Chacham's Journal: Quote? "Everything that can be invented has been invented."

There is a quote out there, "Everything that can be invented has been invented.", that is attributed to Charles H. Duell who was Director of U.S. Patent Office in 1899. But, in the pursuit of irony, a magazine, The Skeptical Inquirer, has an article on its authenticity. It says it is not, with the closest coming from an earlier commissioner of the Patent Office, "The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end."

But who to believe? It's an article where the author states he relied on earlier work, that a book that relied on earlier work was incorrect. :) He says he did some research, but, alas, so did the book.

It is fun to believe the comment, because it is a stupid. It is now more fun to believe it was a misquote, so the believers of the first quote are stupid. Now, it is totally confusing, but amusing nonetheless.

Must we now believe in everything, nothing, or start a government agency to tell that which is true and that which is not true?

Re:Question

[subgeek]

he can't hear you. he can't hear me either.