Condensation Quote by Charles Caleb Colton

Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve.

— Charles Caleb Colton

...to invent is to discover that we know not, and not to recover or resummon that which we already know

— Francis Bacon

An invention that is quickly accepted will turn out to be a rather trivial alteration of something that has already existed.

— Edwin Land

The enormous influence of novelty--the way in which it quickens observations, sharpens sensations, and exalts sentiment--is not half enough taken note of by us,…

— John Ruskin

“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end,…

— Henry David Thoreau

An invention can be so valuable as to be worthless to the inventor,

— Eli Whitney

“We are in a comfortable Dark Ages of the inventive mind; institutions change but little, and that by gradual evolution rather than revolution; scientific…

— Dan Simmons

Invention requires a long-term willingness to be misunderstood.

— Jeff Bezos

“We should not forego innovation, but reject novelty as the sole aim.”

— Carma Gorman

“The novelty of the new, as noted earlier, stems from the unfolding of the known into larger, brighter, more richly contoured surfaces. Consequently, it…

— Peter Sloterdijk

“This is the problem with inventing. Virtually everything has been done already. These days most things are just the same things but tweaked. Everything…

— Karl Pilkington

The greatest of the changes that science has brought is the acuity of change; the greatest novelty the extent of novelty.

— J. Robert Oppenheimer