Quotes about Innovation

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

The only sustainable competitive advantage comes from out-innovating the competition.

James Morse, US judge (b. 1940)

Always remember that someone, somewhere, is making a product that will make your product obsolete.

George Doriot, US executive, founder of American R & D (1899-1987)

Once an organisation loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops.

Thomas J Watson, US businessman, founder of IBM (1874-1956)

Don’t try to innovate for the future. Innovate for the present.

Peter Drucker, US management author (1909-2005)

We should do something when people say it is crazy. If people say something is ‘good’, it means someone else is already doing it.

Hajime Mitarai, Japanese electronics businessman (1938-1995)

In England an inventor is regarded almost as a crazy man, and in too many instances invention ends in disappointment and poverty. In America an inventor is honoured, help is forthcoming, and the exercise of ingenuity, the application of science to the work of man, is there the shortest road to wealth.

Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, poet (1854-1900)

Oscar Wilde

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

Thomas Carlyle, British essayist, historian (1795-1881)

Things don’t turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.

James A Garfield, US President (1831-1881)

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Max Planck, German physicist (1858-1947)

Invention is the mother of necessity.

Thorstein Veblen, US economist, social scientist (1857-1929)

Why, the greatest invention in history is the safety pin. The second greatest is perforated toilet paper.

Herbert Khaury, known as Tiny Tim, US entertainer (1932-1996)

My father worked for the same firm for twelve years. They fired him. They replaced him with a tiny gadget this big. It does everything that my father does, only it does it much better. The depressing thing is my mother ran out and bought one.

Allen Stewart Konigsberg, known as Woody Allen, US film actor, director (b. 1935)