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Quotes of the Day for 8 December 2004 - Invention

Eli Whitney was born on this day in 1765 and changed the world by inventing the cotton gin and mass manufacturing by the use of interchangeable parts. Friedrich Siemens was born on this day in 1826; with his brother Wilhelm he invented the regenerative furnace that supplied the world with steel for many decades. William Crapo Durant was born on this day in 1861; he started at least three auto companies (Buick, Chevrolet, and Durant) but mostly he invented the modern industrial corporation. We can hope that more inventors are being born today.

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.
     - Agatha Christie, 1890 - 1976

Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need.
     - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958

Doubt is the father of invention.
     - Galileo Galilei, 1564 - 1642

The great Inventor is one who has walked forth upon the industrial world, not from universities, but from hovels; not as clad in silks and decked with honours, but as clad in fustian and grimed with soot and oil.
     - Isaac Taylor

Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come of nothing.
     - Joshua Reynolds, 1723 - 1792

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.
     - Mitch Ratliffe

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