Discovery And Invention Quotes

• It is obvious that anything a scientist discovers or invents is based on previous discoveries and inventions. The same applies to the arts.

  Lukas Foss

  Art, Discovery, Scientist

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• To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Inspirational, Science, Imagination Creativity

  "Behavior-Based Robotics". Book by Ronald C. Arkin, 1998.

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• I start where the last man left off.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Inspirational, Positive, Men

  "Makers of the Modern World : The Lives of Ninety-two Writers, Artists, Scientists, Statesmen, Inventors, Philosophers, Composers, and Other Creators who Formed the Pattern of Our Century". Book by Louis Untermeyer, 1955.

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• I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble.

  Agatha Christie

  Mother, Memorable, Thinking

  Agatha Christie (1990). “An autobiography”

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• Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Inspirational, Positive, Business

  "Geek mythology and Nikola Tesla" by Rebekah Higgitt, www.theguardian.com. August 20, 2012.

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• If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run-and often in the short one-the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Running, Science, Discovery

  Arthur C. Clarke (1968). “the Promise of Space”

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• I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

  Isaac Newton

  Inspirational, Success, Trust

  Quoted in Christian Monitor, and Religious Intelligencer, 4 July 1812. An almost identical quotation by Newton, said to have been uttered "a little before he died," appears in Joseph Spence, Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books and Men, published in 1820 but extant in manuscript form from around 1730. A paraphrase of Newton's words was printed in a note in a 1797 edition of TheWorks of Alexander Pope.

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• Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement.

  Claude M. Bristol

  Motivational, Thinking, Discovery

  Claude M. Bristol (1948). “Magic of Believing”, p.21, Lulu.com

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• The most remarkable discovery made by scientists is science itself. The discovery must be compared in importance with the invention of cave-painting and of writing. Like these earlier human creations, science is an attempt to control our surroundings by entering into them and understanding them from inside. And like them, science has surely made a critical step in human development which cannot be reversed. We cannot conceive a future society without science.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Writing, Science, Discovery

  "The Creative Process". Scientific American 199:59, September 1958.

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• The great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

  Isaac Newton

  Trust, Truth, Ocean

  Quoted in Christian Monitor, and Religious Intelligencer, 4 July 1812. An almost identical quotation by Newton, said to have been uttered "a little before he died," appears in Joseph Spence, Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books and Men, published in 1820 but extant in manuscript form from around 1730. A paraphrase of Newton's words was printed in a note in a 1797 edition of TheWorks of Alexander Pope.

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• The US patent system adds the fuel of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery and production of new and useful things

  Abraham Lincoln

  Fire, Discovery, Patents

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• The essence of education is not to transfer knowledge; it is to guide the learning process, to put responsibility for study in the student's own hands...[and] place people on their own path of discovery and invention.

  Tsunesaburo Makiguchi

  Responsibility, Discovery, Hands

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• Next came the Patent laws. These began in England in 1624; and, in this country, with the adoption of our constitution. Before then [these?], any man might instantly use what another had invented; so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this; secured to the inventor, for a limited time, the exclusive use of his invention; and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Science, Men

  Second lecture on discoveries and inventions, delivered to the Phi Alpha Society of Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois, (February 11, 1859); "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 3" edited by Roy P. Basler, (p. 357), 1953.

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• I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery.

  Rene Descartes

  Math, Science, Discovery

  Rene Descartes (2007). “The Geometry of Rene Descartes”, p.240, Cosimo, Inc.

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• This is the patent age of new inventions for killing bodies, and for saving souls. All propagated with the best intentions.

  Lord Byron

  Birthday, Soul, Age

  Lord Byron, Donald A. Low (2013). “Byron: Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.170, Routledge

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• I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore.

  Isaac Newton

  Trust, Teacher, Truth

  Quoted in Christian Monitor, and Religious Intelligencer, 4 July 1812. An almost identical quotation by Newton, said to have been uttered "a little before he died," appears in Joseph Spence, Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books and Men, published in 1820 but extant in manuscript form from around 1730. A paraphrase of Newton's words was printed in a note in a 1797 edition of TheWorks of Alexander Pope.

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• The greater opportunity enabled me to make important discoveries and inventions.

  Philip Emeagwali

  Opportunity, Discovery, Important

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• In my basic courses I have always tried to develop discovery and invention which, in my opinion, are the criteria of creativeness.

  Josef Albers

  Creativity, Discovery, Opinion

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• great inventors and discoverers seem to have made their discoveries and inventions as it were by the way, in the course of their everyday life.

  Elizabeth Charles

  Discovery, Innovation, Everyday

  Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1865). “Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family”, p.40

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• A lot of people think that all the things that could be invented have been invented. But we are just on the frontier of discovery and invention. It's a very exciting time.

  Dick Rutan

  Thinking, Discovery, People

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• [At DuPont,] I was very fortunate that I worked under men who were very much interested in making discoveries and inventions. They were very much interested in what they were doing, and they left me alone. And I was able to experiment on my own, and I found this very stimulating. It appealed to the creative person in me.

  Stephanie Kwolek

  Science, Men, Discovery

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• We have a process that continually looks back to him for guidance, but it also combines that with a tremendous amount of discovery and invention, as well, because of the demands of the medium and the opportunities of the medium.

  Christopher Meledandri

  Opportunity, Discovery, Looks

  Source: collider.com

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• Subtler and more far-reaching means of invading privacy have become available to the government. Discovery and invention have made it possible for the government, by means far more effective than stretching upon the rack, to obtain disclosure in court of what is whispered in the closet.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Money, Mean, Government

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• In the New Testament it is taught that willing and voluntary service to others is the highest duty and glory in human life. . . . The men of talent are constantly forced to serve the rest. They make the discoveries and inventions, order the battles, write the books, and produce the works of art. The benefit and enjoyment go to the whole. There are those who joyfully order their own lives so that they may serve the welfare of mankind.

  William Graham Sumner

  Life, Art, Book

  William Graham Sumner, (2013). “Folkways - A Study Of The Sociological Importance Of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores And Morals”, p.251, Read Books Ltd

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• It is often asserted that woman owes all the advantages of the position she occupies to-day to Christianity, but the facts of history show that the Christian Church has done nothing specifically for woman's elevation. In the general march of civilization, she has necessarily reaped the advantage of man's higher development, but we must not claim for Christianity all that has been achieved by science, discovery and invention.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Christian, Men, Discovery

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