Time is the greatest innovator.

Who in Europe could have thought of the disappearing bed, a bed during the night, a handsome wardrobe during the day? Where else [than in the United States] could the rocking chair have been invented, in which a man could move and sit still at the same time?

We ought not to be over-anxious to encourage innovation in cases of doubtful improvement, for an old system must ever have two advantages over a new one; it is established, and it is understood.

Inventors and men of genius have almost always been regarded as fools at the beginning (and very often at the end) of their careers.

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

Great scientific discoveries have been made by men seeking to verify quite erroneous theories about the nature of things.

The new always carries with it the sense of violation, of sacrilege. What is dead is sacred; what is new, that is, different, is evil, dangerous, or subversive.

Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search.

Let no one say that I have said nothing new; the arrangement of the subject is new.