Quotes about invention
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“Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them.”

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic

“The problem with competition is that it takes away the requirement to set your own path, to invent your own method, to find a new way.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

"Competition as a crutch" http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/07/competition-as-a-crutch.html Seth's Blog (2012-07-16) <br class="br">Source: Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Way, Problem

“Scrawny? Baby, I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Baby

“When one is nothing, one invents. It fills a void.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

“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.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

God, Problem

“How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“I said, 'I need to know how he died.'
He flipped back and pointed at, 'Why?'
So I can stop inventing how he died. I'm always inventing.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“It's like scarlet fever: one has to get it over."

"Then one should invent a way of inoculating love, like vaccination.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Love, Way

“Actually we did not have the feelings we said we had until we spoke them--at least I didn't; to phrase them was to invent them and own them.”

Philip Roth (1933–2018) American novelist

Source: Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories

Feeling

“I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.”

Yves Saint Laurent (1936–2008) fashion designer

New York Magazine (November 28, 1983), p. 53.

Hope, Sex, Clothes

“You can never tell about a person by guessing… that's why language was invented. Otherwise, we'd all be like dogs, sniffing each other to find out where we stood.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Dogs, Personality

“Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

Children, Parent, Happiness

“Most people are much better at saying things in letters than in conversation, and some people can write artistic, inventive letters, but when they try a poem or story or novel they become pretentious.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

People

“There are some experiences in life they haven't invented the right words for.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Married By Morning

Life

“Since the invention of the kiss, there have only been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.”

William Goldman (1931–2018) American novelist, screenwriter and playwright

Relationship, For Him, For Boyfriend, Kiss

“Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. "No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

“If you and I really, truly wanted to change the world, we'd invent more words that started with.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

World, Change

“I'd like a drink. I desire to forget life. Life is a hideous invention by somebody I don't know. It doesn't last, and it's good for nothing. You break your neck simply living.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Life, Drink, Forgetting

“Genius is what a man invents when he is looking for a way out.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Way

“It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Angels, Understanding

“Oh my god, I am so awesome!" Leo bellowed.
"So awesome!" Echo yelled back.
"He is funny," a nymph ventured.
"And cute, in a scrawny way," another said.
"Scrawny?" Leo asked. "Baby I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

God, Way, Baby

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos (1980), p. 218

Universe

“It's the movies that have been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Feeling

“According to Gur's theory of boredom, everything that happens in the world today is because of boredom: love, war, inventions, fake fireplaces - ninety-five percent of all that is pure boredom.”

Etgar Keret (1967) Israeli and polish writer and screenwriter

Source: The Nimrod Flipout: Stories

Love, War, World

“There's enough sorrow in the world, isn't there, without trying to invent it.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View (1908), Ch. 2

World

“It's called civilization. Women invented it, and every time you men blow it all to bits, we just invent it again.”

Orson Scott Card book The Folk of the Fringe

Source: The Folk of the Fringe

Women, Men, Time

“TELEPHONE n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Personality

“"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see —
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

185: "Faith" is a fine invention
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960)

Faith

“Lilly says I have an overactive imagination and a pathological need to invent drama in my life.”

Meg Cabot The Princess Diaries

Source: The Princess Diaries

Life, Imagination

“How do you invent a religion?” Evie asked.

Will looked over the top of his spectacles. “You say, ‘God told me the following,’ and then wait for people to sign up.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

God, People, Religion, Waiting

“Usually the people I do know are sufficient to spawn any number of nightmares without inventing any.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

People

“Invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school.”

David Mamet (1947) American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director

Source: True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor

School

“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990)

History, Beer, Question

“Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Hurt

“What if I never stop inventing?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“All these words, words like 'evil' and 'vicious', they meant nothing to Nature. Yes, evil was a human invention.”

John Marsden book Tomorrow, When the War Began

Source: Tomorrow, When the War Began

Nature, Evil

“Mothers are the necessity of invention.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

“Books: a beautifully browsable invention that needs no electricity and exists in a readable form no matter what happens.”

Nicholson Baker (1957) Novelist, essayist, non-fiction writer

Books

“He invented Kung Fu when translated to English means method by which short, bald guys can kick the bejeezus out of you.”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Guy

“Remembering is just an invention of the mind… It means that if you want to, you can remember anything, whether it happened or not… You don't need a time machine if you can remember.”

Rodman Philbrick book Freak the Mighty

Source: Freak the Mighty

Time

“I have a gift for inventing fantasies with extraordinary speed.”

Paulo Coelho book Adultery

Source: Adultery

Speed

“Everything you invent is true: you can be sure of that. Poetry is a subject as precise as geometry.”

Julian Barnes book Flaubert's Parrot

Source: Flaubert's Parrot

“We 're all yearning for a wedge of sky, aren 't we? I suspect God plants these yearnings in us so we'll at least try and change the course of things. We must try, that's all" - Lucretia Mott in The Invention of Wings
― Sue Monk Kidd”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Source: The Invention of Wings

God, Change

“Fiction was invented the day Jonah arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale..”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Home

“We have woven a web, you and I, attached to this world but a separate world of our own invention.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

World

“It isn't all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.”

Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991) American television screenwriter and producer

“Scientists have invented a new strain of cannabis without the high. They celebrated with non-alcoholic beer and furious dry-humping.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Alcohol, Beer

“My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Time

“How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.”

Barbara Kingsolver book Prodigal Summer

Source: Prodigal Summer

Love, Life, Business

“If the word doesn't exist, invent it; but first be sure it doesn't exist.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

“We need to remember that we are all created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Guns, she was reminded then, were not for girls. They were for boys. They were invented by boys. They were invented by boys who had never gotten over their disappointment that accompanying their own orgasm there wasn't a bigsound.”

Lorrie Moore (1957) American writer

Source: Like Life

Disappointment, Girl, Boy

“Well, every little boy thinks he invented sin. Virtue we think we learn, because we are told about it. But sin is our own designing.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Boy, Thinking, Learning

“It is man's intelligence that makes him so often behave more stupidly than the beasts. … Man is impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Texts and Pretexts (1932), p. 270
Context: It is man's intelligence that makes him so often behave more stupidly than the beasts. … Man is impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic. Thus, no animal is clever enough, when there is a drought, to imagine that the rain is being withheld by evil spirits, or as punishment for its transgressions. Therefore you never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. No horse, for example would kill one of its foals to make the wind change direction. Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough.

World, Intelligence