If the canal is too cheaply constructed, they'll probably lose their crops; and losing their crops means ruin.

As far as possible an engineer must insure against this danger when he builds the canal; then if any accident happens later, his conscience, at any rate, is clear." "But he says you over-estimate the risk, that wood is perfectly safe.
And he's an expert engineer, too.

More experienced than you, Lee." "You seem to have discussed this thing with him at great length," Bryant remarked, dryly.
"I have, indeed I have, because I have your success so greatly at heart, dear.

I want to see you receive every penny that you earn and all the credit you deserve; I want you to go ahead in your profession and become both wealthy and famous; but sometimes I think that you're so absorbed in the engineering part of the work that you're careless of the future.

One has to be practical, too.