“Man invented the car to comfortably sit in jams.”

originally an 'ad lib' in 1950 on BBC Home Service radio programme Listen with Mother. Used as the consistent opening line until end of series in 1982.
BBC web-site - Accessed 25 Jan 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/great_moments/archive/january.shtml
[Partridge, Eric, A Dictionary of Catch Phrases:British and American, from the sixteenth century to the present day, 26, Routledge, 1986, 041505916X] Note that Frieda Fordham (a psychologist who advised the BBC) has also been credited with it.

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

Something to Fall Back on

Source: Dracula

Source: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

The Decay of Lying (1889)
Context: If Nature had been comfortable, mankind would never have invented architecture... In a house, we all feel of the proper proportions. Everything is subordinated to us, fashioned for our use and our pleasure.

1840s, Past and Present (1843)

Though Keillor has been quoted on the internet and in print as having made this or a similar remark, such expressions have been made by others, and may have originated with Billy Sunday, who is quoted as having said "Going to church on Sunday does not make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you an automobile!" in Press, Radio, Television, Periodicals, Public Relations, and Advertising, As Seen through Institutes and Special Occasions of the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism (1967) edited by John Eldridge Drewry.
Disputed
Variant: Going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car.