Motivational Quotes

Ideas

Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: (1) It's completely impossible. (2) It's possible, but it's not worth doing. (3) I said it was a good idea all along.

- Clarke, Arthur C.

Best Quotes about Ideas

Ideas that enter the mind under fire remain there securely and for ever.

Trotsky, Leon

If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed everywhere, you even smell it.

Mann, Thomas

An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor.

Frost, Robert

We like to test things... no matter how good an idea sounds, test it first.

Block, Henry

So many new ideas are at first strange and horrible, though ultimately valuable that a very heavy responsibility rests upon those who would prevent their dissemination.

J. B. S. Haldane

The best ideas are common property.

Seneca

A good idea plus capable men cannot fail; it is better than money in the bank.

Berry, John

It's very good for an idea to be commonplace. The important thing is that a new idea should develop out of what is already there so that it soon becomes an old acquaintance. Old acquaintances aren't by any means always welcome, but at least one can't be mistaken as to who or what they are.

Fitzgerald, Penelope

You look at any giant corporation, and I mean the biggies, and they all started with a guy with an idea, doing it well.

Robbins, Irvine

10.

All opening moves were the same, like in chess. You don't have to come up with anything new, there's no point, because you're both after the same thing anyway. The game soon finds its own way and it's only at that point that you need a strategy.

Paolo Giordano

11.

I had a monumental idea this morning, but I didn't like it.

Samuel Goldwyn

12.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

John Cage

13.

There is no prosperity, trade, art, city, or great material wealth of any kind, but if you trace it home, you will find it rooted in a thought of some individual man. --

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

14.

To have a great idea, have a lot of them.

Edison, Thomas A.

15.

There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea.

Bridgman, P. W.

16.

Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.

Hugo, Victor

17.

Ideas control the world.

Garfield, James A.

18.

There are only two kinds of scholars; those who love ideas and those who hate them.

Emile Chartier

19.

A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and press for admission.

Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart

20.

To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should.

Rostand, Jean

21.

Clarke, Arthur C.

22.

Every new idea is an impossibility until it is born.

Brown, Ron

23.

The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.

Schopenhauer, Arthur

24.

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.

Hyman Rickover

25.

No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit.

Sir Frederick G. Banting

26.

It doesn't matter how new an idea is: what matters is how new it becomes.

Canetti, Elias

27.

There are well-dressed foolish ideas, just as there are will-dressed fools.

Chamfort, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De

28.

Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood.

Kierkegaard, S°ren

29.

Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courageous patience.

Rickover, Hyman G.

30.

A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it.

Proust, Marcel

31.

An idea discovered is much better possessed.

Young

32.

You have to hatch ideas -- and then hitch them.

Everson, Ray D.

33.

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

Hill, Napoleon

34.

If you want to get across an idea, wrap it up in a person.

Bunche, Ralph

35.

The idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

Hubbard, Elbert

36.

A new idea is like a child. It's easier to conceive than to deliver.

Koysis, Ted

37.

Think for thyself one good idea, but known to be thine own, is better than a thousand gleaned from fields by others sown.

Wilson, Alexander

38.

People find ideas a bore because they do not distinguish between live ones and stuffed ones on a shelf.

Pound, Ezra

39.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

40.

Brain cells create ideas. Stress kills brain cells. Stress is not a good idea.

Saunders, Richard

41.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

Walter Bagehot

42.

Whenever I hear people talking about liberal ideas, I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

43.

The simple joy of taking an idea into one's own hands and giving it proper form, that's exciting.

Nelson, George

44.

If you have the same ideas as everybody else but have them one week earlier than everyone else then you will be hailed as a visionary. But if you have them five years earlier you will be named a lunatic.

Jones, Barry

45.

A single idea, if it is right, saves us the labor of an infinity of experiences.

Maritain, Jacques

46.

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.

Baruch, Bernard M.

47.

The difference between people and ideas is... only superficial.

Rorty, Richard

48.

It is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.