Quotes About Innovation

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

Once upon a time there was an old country, wrapped up in habit and caution. ... We have to transform our old France into a new country and marry it to its time.

The great men walk on their shadow: They anticipate the future. (Les grands hommes marchent sur leur ombre : Ils anticipent l' avenir)

Eccentricities of genius.

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

They ran their heads very hard against wrong ideas, and persisted in trying to fit the circumstances to the ideas instead of trying to extract ideas from the circumstances.

Technological innovations had shifted the basis of England's economy from agriculture to industry between 1750 and 1850. The development of steam power and a boom

The very houses seemed disposed to pack up and take trips. Wonderful Members of Parliament, who, little more than twenty years before, had made themselves merry with the wild railroad theories of engineers, and given them the liveliest rubs in cross-examination, went down into the north with their watches in their hands, and sent on messages before by the electric telegraph, to say that they were coming.

That the way to achieve higher standards of living for all is through science and technology, taking advantage of better tools, methods and organization.

To whom does design address itself: to the greatest number, to the specialist of an enlightened matter, to a privileged social class? Design addresses itself to the need.

Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.

In architecture the idea degenerated. Design allows a more direct and pleasurable route.

The most important thing is that you love what you are doing, and the second that you are not afraid of where your next idea will lead.

The situation on Earth today is too dire for us to act from habit—to reenact again and again the same kinds of solutions that brought us to our present extremity. Where does the wisdom to act in entirely new ways come from? It comes from nowhere, from the void; it comes from inaction. When we see it, we realize it was right in front of us all along. It is never far away; yet at the same time it is in a different universe—a different Story of the World.

People tend to conceptualize problems in such a way as to validate the tools that are familiar and available to them. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If all you have are antibiotics, you will always look for the germ. If all you have is a mindset of war, then you will always look first for an enemy.

It is apparent that "practical" isn't working as well as it used to. Not only because what was once practical is insufficient to our need, but also because it is increasingly impotent in its native realm: the practical is no longer practical. Like it or not, we are being born into a new world.

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.

Don't be afraid to stumble. Any inventor will tell you that you don't follow a plan far before you strike a snag. If, out of 100 ideas you get one that works, it's enough.

Inventing is the mixing of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less materials you need.

Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.

Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.

An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously.

Men who accomplish great things in the industrial world are the ones who have faith in the money producing power of ideas.