#inventions

The very greatest things - great thoughts, discoveries, inventions - have usually been nurtured in hardship, often pondered over in sorrow, and at length established with difficulty. ↗

— Samuel Smiles

#difficulty #discoveries #established #great #greatest

When things get too complicated, it sometimes makes sense to stop and wonder: Have I asked the right question? ↗

— Enrico Bombieri

#inventions #math #perspective #science #science

But if inventions have increased man's power over nature very much, then the real value of money is better measured for some purposes in labour than in commodities. ↗

— Alfred Marshall

#commodities #increased #inventions #labour #man

[...] there is one inexorable law of technology, and it is this: when revolutionary inventions become widely accessible, they cease to be accessible. Technology is inherently democratic, because it promises the same services to all; but it works only if the rich are alone using it. When the poor also adopt technology, it stops working. A train used to take two hours to go from A to B; then the motor car arrived, which could cover the same distance in one hour. For this reason cars were very expensive. But as soon as the masses could afford to buy them, the roads became jammed, and the trains started to move faster. Consider how absurd it is for the authorities constantly to urge people to use public transport, in the age of the automobile; but with public transport, by consenting not to belong to the elite, you get where you're going before members of the elite do. ↗

— Umberto Eco

#inventions #technology #transport #age

But what has America to boast? What are the graces or the virtues which distinguish its inhabitants? What are their triumphs in war, or their inventions in peace? ↗

— Thomas Day

#boast #distinguish #graces #inhabitants #inventions

Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands. ↗

— Giorgio Vasari

#express #forming #genius #hands #idea

I always find myself stopping to write down ideas of things I'd like to make from computer hardware items to things new moms need - inventions to share with others to make their lives more fun or interesting or easy. ↗

— Lisa Loeb

#computer #down #easy #find #fun

Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#forgets #homo #homo sapiens #inventions #invents

The corporation is one of the great unheralded human inventions of destruction. It is a way to absolve from any personal liability a bunch of people. They form together in a massive ID and they do whatever they want. ↗

— Keith Olbermann

#any #bunch #corporation #destruction #form

Governments do not create, individuals create. Every invention was once just a thought inside someones head. ↗

— William J Federer

#government #inventions #thoughts #change