quotations about invention and inventing
The inventor ... looks upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
attributed on plaque in the entrance to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada
Over the years, I have learned that every significant invention has several characteristics. By definition it must be startling, unexpected, and must come into a world that is not prepared for it. If the world were prepared for it, it would not be much of an invention.
EDWIN H. LAND
"A Talk with Polaroid's Dr. Edwin Land", Forbes, April 1, Forbes, April 1, 1975
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
The Exploration of Space
Want, the mistress of invention.
SUSANNA CENTLIVRE
The Busy Body
Invention breeds invention.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Society and Solitude
Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma.
E.B. WHITE
The New Yorker, Jun. 19, The New Yorker, Jun. 19, 1937
Creativity perpetually invents itself.
PAUL PALNIK
Creative Consciousness
Strategic inventions are seen as not usually the work of one mind but an aggregation of minor inventions or the final step of an evolutionary process.
JYOTI BHUSAN DAS GUPTA
Science, Technology, Imperialism, and War
We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
KURT VONNEGUT
If This Isn't Nice, What Is?
You don't want to be Tesla. He was one of the greatest inventors, but it's a sad, sad story. He couldn't commercialize anything, he could barely fund his own research. You'd want to be more like Edison. If you invent something, that doesn't necessarily help anybody. You've got to actually get it into the world; you've got to produce, make money doing it so you can fund it.
LARRY PAGE
CNNMoney interview, May 1, 2008
Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.
AYN RAND
The Fountainhead
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
THOMAS EDISON
attributed, Behavior-Based Robotics (Arkin)
Invention is both the institution of problem solving and advancing human obsolescence. We were naturally selected to replace ourselves.
AARON DIAZ
Twitter, February 4, 2010
The best inventions are the impossible ones.
ERIN MANNING
Politics of Touch
How little inventiveness there is in man,
Grave copier of copies.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
The Cathedral
The best inventions are those that, like compelling opportunities, are well-timed and good fits with the ecologies in which they emerge. They breathe, have life, and stand on their own.
LANNY VINCENT
Prisoners of Hope
The best inventions are usually made by outsiders unaware of what "can't be done".
MARTIN MANN
"What Should You Invent?", Popular Science, March 1961
Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
The Idiot
The test of an invention is the power of an inventor to push it through in the face of staunch--not opposition, but indifference--in society.
EDWIN H. LAND
attributed, Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land
Necessity [is] the mother of invention.
GEORGE FARQUHAR
The Twin Rivals