Inventing Things Quotes

• Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

  Steve Jobs

  Life, Fear, Failure

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

  80 Copy quote

  Show source

• Invention strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come from nothing.

  Joshua Reynolds

  Memories, Creativity, Innovation

  sir Joshua Reynolds (1853). “Discourses on the Fine Arts Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy”, p.7

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

  Thomas A. Edison

  Positive, Mean Girls, Funny Inspirational

  "Artifacts : An Archaeologist's Year in Silicon Valley". Book by Christine Finn, 2001.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Nature, Invention

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

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'

  Steve Jobs

  Life, Silly, Technology

  "The Future of Computing Power (Fast, Cheap, and Invisible)" by Michio Kaku, bigthink.com.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• In my own time there have been inventions of this sort, transparent windows tubes for diffusing warmth equally through all parts of a building short-hand, which has been carried to such a perfection that a writer can keep pace with the most rapid speaker. But the inventing of such things is drudgery for the lowest slaves; philosophy lies deeper. It is not her office to teach men how to use their hands. The object of her lessons is to form the soul.

  Seneca the Younger

  Time, Lying, Philosophy

  7 Copy quote

• Inventions reached their limit long ago, and I see no hope for further development.

  Frontinus

  Long Ago, Follow Your Dreams, Development

  7 Copy quote

• If you double the number of experiments you do per year you're going to double your inventiveness.

  Jeff Bezos

  Technology, Years, Numbers

  19 Copy quote

• God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Religious, Religion, Atheism

  "Superstrings: A Theory of Everything?". Book edited by Paul C. W. Davies and Julian R. Brown, June 16, 1988.

  80 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success ... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

  Nikola Tesla

  Motivational, Success, Heart

  "Marconi and Tesla: Pioneers of Radio Communication" by Tim O'Shei, (p. 5), 2008.

  88 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

• We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn't build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren't going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.

  Steve Jobs

  Thinking, Best Job, People

  "Steve Jobs Lays It Down For Playboy". Playboy interview, gizmodo.com. July 15, 2011.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• I certainly can't complain. I work six days a week, if not seven, and eighteen hours out of twenty-four - fortunately, with a great deal of pleasure. Why? Because I only do something if I want to do it; I need to feel a desire, to find pleasure in moving forward, creating, moving, inventing.

  Alber Elbaz

  Moving, Creating, Desire

  6 Copy quote

• Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Beauty, Beautiful, Nature

  Leonardo Da Vinci (1938). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• We're actually making stuff in America now. We're exporting stuff. We're inventing things.

  Amy Klobuchar

  America, Stuff, Exporting

  4 Copy quote

• Most change in America doesn't come from, politicians. It comes from people inventing things and creating. The telephone, the telegraph, the computer, all those things didn't come from government. Our world is going to get better and better, as long as we keep the politicians from screwing it up.

  David Boaz

  Our World, Government, Creating

  4 Copy quote

• At least three time per day at scheduled times, he had to ask himself the following question: Am I being productive or just active? Charney captured the essence of this with less-abstract wording: Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important? He eliminated all of the activities he used as crutches and began to focus on demonstrating results instead of showing dedication. Dedication is often just meaningless work in disguise. Be ruthless and cut the fat.

  Tim Ferriss

  Inspirational, Cutting, Dedication

  42 Copy quote

• Man keeps inventing things all the time.

  Mikhail Kalashnikov

  Men, Inventing

  "Mikhail Kalashnikov: 'I sleep soundly'" by Nick Paton Walsh, www.theguardian.com. October 9, 2003.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Loss, Losing, Foolish

  Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “Prodigal Summer”, p.162, Faber & Faber

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I started inventing things, and then I couldn't stop, like beavers, which I know about. People think they cut down trees so they can build dams, but in reality it's because their teeth never stop growing, and if they didn't constantly file them down by cutting through all of those trees, their teeth would start to grow into their own faces, which would kill them. That's how my brain was.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Cutting, Reality, Thinking

  6 Copy quote

• I enjoy inventing things out of fun. After all, life is a game, not a career.

  Brion Gysin

  Fun, Games, Careers

  "Brion Gysin: Tuning in to the Multimedia Age". Book edited by Jose Ferez Kuri (p. 4), 2003.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Either this guy really liked me, or I was inventing things in my head because I wanted him to like me. I was much too inexperienced to guess which.

  Claudia Gray

  Guy, Wanted, Like Me

  Claudia Gray (2009). “Evernight”, p.15, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• You know, when I was in love, I was always inventing things. A whole array of tricks, illusions and optical effects to amuse my lady friend. I think she'd had enough of my inventions by the end... I wanted to create a voyage to the moon just for her, but what I should have given her was a real journey on earth.

  Mathias Malzieu

  Real, Moon, Journey

  6 Copy quote

• I love to make movies about young people - young scientists that are inventing things and all the writing they did was very funny and very true.

  Vilmos Zsigmond

  Writing, People, Scientist

  "Chud Rerun: Interview with Vilmos Zsigmond". Interview with Smilin' Jack Ruby, trouble.city. May 13, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source