INVENTION QUOTES II

quotations about invention and inventing

Sometimes the best inventions are ways to slice other inventions into smaller pieces.

ANTHONY RUBINO

Why Didn't I Think of That?


Think for a moment of the great agents and engines of our civilization, and then think what shadowy ideas they all once were. The wheels of the steamship turned as swiftly as they do now, but as silent and unsubstantial as the motions of the inventor's thought; and in the noiseless loom of his meditation were woven the sinews of the printing-press, whose thunder shakes the world.

E. H. CHAPIN

Living Words


Invention, using the term most broadly, and imitation, are the two legs, so to call them, on which the human race historically has walked.

WILLIAM JAMES

Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals


Until the inventor can prove a device works or a material can be made, it's not an invention.

EDWIN J. C. SOBEY

Inventing Toys


The decline of the Western world began with the invention of the wheel.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

The Night of the Iguana

Tags: Tennessee Williams


For an invention to make a profit it has to create a business. You can create a business if this invention is cheaper and just as good as the previous product. You can start a business if it is better, even though it costs a little more. The jackpot is something cheaper and better.

JIM RAND

attributed, "What Should You Invent?", Popular Science, March 1961


The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and when the man of genius returns to the cares, the duties, the vexations, and the amusements of life, his companions behold him as one of themselves--the creature of habits and infirmities.

ISAAC DISRAELI

Literary Character of Men of Genius

Tags: Benjamin Disraeli


The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain.

NIKOLA TESLA

My Inventions


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

An Autobiography

Tags: Agatha Christie


Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it.

MARY SHELLEY

introduction, Frankenstein


When one is nothing, one invents. It fills a void.

DIANE SETTERFIELD

The Thirteenth Tale


Most amateur inventors do things backwards. They jump right in, inventing away, just because they feel impelled to invent. They don't think about markets for their inventions until after the inventions are made. Then it's too late.

CHARLES WELLING

attributed, "What Should You Invent?", Popular Science, March 1961


Take the advice of a faithful friend, and submit thy inventions to his censure.

THOMAS FULLER

The Holy State and the Profane State

Tags: Thomas Fuller


Inventing is close to my heart. Even as a rebellious kid I was pretty inventive, though perhaps not in the best ways. My hook-and-toilet-paper invention to obtain coins from pay-phone slots worked well, and my "slightly used" tobacco made from unraveled cigarette butts and sold in Prince Albert tins was quite popular with unsuspecting pipe smokers! My milk bottle, coated white inside to create the appearance of milk, but actually containing beer, was a definite success with underage drinkers.

LOUIS ZAMPERINI

foreword, Hardcore Inventing


Every invention eventually becomes obsolete.

MICK FARREN

Darklost


Although human ingenuity may devise various inventions which, by the help of various instruments, answer to one and the same purpose, yet will it never discover any inventions more beautiful, more simple or more practical than those of nature.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Thoughts on Art and Life


It is only in his work that an artist can find reality and satisfaction, for the actual world is less intense than the world of his invention and consequently his life, without recourse to violent disorder, does not seem very substantial. The right condition for him is that in which his work in not only convenient but unavoidable.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

"The Catastrophe of Success"

Tags: Tennessee Williams


An invention that is quickly accepted will turn out to be a rather trivial alteration of something that has already existed.

EDWIN H. LAND

attributed, Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land


Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness.

T.S. ELIOT

The Rock


Inventor: A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization.

AMBROSE BIERCE

The Devil's Dictionary

Tags: Ambrose Bierce