An inventor is simply a person who doesn’t take his education too seriously. You see, from the time a person is six years old until he graduates from college he has to take three or four examinations a year. If he flunks once, he is out. But an inventor is almost always failing. He tries and fails maybe a thousand times. It he succeeds once then he’s in. These two things are diametrically opposite. We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.
—Tom Clancy (1947–2013) American Spy Novelist
Never assume the obvious is true.
—William Safire (1929–2009) American Columnist, Journalist, Author, Speechwriter
Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
I am still learning.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
Ideally a painter (and, generally, an artist) should not become conscious of his insights: without taking the detour through his reflective processes, and incomprehensibly to himself, all his progress should enter so swiftly into the work that he is unable to recognize them in the moment of transition. Alas, the artist who waits in ambush there, watching, detaining them, will find them transformed like the beautiful gold in the fairy tale which cannot remain gold because some small detail was not taken care of.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
—E. L. Doctorow (b.1931) American Writer, Editor, Academic
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.
—Mae Jemison (b.1956) American Physician, Astronaut
The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered.
—Jean Piaget (1896–1980) Swiss Psychologist
A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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 Ancient Chinese Divination Text
A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations.
—Gerald Jampolsky (b.1925) American Psychiatrist
The mind’s direction is more important than its progress.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
All men seek one goal: success or happiness. The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal-a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends-wisdom, money, materials and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
It is almost as if you were frantically constructing another world while the world that you live in dissolves beneath your feet, and that your survival depends on completing this construction at least one second before the old habitation collapses.
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
Man is a creature made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.
—Anna Freud (1895–1982) Austrian-British Child Psychoanalyst
A problem defined is half solved.
—John Dewey (1859–1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
I must create a system, or be enslav’d by another man’s; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
—Joseph Chilton Pearce (1926–2016) American Author
Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. The chasm is never completely bridged. We all have the conviction, perhaps illusory, that we have much more to say than appears on the paper.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
A questioning man is halfway to be wise.
—Irish Proverb
Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Creativity is a highfalutin’ word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.
—Ray Kroc (1902–84) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.
—Saul Steinberg (1914–99) American Cartoonist, Illustrator
Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.
—Edward de Bono (1933–2021) Maltese-British Psychologist, Writer
What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity in it.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
Creativity is rich with unexpected possibility. Know-how is mere fragmented mechanics which lacks tradition.
—John O’Donohue (1956–2008) Irish Priest, Hegelian Philosopher
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
—Agnes de Mille (1905–93) American Dancer, Choreographer
Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
We live at a time when man believes himself fabulously capable of creation, but he does not know what to create.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher
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 (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
The chief enemy of creativity is “good” sense.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not a poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
Proximity to the crowd, to the majority view, spells the death of creativity. For a soul can create only when alone, and some are chosen for the flowering that takes place in the dark avenues of night.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72) American Jewish Rabbi
If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.
—Michael Jordan (b.1963) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work, risking, and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful: yourself.
—Alan Alda (b.1936) American Actor, TV Personality, Screenwriter
Things do not change, we change.
—Kalidasa Indian Sanskrit Poet, Dramatist
One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
The creative person is willing to live with ambiguity. He doesn’t need problems solved immediately and can afford to wait for the right ideas.
—Abe Tannenbaum (1922–2009) American Architect
Cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music. And cooking draws upon your every talent—science, mathematics, energy, history, experience—and the more experience you have, the less likely are your experiments to end in drivel and disaster. The more you know, the more you can create.
—Julia Child (1912–2004) American Cook, Author