Quotations on Invention

Edison did not invent the first talking machine -- he invented the first on that could be turned off.

~ Unknown

Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a man can write a better book, or preach a better sermon, or build a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

~ Jonathan Swift

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 a man and the well-being of mankind.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - gunpowder and romantic love.

~ André Maurois

Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.

~ Alexander Graham Bell