It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life.
—Julius Caesar (c.100–44BCE) Roman Statesman, Military General
Creativity is a highfalutin’ word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.
—Ray Kroc (1902–84) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The creative person, the person who moves from an irrational source of power, has to face the fact that this power antagonizes. Under all the superficial praise of the “creative” is the desire to kill. It is the old war between the mystic and the nonmystic, a war to the death.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless—like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
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
Genius is initiative on fire.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher
The greatest genius will never be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Everything changes but change itself. Everything flows and nothing remains the same…You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters and yet others go flowing ever on.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Creativity means believing you have greatness.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy-the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence.
—Norman Podhoretz (b.1930) American Political Activist, Columnist, Author
Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.
—Anna Freud (1895–1982) Austrian-British Child Psychoanalyst
The things we fear most in organizations — fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances — are the primary sources of creativity.
—Margaret J. Wheatley American Management Consultant, Writer
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
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Out of nothing can come, and nothing can become nothing.
—Persius (34–62 CE) Roman Satirist
Genius is eternal patience.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
After some time passed in studying – and even imitating – the works of others, I would recommend the student to endeavour to be original, and to remember that originality should not be undiscovered plagiarism.
—Henry Peach Robinson (1830–1901) English Photographer
Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English Polymath, Philosopher, Sociologist, Political Theorist
I learned…that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) American Journalist, Editor, Writer, Teacher
Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.
—Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959) American Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter, Actor
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
Creative people who can’t help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one’s inner life. And that too is a deed.
—Etty Hillesum (1914–43) Dutch Diarist, Holocaust Victim
What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
—John Lubbock (1834–1913) English Politician, Biologist
The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Government Official, Political leader
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 more than just being different. Anybody can play weird–that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple complicated is commonplace–making the complicated simple, awesomely simple–that’s creativity.
—Charles Mingus (1922–79) American Jazz Bassist, Composer
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
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
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
Creation is a drug I can’t do without.
—Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959) American Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter, Actor
First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.
—Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–72) British Poet, Critic
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
Things do not change, we change.
—Kalidasa Indian Sanskrit Poet, Dramatist
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
Creativity and love come from the same source.
—Laurens van der Post (1906–96) South African-born British Political leader, Author, Educator, Journalist, Humanitarian
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
All the things that truly matter–beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace–arise from beyond the mind.
—Eckhart Tolle (b.1948) German Spiritual Writer, Public Speaker, Spiritual Teacher
Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
Never stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.
—Michael Jordan (b.1963) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
Joy is but the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose.
—Charles Du Bos (1882–1939) French Literary Critic
The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
—Agnes de Mille (1905–93) American Dancer, Choreographer
The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.
—Carl Rogers (1902–1987) American Psychologist
Can’t make a mistake, can’t make anything.
—Marva Collins (b.1936) American Educator
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
—Herman Melville (1819–91) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Poet
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
Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
In producers, loafing is productive; and no creator, of whatever magnitude, has ever been able to skip that stage, any more than a mother can skip gestation.
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
Our senses are indeed our doors and windows on this world, in a very real sense the key to the unlocking of meaning and the wellspring of creativity.
—Jean Houston (b.1937) American New Thought Author, Speaker
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
—Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Levis
The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him, a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create—so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
If one finds the strength to deal with small things, one finds it to deal with the large ones as well.
—Etty Hillesum (1914–43) Dutch Diarist, Holocaust Victim
A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations.
—Gerald Jampolsky (b.1925) American Psychiatrist
No one has ever written, painted, sculpted, modeled, built, or invented except literally to get out of hell.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
—Scott Adams (b.1957) American Cartoonist
Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem.
—Brian Aldiss (1925–2017) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer
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
Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer