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 (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Interest is the spur of the people, but glory that of great souls. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity—gunpowder and romantic love.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve; we may give somewhat of novelty to that which was old, condensation to that which was diffuse, perspicuity to that which was obscure, and currency to that which was recondite.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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 (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
The real use of gunpowder is to make all men tall.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Fear is a great inventor.
—French Proverb
Invention is a kind of muse, which, being possessed of the other advantages common to her sisters, and being warmed by the fire of Apollo, is raised higher than the rest.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
Accident is the name of the greatest of all inventors.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.
—Unknown
It is only the unimaginative who ever invents. The true artist is known by the use he makes of what he annexes.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The right of an inventor to his invention is no monopoly; in any other sense than a man’s house is a monopoly.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A tool is but the extension of a man’s hand and a machine is but a complex tool; and he that invents a machine augments the power of man and the well-being of mankind.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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 the need is.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The guns and bombs, the rockets and the warships, all are symbols of human failure.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
This is the patent age of new inventions for killing bodies, and for saving souls. All propagated with the best intentions.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
A fine invention is nothing more than a fine deviation from, or enlargement on a fine model.—Imitation, if noble and general, insures the best hope of originality.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamt.
—Henry George (1839–97) American Political Economist, Journalist
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German Poet, Playwright, Theater Personality