The issue for patents for new discovers has given a spring to invention beyond my conception.
Interpretation
Jefferson highlights how patent laws foster creativity and invention.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson expresses his belief that the establishment of patent rights significantly accelerates the pace of invention and innovation. He recognizes that the protection and encouragement of inventors through patents not only benefits individual creators but also propels society as a whole toward greater technological and creative advancements, far beyond what he could have imagined.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of intellectual property rights.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
We must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Innovative ideas are rarely rejected on their merits; they’re rejected because of how they make people feel. If you forget people’s concerns and feelings when you present an innovation, or neglect to understand their perspectives in your design, you’re setting yourself up to fail.
Most innovative things are not obvious to other people at the time. You have to believe in yourself. If you've got a good idea, follow it even though others tell you it's not.
I believe we are in a world where innovation in stuff was outlawed. It was basically outlawed in the last 40 years - part of it was environmentalism, part of it was risk aversion.
Most of us understand that innovation is enormously important. It's the only insurance against irrelevance. It's the only guarantee of long-term customer loyalty. It's the only strategy for out-performing a dismal economy.
Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.
If the idea is really new and unique and big, other people will all think it is bad and is going to fail.
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