quotes by Inventor Quotes

“No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.”

“A private central bank issuing the public currency is a greater menace to the liberties of the people than a standing army. We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.”

“Strict punctuality is a cheap virtue.”

“We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.”

“Proclaim not all though knowest, or all though owest.”

“Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves.”

“The day I was born songs were on records, phones were tied down, computers needed rooms and the web was fiction. Change the world. You can.”

“Display is as false as it is costly.”

“Don't overload Gratitude; if you do, she'll kick.”

“That's what Walt Disney did, and Hewlett and Packard, and the people who built Intel. They created a company to last, not just to make money. That's what I want Apple to be.”

“It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.”

“To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind.”

“We will be soldiers, so our sons may be farmers, so their sons may be artists”

“Our people shall be free”

“Virtue and Happiness are Mother and Daughter.”

“He that is rich need not live sparingly,and he that can live sparingly need not be rich.”

“He that hath a calling, hath an office of profit and honor.”

“Knowledge is power...knowled ge is safety...knowle dge is happiness.”

“Handle your tools without mittens.”

“Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.”

“There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.”

“The foundation on which (our government is) built is the natural equality of man, the denial of every pre-eminence but that annexed to legal office, and particularly the denial of a pre-eminence by birth.”

“Trusting too much to others care is the ruin of many.”

“Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.”

“I don't view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.”

“Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government.”

“We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before us to prevent us seeing it.”

“A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.”

“The great cause which divides our countries is not to be decided by individual animosities. The harmony of private societies cannot weaken national efforts.”

“One mend-fault is worth two find-faults, but one find-fault is better than two make-faults.”

“Let thy discontents be thy secrets; if the world knows them 'twill despise thee and increase them.”

“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”

“Most codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against one's country. They do not distinguish between acts against the government, and acts against the oppressions of the government. The latter are virtues, yet have furnished more victims to the executioner than the former. Real treasons are rare; oppressions frequent. The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.”

“I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.”

“[My] pillar of support through life.... I can say conscientiously that I do not know in the world a man of purer integrity, more dispassionate, disinterested, and devoted to genuine Republicanism; nor could I in the whole scope of America and Europe point out an abler head.”

“To ridicule philosophy is truly philosophical.[Fr., Se moquer de la philosophie c'est vraiment philosophe.]”

“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.”

“We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it.”

“In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two works, industry and frugality.”

“Thou can'st not joke an enemy into a friend,but thou may'st a friend into an enemy.”

“Money is of a prolific generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more.”

“...it is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man if he will make a business of it.”

“A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job”

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”

“Better slip with foot than tongue.”

“Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights.”

“The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose.”

“Laws ... proportionate and mild should never be dispensed with. Let mercy be the character of the law-giver, but let the judge be a mere machine.”

“A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sin and suffering.”

“I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand and enter in a little book short hints of what you feel that is common or that may be useful; for this will be the best method of imprinting such portcullis in your memory.”