Invention Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old invention quotes, invention sayings, and invention proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

The lack of imagination or invention most people display in naming pussies is almost beyond credence. Carl Van Vechten
Invention is arrived at by intelligent stumbling. Amar Bose
Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance. Ambrose Bierce
Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, and black despair succeeds brown study. William Congreve
Invention is the pleasure you give yourself when other people's stuff isn't good enough. Julie Newmar
Inventions that are not made, like babies that are not born, are not missed. John Kenneth Galbraith
An invention that is quickly accepted will turn out to be a rather trivial alteration of something that has already existed. Edwin H. Land
Invention is by its very nature disruptive. If you want to be understood at all times, then don't do anything new. Jeff Bezos
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos. Mary Shelley
We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Invention requires a long-term willingness to be misunderstood. Jeff Bezos
The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing. Douglas Engelbart
Invention depends altogether upon execution or organization; as that is right or wrong so is the invention perfect or imperfect. William Blake
An invention has to make sense in the world it finishes in, not in the world it started. Tim O'Reilly
Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it. Mary Shelley
Invention isn't some impenetrable brand of magic; anyone can have a go. Trevor Baylis
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. Thomas Edison
The way good inventions are made is to familiarize yourself with those of others. The men who cultivate letters and the arts are all sons of Homer. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Invention requires both disciplines, strict common sense and wild imagination. Vanna Bonta
It is naturally given to all men to esteem their own inventions best. Thomas More
Invention, using the term most broadly, and imitation, are the two legs, so to call them, on which the human race historically has walked. William James
Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it. Igor Stravinsky
Invention is nothing more than a fine deviation from, or enlargement on a fine model. Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Almost always the men who achieve these fundamental inventions of a new paradigm have been either very young or very new to the field whose paradigm they change. Thomas S. Kuhn
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
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence. Nikola Tesla
Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion; a sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes. Martin Farquhar Tupper
Great inventions are never, and great discoveries are seldom, the work of any one mind. Every great invention is really an aggregation of minor inventions, or the final step of a progression. It is not usually a creation, but a growth, as truly so as is the growth of the trees in the forest. Robert H. Thurston
Inventions become perfect by slow improvement, and each step is itself an invention. Joseph Jastrow
Invention is almost the only literary labour which blindness cannot obstruct. Samuel Johnson
Invention is not always good. Sometimes our inventions are too powerful for us to control. Gemma Malley
Invention is the natural outcome of creative thinking. Sark
A great invention for dieters would be a refrigerator which weighs you every time you open the door. Anonymous
The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Nikola Tesla
Original artistic invention demands that even the inventor be surprised. Judith Schaechter
Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really merely commonplaces of existence. Arthur Conan Doyle
The digital camera is a great invention because it allows us to reminisce. Instantly. Demetri Martin
An invention is a responsibility of the individual, society cannot invent, it can only applaud the invention and inventor. Amit Kalantri
Inventions are not solely the making of material things, inventions are also the mental unleashing of ideas by a genuis with a sixth sense. Michael Bassey Johnson
Invention is the root of innovation. Innovation is the major force for change in the future. Philippe Kahn
Our ancestors have invented, we can at least innovate. Amit Kalantri
Invention consists in avoiding the constructing of useless contraptions and in constructing the useful combinations which are in infinite minority. Henri Poincare
Invention is not so much the result of labor as of judgment. Wentworth Dillon
Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need. Charles Kettering
Inventing is a skill that some people have and some people don't. But you can learn how to invent. Ray Dolby
The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history. Ha-Joon Chang
Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Thomas A. Edison
Doubt is the father of invention. Ambrose Bierce
Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age. Jonathan Swift