Ideas, Thoughts (source)
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death....Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. Bertrand RussellSecret study, silent thought is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs. William Channing
The idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all. Elbert Hubbard
All the resources we need are in the mind. Theodore Roosevelt
If you're up against a smart opponent, make him think himself to death. Pyanfar Chanur, "Chanur's Legacy" by C.J. Cherryh
My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), English author. Sherlock Holmes, in The Sign of Four, ch. 1 (1890).
Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day. Ralph W. Emerson (1847)
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. -John F. Kennedy The Endurance of Ideas
You can't crush ideas by suppressing them. You can only crush them by ignoring them. Ursula K. LeGuin
Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Lenin.
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world. Aristotle , "On The Heavens", in T. L. Heath Manual of Greek Mathematics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931.
Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas. Alfred North Whitehead, W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger The Viking Book of Aphorisms, New York: Viking Press, 1966.
All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience." Goethe
During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think. Bernard M. Baruch
Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement. Claude M. Bristol
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. Ludwig Witgenstein On Thought and Language
The limits of your language are the limits of your world. Ludwig Wittgenstein Language determines the boundaries of thought
Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about. Benjamin Whorf
We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language. Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it. Benjamin Whorf
If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world. Ludwig Wittgenstein
I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations. Samuel Johnson
The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. Philip K. Dick "How to Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978)
Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone. Mark Twain
Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought, and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if only words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves. John Locke
While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living. Cyril Connolly
For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and big words Bother me. A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
These thoughts did not come in any verbal formulation. I rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterward. Albert Einstein, (1879-1955) In H. Eves Mathematical Circles Adieu, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1977. Language doesn't determine the boundaries of thought
Never speak more clearly than you think. Jeremy Bernstein quoted by Marvin Minsky in The Society of Mind (1986)
Don't ever speak more clearly than you think... Attributed to Neils Bohr
I knew words were like chains, they held me back...the act of description taints the description. John Fowles
Using words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef. Tom Robbins
No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. Henry Brooks Adams
It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Alfred North Whitehead, An Introduction to Mathematics.
It is not often that we use language correctly; usually we use it incorrectly, though we understand each others meaning. St. Augustine
A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words. Thomas Huxley
I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn't poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy. I was deprived. (Oh not deprived but rather underprivileged) Then they told me that underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don't have a dime. But I have a great vocabulary. Jules Feiffer Language does not affect reality
What's a' your jargon o' your schools, Your Latin names for horns and stools; If honest Nature made you fools. Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Language is a virus from outer space. William S. Burroughs
A witty saying proves nothing Voltaire
When ideas fail, words come in very handy. Goethe
How can I tell what I think until I see what I say? E.M. Forster quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in Elbow Room (1984) Thoughts Expressed
I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say. Flannery O'Connor quoted by Richard E. Cytowic in The Man Who Tasted Shapes (1993)
We speak, not only to tell others what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. J. Hughlings Jackson, Hughlings Jackson on Aphasia and Kindred Affections of Speech (1915) quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in Consciousness Explained (1991)
You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it. Duke Ellington
Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue. Virginia Woolf
I photograph to find out what something looks like photographed. Garry Winograd quoted by Susan Sontag in On Photography (1977)
For it is esteemed a kind of dishonour unto learning to descend to inquiry or meditation upon matters mechanical, except they be such as may be thought secrets, rarities, and special subtilities, which humour of vain supercilious arrogancy is justly derided in Plato... But the truth is, they be not the highest instances that give the securest information; as may well be expressed in the tale... of the philosopher, that while he gazed upwards to the stars fell into the water; for if he had looked down he might have seen the stars in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the water in the stars. So it cometh often to pass, that mean and small things discover great, better than great can discover the small. Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, J.M. Dent and Son, London, England, 1973, pp 71-72. (1) On the Size of Thoughts, People
Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think. Benjamin Disraeli Great thoughts require great people
When you appeal to the highest level of thinking, you get the highest level of performance. Jack Stack
People will accept your idea much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first. David H. Comins
The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires. Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own furtive of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit; bad thoughts, bad fruit." James Allen
They are never alone who are accompanied by noble thoughts. -Philip Sidney
Great thoughts always come from the heart. Marquis de Vauvenargues
Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious. Paul Valery
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Marcus Aurelius
Any man who has the brains to think and the nerve to act for the benefit of the people of the country is considered a radical by those who are content with stagnation and willing to endure disaster. William Randolph Hearst Great Thoughts Meet Great Resistance
One measure of the power of a new idea is the resistance it meets. Leroy Jack Syrop
Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at. Author unknown
When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. Einstein
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. Howard Aiken On How Little People Think
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard
Little things affect little minds. Benjamin Disraeli
Cynicism is the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence. Russell Lynes
For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while. Luther Burbank
Folks that blurt out just what they think wouldn't be so bad if they thought. Kin Hubbard
It's easier to listen than it is to think. Andy Rooney, on the popularity of television
I don't know how to program a VCR. That requires thought and skill. Tipper Gore
Thoughts and Actions
Think like a man of action and act like a man of thought. Henri Bergson Ideas Require Action
Thought is the seed of action. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried. Shakespeare
Mark this well, you proud men of action! You are, after all, nothing but unconscious instruments of the men of thought. Heinrich Heine
Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them. Alfred North Whitehead
Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every time a man puts a new idea across he finds ten men who thought of it before he did -- but they only thought of it. Unknown
An idea is a curious thing. It won't work unless you do. Unknown
Failures are divided into two classes -- those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. John Charles Salak
We had better live as we think, otherwise we shall end up by thinking as we have lived Paul Bourget
Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory. William Wordsworth
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast. Leonardo da Vinci, (1452-1519)
Theory attracts practice as the magnet attracts iron. Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) [attributed to him by H.B Lübsen] Foreword of H.B Lübsen's geometry textbook.
There is no less invention in aptly applying a thought found in a book, than in being the first author of the thought. Bayle
To live is to have problems and to solve problems is to grow intellectually. J. P. Guilford, Source: The Art of Creative Thinking - book by Robert Olson (1986)
Every event that a man would master must be mounted on the run, and no man ever caught the reins of a thought except as it galloped past him. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Football is a game played with arms, legs and shoulders but mostly from the neck up. Knute Rockne Actions Require Thought
We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it. William Hazlitt Action Does not always Require Much Thought
To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing. Eva Young
Life has taught me to think, but thinking has not taught me to live. Alexander Herzen (19th Century international journalist)
If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. Dale Carnegie
Intelligence
The test of a first-fate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. F. Scott Fitzgerald Characteristics of Great Minds
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them. Jacob Bronowski
Great minds discuss ideas, mediocre minds discuss events, small minds discuss personalities. Anon
There was never a genius without a tincture of insanity. Aristotle
Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
What is called genius is the abundance of life and health. Henry David Thoreau
Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind. Samuel Johnson, Source: The Art of Creative Thinking - book by Robert Olson (1986)
Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven. Edward de Bono
Genius is one per cent inspiration, and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Thomas Edison, Source: Dictionary of Quotations, Collins Gem Intelligence/Genius and Mental Exercise/Hard Work
Genius is the ability and willingness to do hard work, and any other concept is a doubtful if not dangerous proposition. Thomas Edison
Strength of mind is exercise, not rest. Alexander Pope
The more you use your brain, the more brain you will have to use. George A. Dorsey
Genius is nothing but continued attention. Claude A. Helvetius
Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius Benjamin Disraeli
Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week. George Bernard Shaw
The mind ought sometimes to be diverted that it may return to better thinking. Phaedrus
One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me. Anatole France
Since when was genius found respectable? Elizabeth Barrett Browning
So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours. Ralph Waldo Emerson Intelligence/Genius and Spontaneous Insight
Finally, two days ago, I succeeded - not on account of my hard efforts, but by the grace of the Lord. Like a sudden flash of lightning, the riddle was solved. I am unable to say what was the conducting thread that connected what I previously knew with what made my success possible. Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) In H. Eves Mathematical Circles Squared, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1972.
Imagination is intelligence having fun. Unknown
Creative intelligence in its various forms and activities is what makes man. James Harvey Robinson
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. H. L. Mencken
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. Arthur C. Clarke Value of Intelligence
Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them. Einstein
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. Winston Churchill
Ideas are the very coinage of your brain. William Shakespeare
Geniuses and Fools
Genius...means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way. William James (1842-1910) "The Principles of Psychology" Genius and Creativity/Originality
The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers. Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) "The Act of Creation"
The more intelligent one is, the more men of originality one finds. Ordinary people find no difference between men. Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662) Pensees. 1670.
Since when was genius respectable? Elizabeth Barrett Browning
What makes you think human beings are sentient and aware? There's no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told -- and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion. Ian Malcolm as quoted by Michael Crichton in "The Lost World", page 7. Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995 (The sequel to "Jurassic Park") "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood." Marie Curie
In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that he did not also limit his stupidity. Dean Acheson Lacking Genius
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. Bill Waterson, Calvin & Hobbes
One of the surest signs that intelligent life exists in outer space is that none of it has tried to contact us. Normandy Alden
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult. Sigmund Freud
The intellegence of the planet is constant....and the population is growing. Arthur C. Clarke
No one in this world, so far as I know...has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. H.L. Mencken
They tell us absolutely nothing about intelligence elsewhere in the universe, but they do prove how rare it is on earth. Arthur C. Clarke
The IQ of a group is the lowest IQ of a member of the group divided by the number of people in the group. After dark" screen saver
If you gave her a penny for her thoughts, you'd have change coming. Buster Bunny, "Tiny Toon Adventures"
Intelligence Miscellany
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness. Elbert Hubbard Memory
Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.
I used to have a photographic memory, but it was never developed....
In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering. William James
Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory. Leonardo da Vinci
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. Albert Camus Other
Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind. Zen saying Little Zen Companion, Schiller.
The only thing about a man that is a man...is his mind. Everything else you can find in a pig or a horse. Archibald MacLeish
What makes men of genius, or rather, what they make, is not new ideas, it is that idea - possessing them - that what has been said has still not been said enough. Eugene Delacroix
If the aborigine drafted an IQ test, all of Western civilization would presumably flunk it. Stanley Garn
In Freud's day, "consciousness" was explained with relative ease: It was a thought process (the ego) that mediated between social directives (the superego) and biological drives (the id). But in subsequent decades, cognitive theorists scorned this notion for its most unscientivic implication that a soul or a little man (a humunculus) is hiding somehwer in our brain. In its place, Dennett offers a synthesis of their currently favored theories, which he dubs a "multiple-drafts model of consciousess." There is no little man, ne ego, no "I" coordinating our thoughts like some benevolent dictator, this theory holds. Rather, consciousness is a fluid process, a Joycean stream wherein one set of neurons, recognizing a particular pattern of shapes, events or other sensations, responds by activating another group of neurons, thus creating the silent narratives we call feelings and ideas. A review of "Consciousness Explained" by Daniel C. Dennett
Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself. Plato
A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without books, without friends, without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts. Axel Munthe
The final mystery is oneself. Oscar Wilde
I don't like work-no man does-but I like what is in work-the chance to find yourself. Joseph Conrad
On his intelligence scale: The scale, properly speaking, does not permit the measure of the intelligence, because intellectual qualities are not superposable, and therefore cannot be measured as linear surfaces are measured. Alfred Binet Quoted in Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, W.W. Norton and Co., Ltd,
Imagination
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true. Woodrow Wilson The Importance of Imagination
The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him. Jose Ortega y Gasset
The man who has no imagination has no wings. Muhammed Ali
You see things and you say "Why?"; but I dream things that never were and I say "Why not?" George Bernard Shaw (sometimes attributed to Robert Kennedy)
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. Francis Bacon
The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable. Carl Jung
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein, (1879-1955) On Science.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein, (1879-1955) What I Believe.
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality. Jules de Gaultier
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will. George Bernard Shaw Imagination Drives Success
I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau
All people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind, Wake in the morning to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, For they dream their dreams with open eyes, And make them come true. T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia")
We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it Donald Curtis
What is now proved was once only imagined. William Blake
All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination. Carl Jung
To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy. Bette Davis (The Lonely Life)
Ideas are the beginning point of all fortunes. Napoleon Hill
The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. Charles Dickens, Gilbert Keith Chesterton in Pickwick Papers
Practical people would be more practical if they would take a little more time for dreaming. J.P. McEvoy
Take the obvious, add a cupful of brains, a generous pinch of imagination, a bucketful of courage and daring, stir well and bring to a boil. Bernard Baruch
The successful people are the ones who can think up things for the rest of the world to keep busy at. Don Marquis
Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything god-like about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything. Henry Miller
The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community. William James
It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in. Schiller (1759-1805) Danger of Emphasizing Reason
If all men lead mechanical, unpoetical lifes, this is the real nihilism, the real undoing of the world." Reginald Blyth
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. H. L. Mencken
It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection. Thomas Macaulay, Source: Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993
The majority of businessmen are incapable of original thought because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. David Ogilvy
Practical people would be more practical if they would take a little more time for dreaming. J. P. McEvoy
One has but to observe a community of beavers at work in a stream to understand the loss in his sagacity, balance, cooperation, competence, and purpose which Man has suffered since he rose up on his hind legs.... He began to chatter and he developed Reason, Thought, and Imagination, qualities which would get the smartest group of rabbits or orioles in the world into inextricable trouble overnight. James Thurber
Whoever wants to see a brick must look at its pores, and must keep his eyes close to it. But whoever wants to see a cathedral cannot see it as he sees a brick. This demands a respect for distance. Jose Ortega y Gasset Imagination and Perspective, Focus
The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope. Henry Ward Beecher
You can't depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus. Mark Twain
The world is but a canvas to our imagination. Henry David Thoreau
No object is mysterious. The mystery is in your eye. Elizabeth Bowen
Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests. But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research. Eve Curie (translated by Vincent Sheean), Madame Curie, Pocket books, Simon and Schuster, New york, 1946, pp 352-253.
People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates. Thomas Szasz Freedom through Creativity
I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. William Blake
The way to become a good ping pong player is to play ping pong. The way to become a creative thinker is to spend time thinking creatively. Unknown
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. Henry David Thoreau
Only the mind cannot be sent into exile. Ovid
I have often pondered over the roles of knowledge or experience, on the one hand, and imagination or intuition, on the other, in the process of discovery. I believe that there is a certain fundamental conflict between the two, and knowledge, by advocating caution, tends to inhibit the flight of imagination. Therefore, a certain naivete, unburdened by conventional wisdom, can sometimes be a positive asset. Harish-Chandra R. Langlands, "Harish-Chandra," Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 31 (1985) 197 - 225.
Thought takes man out of servitude into freedom. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea. Lou Dorfsman Creativity and Art
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein
The art of creation is older than the art of killing. Andrei Voznesensky, Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993
In the creative state a man is taken out of himself. He lets down as it were a bucket into his subconscious, and draws up something which is normally beyond his reach. He mixes this thing with his normal experiences and out of the mixture he makes a work of art. E. M. Forster Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993
Creative activity is not a superimposed, extraneous task against which the body, or brain protests, but an orchestration of ... joyful doing. Gyorgy Kepes Creativity
Creativity comes from awakening and directing men's higher natures, which originate in the primal depths of the universe and are appointed by Heaven. I Ching (B.C. 1150?)
In creating, the only hard thing's to begin;A grass-blade's no easier to make than an oak. James Russell Lowell, Source: Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993
God left the earth unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gave man the challenge of raw materials - not the ease of finished things. He left the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation.
The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth--century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six months, or six years down the road. But he has faith that it will happen. Carl Ally, Ally & Gargano advertising agency
You were placed on this earth to create, not to compete. Dr. Robert Anthony
The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes. Saul Steinberg, Source: Harper Book of Quotations, Harper 1993
The mind uses its faculty for creativity only when experience forces it to do so. Jules Henri Poincaré, (1854-1912)
Creative people all come in and want their stuff printed on gold leaf. Jim Shooter
The infinitely competent can be uncreative. J. E. Littlewood, (1885 -1977) In H. Eves Mathematical Circles Squared, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1972.
The way to become a good ping pong player is to play ping pong. The way to become a creative thinker is to spend time thinking creatively. Unknown
In art, rebellion is consummated and perpetuated in the act of real creation, not in criticism or commentary. Albert Camus, The Notebooks
Imagination is a powerful agent for creating, as it were, a second nature out of the material supplied to it by actual nature. Immanuel Kant
Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self. Erich Fromm
Traditionalists often study what is taught, not what there is to create. Ed Parker, Grandmaster, American Kenpo.
No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of motherwit, either in science or in practical life. Thomas Huxley
Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes New Ideas
A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow. Charlie Brower
Nothing else in the world . . . not all the armies . . . is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo
Ideas are to our evolving mind what mutations are to our species. Leroy Jack Syrop
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common. John Locke
No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time steady eye. Winston Churchill, Source: The Art of Creative Thinking - book by Robert Olson (1986)
Every really new idea looks crazy at first. Alfred North Whitehead, Source: The Art of Creative Thinking, book by Robert Olson (1986)
The human mind treats a new idea the way the body treats a strange protein -- it rejects it. P. Medawar
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, of more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-78
Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they're looking for ideas. Paula Poundstone
The thinking that we are has brought us to where we have already been. In order to go somewhere else, we must think in a different way. Albert Einstein
Once I thought ideas were exceptions not the rule. That is not so. Ideas are so plentiful that they ride on air. You have only to reach out and snatch one. Rod McKuen
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Linus Pauling
Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive. - Nicolas Malebranche
It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we need to throw the old ones away. Kenich Ohmae Be Open Minded and Discard Outdated Ideas
Never hold any idea so dear that it can't be discarded should a better one come along. Charles Fort
Where these is an open mind, there will always be a frontier. Charles Kettering, former research chief for General Motors, quoted in Profile of America, NY, 1954
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." William James
A great many open minds should be closed for repairs. Toledo Blade
There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking. Alfred Korzybski
Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open. Thomas Dewar
Some minds are like concrete - all mixed up and permanently set. Anon
It were not best that we should all think alike; it is the difference of opinion that makes horseraces. Mark Twain,_Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar_, 1894 Imagination and Individuality
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Bertrand Russell Reconsider Conformity
Success is the child of audacity. Benjamin Disraeli
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. Herman Melville
Think for thyself one good idea, but known to be thine own, is better than a thousand gleaned from fields by others sown. Alexander Wilson
A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Any fool can make a rule - and every fool will mind it. Henry David Thoreau
The individual choice of garnishment of a burger can be an important point to the consumer in this day when individualism is an increasingly important thing to people. -Don Smith, president of Burger King
If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking. Lyndon Baines Johnson Conformity and Thinking
If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking. General George S. Patton
When all men think alike, no one thinks very much. Walter Lippmann, quoted in Speakers Encyclopedia, NY, 1955
To think is to differ. Clarence Darrow
It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts. Boris Yeltsin
The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. John Kenneth Galbraith
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. Mark Twain
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Oscar Wilde
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him a spinal cord would fully suffice. Albert Einstein
Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up. Pearl S. Buck
To act without knowing why; to do things as they have always been done, without asking why; to engage in an activity all one's life without really understanding what it's about and how it relates to other things this is to be one of the crowd. Meng-tzu
I have never belonged wholeheartedly to a country, a state, nor to a circle of friends, nor even to my own family. When I was still a rather precocious young man, I already realized most vividly the futility of the hopes and aspirations that most men pursue throughout their lives. Well-being and happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig. Albert Einstein, Quoted in C.P. Snow, Variety of Men, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, U.K. 1969, p 77.
What is the hardest thing in the world? To think. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Difficulty Thinking
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few choose to engage in it." Henry Ford
Most people would rather die than think; many do. Bertrand Russell
You can lead a jackass to knowledge, but you can't make him think. Jeff Lee
Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. William James
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you. Don Marquis
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. William James
Three minutes thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time. A.E. Houseman
The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity. Dr. Robert Anthony (Self Help Author) Conformity and Cowardice
In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep. Einstein
Disclaimer: If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared to not only retract it, but also to deny under oath I ever said it. T. Lehrer
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? Van Gogh
What do you care what other people think? Richard Feynman
The Greatest thing in the world is to know how to be one's own self. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. e.e. cummings
But it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. Herman Melville
If you don't program yourself, life will program you! Les Brown
Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice for anyone...the path follows you and rolls up behind you as you walk, forcing the next person to find their own way. J. Michael Straczynski, on Compuserve In Another Man's Tracks
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. Matsuo Basho
A person who walks in another's tracks leaves no footprints.
We must either find a way or make one. Hannibal
Copies. Not infrequently, one encounters copies of important people; and, as with paintings, most people prefer the copy to the orginal. Friedrich Nietzsche, Human-all-too-Human
The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. Thoreau, Henry David; Walden(1854),I,Economy Walk Alone
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I..... I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Robert Frost [The Road Not Taken]If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau
The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been. -Alan Ashley-Pitt
Follow the crowd and you will never be followed by a crowd. Anon.
Sometimes, the road is less traveled for a reason. Anon
They will say you are on the wrong road, if it is your own. Antonio Porchi
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. Goethe Miscellaneous
"(Picture of a light bulb)" -rough translation: "I have an idea!" Wily Coyote
Man may believe what he cannot prove. William Orville Douglas
It is a lesson which all history teaches wise men, to put trust in ideas, and not in circumstances. Ralph Waldo Emerson
One can think effectively only when one is willing to endure suspense and to undergo the trouble of searching. John Dewey
As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7
My imagination longs to dash ahead and plan developments; but I have noticed that when things happen in one's imaginings, they never happen in one's life, so I am curbing myself. "Dodie" Smith
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