#invention

The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it, because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator, something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man's. ↗

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#individuality #invention #beauty

Did you ever think about the creation of the flame-thrower? Someone, somewhere, at some time must have been sitting on his porch, and said, thoughtfully, 'I want to set him on fire.' gesturing to his neighbor. His friend who sat beside him and happened to be handy with tools said, 'I can do that.' Thus, we have a flame thrower. ↗

— John Larson

#humor #inventions #humor

It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing—and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that. ↗

— Mark Twain

#inventors #plagiarism #men

It is naturally given to all men to esteem their own inventions best. ↗

— Thomas More

#invention #mankind #vanity #men

Boredom is a lack of crazy. Its a lack of creativity. Invention. Innovation. If you're bored, blame yourself. ↗

— Katelyn S. Irons

#creativity #inspirational #invention #inspirational

Literature is my calling To hold up the mirror to my countrymen comes natural to me; and in the open field of invention I am not without hopes of giving them pleasure. ↗

— Thomas Edward Brown

#calling #comes #countrymen #field #giving

In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented. ↗

— Northrop Frye

#conventional #copyright #day #disguised #distinctive

We say that necessity is the mother of invention, and no country has more of a necessity to develop clean power than China. ↗

— Thomas Friedman

#clean #country #develop #invention #more

Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your home. ↗

— David Frost

#home #invention #living #living room #people

You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it's really let us down. ↗

— Bill Gates

#capitalism #causes #diseases #done #down