Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Innovation
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Poetry must be new as foam, and as old as the rock.
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Genius borrows nobly. When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies: 'Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.'
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We cannot overstate our debt to the Past, but the moment has the supreme claim. The Past is for us; but the sole terms on which it can become ours are its subordination to the Present. Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor. We must not tamper with the organic motion of the soul.
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Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
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Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.