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81793cf
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We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
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writing
quip
invention
wings
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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b3a7693
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Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.
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reality
life
truth
strangeness
invention
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Arthur Conan Doyle |
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da1a8e5
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There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard
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music
inspirational
idic
innovation
diversity
colors
problem-solving
invention
creativity
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Sun Tzu |
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d6e550b
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There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen. There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of them yield more flavours than can ever be tasted.
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music
inspirational
idic
innovation
diversity
problem-solving
invention
creativity
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Sun Tzu |
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f51672f
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Thus, though I dislike to differ with such a great man, was simply ludicrous when he said that if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. The human invention of god is the problem to begin with.
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existence
problem
humor
no-remorse
invention
voltaire
atheist
inventions
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Christopher Hitchens |
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72f0065
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We are kept keen on the grindstone of pain and necessity.
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pain
improvement
growth
invention
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H.G. Wells |
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845e941
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It was the general opinion of ancient nations, that the divinity alone was adequate to the important office of giving laws to men... and modern nations, in the consecrations of kings, and in several superstitious chimeras of divine rights in princes and nobles, are nearly unanimous in preserving remnants of it... Is the jealousy of power, and the envy of superiority, so strong in all men, that no considerations of public or private utility are sufficient to engage their submission to rules for their own happiness? Or is the disposition to imposture so prevalent in men of experience, that their private views of ambition and avarice can be accomplished only by artifice? -- ... There is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous; yet nothing can be inferred from it more than this, that the multitude have always been credulous, and the few artful. The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature: and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had any interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of heaven, any more than those at work upon ships or houses, or labouring in merchandize or agriculture: it will for ever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. As Copley painted Chatham, West, Wolf, and Trumbull, Warren and Montgomery; as Dwight, Barlow, Trumbull, and Humphries composed their verse, and Belknap and Ramzay history; as Godfrey invented his quadrant, and Rittenhouse his planetarium; as Boylston practised inoculation, and electricity; as exposed the mistakes of Raynal, and those of , so unphilosophically borrowed from the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains those despicable dreams of de Pauw -- neither the people, nor their conventions, committees, or sub-committees, considered legislation in any other light than ordinary arts and sciences, only as of more importance. Called without expectation, and compelled without previous inclination, though undoubtedly at the best period of time both for England and America, to erect suddenly new systems of laws for their future government, they adopted the method of a wise architect, in erecting a new palace for the residence of his sovereign. They determined to consult Vitruvius, Palladio, and all other writers of reputation in the art; to examine the most celebrated buildings, whether they remain entire or in ruins; compare these with the principles of writers; and enquire how far both the theories and models were founded in nature, or created by fancy: and, when this should be done, as far as their circumstances would allow, to adopt the advantages, and reject the inconveniences, of all. Unembarrassed by attachments to noble families, hereditary lines and successions, or any considerations of royal blood, even the pious mystery of holy oil had no more influence than that other of holy water: the people universally were too enlightened to be imposed on by artifice; and their leaders, or more properly followers, were men of too much honour to attempt it. Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favour of the rights of mankind. [ ]
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mankind
influence
discovery
politics
reason
science
happiness
philosophy
artifice
constitution
divine-right
expectation
holy-water
jefferson
paine
secular
secular-government
thomas-jefferson
thomas-paine
laws
invention
rights
government
divinity
superstition
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John Adams |
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ebfa052
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The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain.
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invention
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Nikola Tesla |
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b972ab7
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Well, I've had my fun; I've had it, he thought, looking up at the swinging baskets of pale geraniums. And it was smashed to atoms--his fun, for it was half made up, as he knew very well; invented, this escapade with the girl; made up, as one makes up the better part of life, he thought--making onself up; making her up; creating an exquisite amusement, and something more. But odd it was, and quite true; all this one could never share--it smashed to atoms.
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imagination
life
truths
invention
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Virginia Woolf |
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eac6823
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He wrested the world's whereabouts from the stars, and locked the secret in a pocket watch.
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science
inventors
invention
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Dava Sobel |
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67b2cae
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You call a star a star, and say it is just a ball of matter moving on a mathematical course. But that is merely how you see it. By so naming things and describing them you are only inventing your own terms about them. And just as speech is invention about objects and ideas, so myth is invention about truth.
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invention
myths
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Humphrey Carpenter |
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56dd350
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You didn't create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for! If I handed you an invention you had never seen before, you wouldn't know it's purpose, and the invention itself wouldn't be able to tell you either. Only the creator or the owner's manual could reveal it's purpose.
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purpose-driven-life
rick-warren
purpose-of-life
purpose
invention
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Rick Warren |
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a8c2bb6
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Evidently, I'd suffered an epiphany: the subconscious realization that when it comes to coolness, nothing the human race has ever invented is more cool than a book.
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literature
coolness
humanity-and-society
worldview
invention
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Tom Robbins |
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48b2698
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[Americans] were, for one thing, so smitten with the idea of progress that they invented things without having any idea whether those things would be of any use.
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progress
invention
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Bill Bryson |
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bd89c05
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They were a strange and mercantile people, these Americans. One never knew what they might come up with next.
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ingenuity
invention
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Lauren Willig |
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0e60048
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I invented adventures for myself and made up a life, so as at least to live in some way.
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loneliness
life
invention
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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f2a813b
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Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, but fear, too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions.
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necessity
invention
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Joseph Conrad |
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153d3cd
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Having established itself securely on shipboard, the chronometer was soon taken for granted, like any other essential thing, and the whole question of its contentious history, along with the name of its original inventor, dropped from the consciousness of the seamen who used it every day.
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jeremy-thacker
longitude
longitude-act
invention
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Dava Sobel |
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5495d14
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At the U of U, we were inventing a new language. One of us would contribute a verb, another a noun, then a third person would figure out ways to string the elements together to actually say something.
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teamwork
invention
creation
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Ed Catmull |
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6c65179
|
The garage is the space for the hacker, the tinkerer, the maker. The garage is not defined by a single field or industry; instead, it is defined by the eclectic interests of its inhabitants. It is a space where intellectual networks converge.
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invention
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Steven Johnson |
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e1d4ac3
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Sometimes time spent reinventing the wheel results in a revolutionary new rolling device. But sometimes it just amounts to time spent reinventing the wheel.
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work
design
invention
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Steve Krug |
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2d1125b
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"The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer,
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invent
spoon
the-book-is-like-the-spoon
wheel
improvement
book
improve
invention
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Umberto Eco |