The amusing, if not outrageous, quote, "Everything that can be Invented has been invented." is widely attributed to Charles Duell, the U.S. Commissioner of Patents from 1898-1901. It’s been cited over and over by after dinner speakers and commentators to pump up their superior status. How wonderful to be a visionary and see possibilities that elude others. There is no better way to do this than pointing to prophesies that can now be mocked for entirely missing the mark— and to thus point to our own superior vision. I must confess I’ve been guilty of that myself. I once (perhaps more than once) cited “Duell’s proclamation.”

I even used the Duell quote in an article to make the analogy of how ignorant political and government policy makers can be. The piece was primarily about health care. Among the responses to my article, which was picked up by many newspapers throughout the country, was from a lawyer in Utah. The opening sentence made me uneasy: “Do you have any references or citations verifying that Charles Duell actually made the statement?” My first reaction was that perhaps the Duell family was fed up with the defamation of the family name and was seeking legal recourse. In fact I had no reference or citation. The quote was so commonly used that I, like everyone else who used it, assumed it was accurate.

As I nervously read on, my fear subsided: “ I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for years to track down a factual source for the quote and was hoping that perhaps you had found it.” I didn’t have a source other than common usage. But the query piqued my interest and set me on a sleuthing mission to nail down the truth about Charles Holland Duell. Did he or didn’t he say it? Fact or folklore?

Much to my surprise I found many efforts, particularly in the 1930’s, to find a factual basis for attaching the quote to Duell. Everything that I discovered, though, indicated that he never said it. For example, Duell’s 1899 report as the U.S Commissioner of Patents documents an increase of about 3,000 patents over the previous year, and nearly 60 times the number granted in 1837. Furthermore, Duell quotes President McKinley’s annual message: "Our future progress and prosperity depend upon our ability to equal, if not surpass, other nations in the enlargement and advance of science, industry and commerce. To invention we must turn as one of the most powerful aids to the accomplishment of such a result." These fighting words forecast a great and important future for invention, and certainly not the belief that everything has been invented. How the quote got placed in Duell’s mouth remains a mystery.

I was relieved that I would not be sued by Duell descendents. On further reflection it occurred to me that that the Duells probably wouldn’t sue under any circumstances. More likely they would conclude that everyone who can be sued has been sued.

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Bernard Starr, Ph.D., formerly professor of developmental and educational psychology at the City University of New York, now teaches “Psychology and Spirituality in Film” at Marymount Manhattan College and is producer and host for Phoenix Rising Television Productions. In addition to his work in radio (“The Longevity Report”), he is a longtime contributor of commentary and opinion articles to numerous major newspapers and other publications. He is also the President of the Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy and is the main United Nations representative for the Institute of Global Education that founded the Mucherla Global School in Mucherla, India.

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Bernard Starr on YouTube:
Edith O’Hara: A Passion For The Theater:
Produced and Directed by Bernard Starr and Rita Satz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-iJqiX9gtw

Interview with Constitutional Litigation Attorney Frank Askin on the legality of the war in Iraq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDtV6vkru80


NEWS: You can now preview selected passages from each chapter of my book ("Escape Your own Prison: Why We Need Spirituality And Psychology To Be Truly Free" published by Rowman and Littlelfied) at Google Books
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E-mail: OmniCns@aol.com