Ingenuity and creativity, even for a defeating case of two steps forward and one backward, applied strategically can covert a loss into gain.

I shove round pegs in square holes.

Over twenty men died during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Dr Lynch. Does anyone regret that? No, all anyone sees is a marvel of its time, a great achievement in human ingenuity.

...if we wanted people to fly, we would have given them wings.""You gave me wings when you showed me birds.

Of all evil-doers, the American is most to be feared; he uses more ingenuity in the planning of his projects, and will take greater risks in carrying them out, than any other malefactor on earth.

Between 1980 and 2000 the number of patents registered in Israel was 7652 compared with 367 for all the Arab countries combined. In 2008 alone is really inventors applied to register 9591 new patents. The equivalent figure for Iran was 50 and for all majority Muslim countries in the world with 5657.

The only ingenuity I can see is Gaddis’ wherewithal in getting this brick published, printed, and hyped-up enough to win the National Book Award. Did he use coercion, bribery, blackmail perhaps? Did he have incriminating evidence on certain influential literary critics and talking heads, like pictures of them with farm animals or something?

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

We have this history of impossible solutions to insoluble problems.

We've got facts," they say. But facts aren't everything; at least half the battle consists in how one makes use of them!