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

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• The sign is determined at the moment I use it and for the object of which it must form a part. For this reason I cannot determine in advance signs which never change, and which would be like writing: that would paralyze the freedom of my invention.

  Henri Matisse

  Writing, Use, Would Be

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• 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

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• 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

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

  Thomas A. Edison

  Children, Imagination, Innovation

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

  Thomas Jefferson

  Promise, President, Liberty

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

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• 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".

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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)

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

  Joseph Conrad

  Art, Writing, Imagination

  Some Reminiscences ch. 1 (1912)

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• 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

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• The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Devil, Quiet, Conscience

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• Invention hovers always a little above the rules.

  Mary Oliver

  Littles

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

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• 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.

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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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• 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)

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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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• 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

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• Have confidence in the inventions and transformations of chance.

  Andre Kertesz

  Chance, Transformation, Have Confidence

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

  Reinhard Bonnke

  Bible, Christian, Live Life

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• Democracy is a con game. It’s a word invented to placate people to make them accept a given institution. All institutions sing, ‘We are free.’ The minute you hear ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’, watch out… because in a truly free nation, no one has to tell you you’re free.

  Jacque Fresco

  Freedom, Acceptance, Games

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• To write? Because all this is going to vanish. The only thing left will be the prose and poems, the books, what is written down. Man was very fortunate to have invented the book. Without it the past would completely vanish, and we would be left with nothing, we would be naked on earth.

  James Salter

  Book, Writing, Past

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