In later years, Goldberg shifted toward editorial and political cartooning. From the late 1930s onward, he worked for publications such as The New York Sun and The New York Journal-American.

In 1948, he won the Pulitzer Prize for orial Cartooning for his work “Peace Today”, which warned against nuclear proliferation in the early Cold War era.

He was one of the founding members and the first president of the National Cartoonists Society. The society’s highest honor, the Reuben Award, is named in his honor.

Throughout his life, he was honored with awards such as the Gold T-Square Award (1955) and other recognitions.

Later in life Goldberg turned to sculpture and bronze work, producing busts and three-dimensional art. He retired from the daily newspaper business around 1963.

Rube Goldberg passed away on December 7, 1970, in New York City. He was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

Historical & Cultural Context

• Goldberg’s work flourished in an era of rapid technological transformation: the early to mid 20th century, with industrialization, mechanization, and media expansion. His cartoons responded to the tension between complexity and simplicity in modern life.

• His invention cartoons parodied not only machines but the bureaucratic impulse to overcomplicate. They anticipated a sort of postmodern sensibility about systems, processes, and absurdity.

• In popular culture, his legacy extended far beyond the cartoons: his name inspired contests, engineering challenges, art installations, educational programs, and references in film, television, and literature.

• The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (first held at Purdue in 1949) has grown into a global tradition—students and hobbyists design machines that achieve simple tasks through elaborate sequences.

• His inventions have appeared in cartoons, films, TV shows (e.g. Sesame Street), music videos (e.g. by OK Go), and more.

Thus, Goldberg’s work sits at the intersection of art, satire, engineering, and popular imagination.

Personality & Style

• Satirical humor: Goldberg combined wit with technical detail, mocking the absurdity of overengineering.

• Technical sophistication & imaginative exaggeration: His background in engineering enabled him to sketch contraptions with internal logic, even as they became absurd.

• Humanistic critique: His work often reflects skepticism of blind faith in machines, efficiency, and technological determinism.

• Visual clarity: Despite the complexity, Goldberg’s diagrams remained legible, structured, and visually witty.

• Balance of earnestness and absurdity: He treated the imaginary machines with a straight face—presenting them as serious inventions even as their function was ridiculous.

These traits made his inventions not just cartoons, but conceptual art that engages both mind and humor.

Famous Quotes by Rube Goldberg

Here are several notable quotes attributed to Goldberg:

“I wonder how anybody can think his personality changes with his success. I’ve had quite a bit of success but I feel that I’m just the same person as I always was.”

“No matter how thin you slice it it’s still baloney.”

“It just happened that the public happened to, uh, appreciate the satirical quality of these crazy things.”

“I didn’t have any real art training, but when I was about twelve and thirteen, another boy and I went to a sign painter’s house every Friday night and took lessons.”

“Yeah, yeah. I, I don’t think I’m always right. But I don’t think young people are always right, either.”

“And, uh, I’ve got about six thousand cartoons up there, also books and papers.”

“Many of the younger generation know my name in a vague way and connect it with grotesque inventions, but don’t believe that I ever existed as a person.”

These quotes reflect his wry self-awareness, humor about fame, humility, and reflection on his own legacy.

Lessons from Rube Goldberg’s Life

1. Imagination + structure
   Goldberg demonstrates that creative excess can be grounded in a structural logic; even wild ideas benefit from clarity.

2. Satire as reflection
   His machines are commentary—reminding us that human systems often overcomplicate simple tasks, whether by design or by bureaucracy.

3. Legacy beyond works
   The fact that his name became a concept shows that the framing of ideas can be as powerful as the ideas themselves.

4. Persistence and evolution
   He evolved from sports cartoons to invention comics to editorial cartoons and sculpture, adapting his voice over decades.

5. Humility & humor
   Even as his fame grew, Goldberg’s quotes show that he remained grounded and self-aware, aware that the cartoons were playful exaggerations.

Conclusion

Rube Goldberg was more than a cartoonist of mechanical absurdity—he was a cultural commentator who used ingenuity and satire to hold a mirror to technological optimism and human excess. His inventive cartoons continue to inspire engineers, designers, humorists, and thinkers worldwide. The next time you see a video of a contraption that balloons, rattles, flips, triggers, and finally accomplishes a trivial task, you’ll know it owes a debt to Goldberg’s playful legacy.