Quote

A significant inventionmust be startling, unexpected. It must come to a world that is not prepared for it.

Edwin Land

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Edwin Land
Age: 81 †
Born: 1909
Born: May 7
Died: 1991
Died: March 1
Entrepreneur
Inventor
Photographer
Physicist
Bridgeport
Connecticut
Edwin Land
Edwin Herbert Land
E.H. Land
Acceptance
Significant
Prepared
Science
Come
Startling
Must
Unexpected
World
Preparation
Invention

More quotes by Edwin Land

Image
It only takes a day to change someone from an anti-intellectual to an intellectual by persuading him that he might be one!
Edwin Land
Image
Industry is best at the intersection of science and art.
Edwin Land
Image
Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.
Edwin Land
Image
I believe quite simply that the small company of the future will be as much a research organization as it is a manufacturing company.
Edwin Land
Image
Aladdin in his most intoxicated moments would never have dreamed of asking his [djinn] for [a polaroid] ... It's utterly new in concept and appearance, utilizing an utterly revolutionary flash system, an utterly revolutionary viewing system, utterly revolutionary electronics, and utterly revolutionary film structure.
Edwin Land
Image
The future may require not so much having a new idea as stopping having an old idea.
Edwin Land
Image
The very essence of democracy is the absolute faith that while people must cooperate, the first function of democracy, its peculiar gift, is to develop each individual into everything that he might be.
Edwin Land
Image
There's a rule they don't teach you at the Harvard Business School. It is, if anything is worth doing, it's worth doing to excess.
Edwin Land
Image
Science is a method to keep yourself from kidding yourself.
Edwin Land
Image
We live in a world changing so rapidly that what we mean frequently by common sense is doing the thing that would have been right last year.
Edwin Land
Image
We took nothing from anybody. We gave a great deal to the world. The only thing keeping us alive is our brilliance. The only thing that keeps our brilliance alive is our patents.
Edwin Land
Image
Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess.
Edwin Land
Image
In a few wretched buildings, we created a whole new industry with international significance.
Edwin Land
Image
Over the years, I have learned that every significant invention has several characteristics. By definition it must be startling, unexpected, and must come into a world that is not prepared for it. If the world were prepared for it, it would not be much of an invention.
Edwin Land
Image
The first thing you do is teach the person to feel that the vision is very important and nearly impossible. That draws out the drive in the winner.
Edwin Land
Image
Look, if the picture you get instantly is as beautiful as the picture you get by waiting seven days, then it is absolute madness to say that there is virtue in waiting.
Edwin Land
Image
Our society is changing so rapidly that none of us can know what it is or where it is going.
Edwin Land
Image
Don't do anything that someone else can do.
Edwin Land
Image
I believe each incoming freshman [in college] must be started at once on his own research project if we are to preserve his secret dream of greatness and make it come true.
Edwin Land
Image
The bottom line is in heaven!
Edwin Land