QuoteProject
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.
Benjamin Franklin
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

We should share our inventions generously, just as we benefit from the inventions of others.

This quote by Benjamin Franklin emphasizes the importance of community and reciprocity in innovation. It suggests that while we gain much from the work and inventions of those who came before us, we also have a responsibility to contribute to the welfare of others through our own inventions, doing so with a spirit of generosity and selflessness.

Themes

InventionServiceGenerosityCommunityInnovation

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used during a speech at a technology conference to emphasize the spirit of collaboration in innovation.

More from Benjamin Franklin

To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.
Benjamin FranklinRead
He'll cheat without scruple, who can without fear.
Benjamin FranklinRead
[E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country.
Benjamin FranklinRead
Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin FranklinRead
Let honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains; then shall thy pocket begin to thrive; creditors will not insult, nor want oppress, nor hungerness bite, nor nakedness freeze thee
Benjamin FranklinRead
I think that a young state, like a young virgin, should modestly stay at home, and wait the application of suitors for an alliance with her; and not run about offering her amity to all the world; and hazarding their refusal. Our virgin is a jolly one; and tho at present not very rich, will in time be a great fortune, and where she has a favorable predisposition, it seems to me well worth cultivating.
Benjamin FranklinRead

Similar quotes

I grew up using maps and having a sense of direction, and now I have a phone. I used to try to remember numbers, and now I... can just call them up instantly. And that's great. But what's happening right now is that we're in a phase of human evolution where we're merging with machines.
Franklin FoerRead
I feel drawn to experiment with ways that technology can interact with notions of intimacy, because so much of technology is done in a way that's very cold and has such an opposite effect.
Jaron LanierRead
The problem with copyright enforcement is that when the parameters aren't incredibly well defined, it means big corporations, who have deeper pockets and better lawyers, can bully people.
Shepard FaireyRead
Well, Apple invented the PC as we know it, and then it invented the graphical user interface as we know it eight years later (with the introduction of the Mac). But then, the company had a decade in which it took a nap.
Steve JobsRead
As our technology evolves, we will have the capacity to reach new, ever-increasing depths. The question is what kind of technology, in the end, do we want to deploy in the far reaches of the ocean? Tools of science, ecology and documentation, or the destructive tools of heavy industry?
Philippe Cousteau, Jr.Read
The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today.
J. C. R. LickliderRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Benjamin Franklin | QuoteProject