#inventions

You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it's really let us down. ↗

— Bill Gates

#capitalism #causes #diseases #done #down

The United States as we know it today is largely the result of mechanical inventions, and in particular of agricultural machinery and the railroad. ↗

— John Moody

#inventions #know #largely #machinery #mechanical

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. ↗

— Thomas Paine

#christian #churches #enslave #human #human inventions

One of the most fun inventions of my lifetime is the Mini. ↗

— James Dyson

#inventions #lifetime #mini #most

People never knew we were poor, but out of that poverty came the most incredible inventions - board games, recipes... we never stopped inventing. ↗

— Lynn Johnston

#came #games #incredible #inventing #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

Did you ever think about the creation of the flame-thrower? Someone, somewhere, at some time must have been sitting on his porch, and said, thoughtfully, 'I want to set him on fire.' gesturing to his neighbor. His friend who sat beside him and happened to be handy with tools said, 'I can do that.' Thus, we have a flame thrower. ↗

— John Larson

#humor #inventions #humor

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's such a thing as theater discipline. One player doesn't appropriate another's inventions. ↗

— Ethel Merman

#appropriate #discipline #inventions #player #such

[...] 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