From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.

Of the 200 light bulbs that didn't work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt.

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will involve the patient in the proper use of food, fresh air and exercise

Radio is just a fashion contrivance that will soon die out. It is obvious that there never will be invented a proper receiver!

Sometimes you can fail in an experiment. But if you fail, you still don't stop observing that thing, looking for a better way.

here is a great difference between knowing a thing and understanding it. You can know a lot and not really understand anything.

It is the 'follow through' that makes the great difference between ultimate success and failure, because it is so easy to stop.

I often say that research is a way of finding out what you are going to do when you can't keep on doing what you are doing now.

There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.

In many respects, designing heirloom products means saying no to designing consumer crap that you know will not last very long.

I just believe in whatever you're going to do, even if it's work, have a little bit of fun attitude about it. You can be happy.

Teachers started recognizing me and praising me for being smart in science and that made me want to be even smarter in science!

The loss of any army is always caused by underestimating the enemy. Therefore gather information and watch the enemy carefully.

So I think the winners in recession are the people who produce new technology that does things better, which people really want.

The Web is fascinating and transformative, but it's an easy, flashy, get-rich-quick option to the hard graft of proper industry.

First, study the present construction. Second, ask for all past experiences ...study and read everything you can on the subject.

I didn’t fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn’t work.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 foundations and individual donors whose priorities don't align with my organization's.

We work day after day, not to finish things; but to make the future better ... because we will spend the rest of our lives there.

There is no such thing as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence - and in the end you make it look like a quantum leap.

Cordless vacuums are designed for quick jobs, but you need enough power to do the job; you don't want the power waning over time.

Focus on how the end-user customers perceive the impact of your innovation - rather than on how you, the innovators, perceive it.

Action without intelligence is a form of insanity, but intelligence without action is the greatest form of stupidity in the world.

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.

The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.

All inventors, they say, are a little mad. I reckon that only completely sane people are willing to admit they are slightly crazy.

It is man's destiny to ponder on the riddle of existence and, as a byproduct of his wonderment, to create a new life on this earth.

To solve the Cube, you need special skills and understanding. For example, pattern recognition is very important to solve the Cube.

Sell practical, tested merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings - and they will always come back.

Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in this field.

There's nothing on it worthwhile, and we're not going to watch it in this household, and I don't want it in your intellectual diet.

Coming up with ideas isn't hard. The real challenge is finding the time to actually build something and then finding a home for it.

Bankers regard research as most dangerous a thing that makes banking hazardous due to the rapid changes it brings about in industry.

No matter how complicated a problem is, it usually can be reduced to a simple, comprehensible form which is often the best solution.

Engineering is treated with disdain, on the whole. It's considered to be rather boring and irrelevant, yet neither of those is true.

I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing.

The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed, if on will only take the pains to train the mind to think.

Not only will atomic power be released, but someday we will harness the rise and fall of the tides and imprison the rays of the sun.

If you look at, you know, the limitations of creating new products, you're only limited by the technology that you have to work with.

Perhaps the hardest lesson of all is that there is no such thing as 'getting it right'-least of all with the promulgation of quality.

The mini-Moog was conceived originally as a session musician's axe, something a guy could carry to the studio, do a gig and walk out.

What is a college? An institute of learning. What is a business? An institute of learning. Life, itself, is an institute of learning.

I was frustrated as a child when I had to use a vacuum. It had a screaming noise and the smell of stale dog and a lack of performance.

At school, I enjoyed playing the bassoon. I was in the orchestra and played the melody when the other boys sang hymns at prayers time.

When decisions on nuclear power stations and runways are delayed and the government dilly-dallies, people think they aren't important.

I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work - for example a lawnmower.

When I see Bin Laden with his AK-47, I got nervous. But what can I do, terrorists aren't fools: they too chose the most reliable guns.

A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.

Of all things I liked books best. My father had a large library and whenever I could manage I tried to satisfy my passion for reading.

What inspires me is not so much the music as the opportunity to interact with composers. I think that has driven everything I've done.

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