An inventor is one who can see the applicability of means to supply demand five years before it is obvious to those skilled in the art.

An inventor is one who can see the applicability of means to supply demand five years before it is obvious to those skilled in the art.

And invention must still go on for it is necessary that we should completely control our circumstances. It is not sufficient that there should [only] be organization capable of providing food and shelter for all and organization to effect its proper distribution.

Personality and salesmanship do not produce except in the competitive sense.

... in going over the history of all the inventions for which history could be obtained it became more and more clear that in addition to training and in addition to extensive knowledge, a natural quality of mind was also necessary.

The inventor and the research man are confused because they both examine results of physical or chemical operations. But they are exact opposites, mirror images of one another. The research man does something and does not care [exactly] what it is that happens, he measures whatever it is. The inventor wants something to happen, but does not care how it happens or what it is that happens if it is not what he wants.

All our civilization is based on invention; before invention, men lived on fruits and nuts and pine cones and slept in caves.