Invention Quotes - Page 3

• We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Life, Beautiful, Faith

  Kurt Vonnegut (2016). “If This Isn't Nice What Is? (Much) Expanded Second Edition: The Graduation Speeches and Other Words to Live By”, p.131, RosettaBooks

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is frivolous to fix pedantically the date of particular inventions. They have all been invented over and over fifty times. Man is the arch machine, of which all these shifts drawn from himself are toy models. He helps himself on each emergency by copying or duplicating his own structure, just so far as then need is.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Copying, Needs

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.260, Penguin

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Way, Inventor, Inventing

  Ernest Hemingway, Carlos Baker (2003). “Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961”, p.407, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The invention of the ship was also the invention of the shipwreck.

  Paul Virilio

  Inspirational, Ships, Shipwreck

  Paul Virilio, Philippe Petit, Sylvère Lotringer (1999). “Politics of the Very Worst”, Semiotext

  35 Copy quote

  Show source

• The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Children, Imagination, Innovation

  48 Copy quote

• Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Promise, President, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence”, p.517

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

  Francis Bacon

  Time, Business, People

  10 Copy quote

• Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Law, Causes

  40 Copy quote

• As the archaeology of our thought easily shows, man is an invention of recent date. And one perhaps nearing its end.

  Michel Foucault

  Men, Ends, Archaeology

  The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences ch. 10 (1966)

  89 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god.

  John B. S. Haldane

  Funny, Science, Fire

  "Daedalus or Science and the Future". An address, February 4, 1923.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is no monopoly in any other sense than as a man's own house is a monopoly. But a man's right to his own invention is a very different matter. It is no more a monopoly for him to possess that, than to possess his own homestead .

  Daniel Webster

  Men, House, Monopoly

  "The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster".

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games.

  Carl Jung

  Inspirational, Motivational, Men

  "Jung and the Story of Time". Book by Laurens van der Post, 1975.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.

  Joseph Conrad

  Art, Writing, Imagination

  Some Reminiscences ch. 1 (1912)

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• A new and speculative idea, which although it may seem trivial and almost laughable, is nonetheless of great value in quickening the spirit of invention.

  Michael J. Gelb

  Ideas, May, Spirit

  9 Copy quote

• The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Devil, Quiet, Conscience

  16 Copy quote

• Invention requires a long-term willingness to be misunderstood.

  Jeff Bezos

  Long, Misunderstood, Term

  Aspen Institute’s 2009 Annual Awards Dinner in New York City speech, www.theatlantic.com. 2009.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Invention hovers always a little above the rules.

  Mary Oliver

  Littles

  Mary Oliver (1994). “A Poetry Handbook”, p.66, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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”

  99 Copy quote

  Show source

• In her (nature's) inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Nature, Lacking

  The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (translation by Edward MacCurdy)

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• Death is very likely the single best invention of life.

  Steve Jobs

  Change, Graduation, Death

  Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• Have confidence in the inventions and transformations of chance.

  Andre Kertesz

  Chance, Transformation, Have Confidence

  11 Copy quote

• The Gospel is like water; no man invented it, yet no man can live without it.

  Reinhard Bonnke

  Bible, Christian, Live Life

  265 Copy quote

• It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.

  David Bailey

  Photography, Art, Learning

  87 Copy quote

• My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Sex, Teenager, Funny Relationship

  Chuck Palahniuk (2001). “Choke: A Novel”, Anchor Books

  9 Copy quote

  Show source