Motivational Quotes

Ideas

It is a lesson which all history teaches wise men, to put trust in ideas, and not in circumstances.

- Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Best Quotes about Ideas

It is the nature of thought to find its way into action.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

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

Saunders, Richard

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.

Howard Aiken

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

Samuel Goldwyn

It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle.

Gide, Andre

Labor gives birth to ideas.

Rohn, Jim

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

Block, Henry

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

Berry, John

He was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong.

Disraeli, Benjamin

10.

Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupied.

Glasgow, Arnold H.

11.

The idea is in my head to put it down is nothing.

Avery, Milton

12.

We are not to make the ideas of contentment and aspiration quarrel, for God made them fast friends. A man may aspire, and yet be quite content until it is time to raise; and both flying and resting are but parts of one contentment. The very fruit of the gospel is aspiration. It is to the heart what spring is to the earth, making every root, and bud, and bough desire to be more. -

Beecher, Henry Ward

13.

Ideas won't work unless you do.

14.

When an idea reaches critical mass there is no stopping the shift its presence will induce.

Williamson, Marianne

15.

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.

16.

Very simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds

Gourmont, Remy De

17.

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

Walter Bagehot

18.

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one.

Chartier, Alain

19.

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

Koysis, Ted

20.

An idea is the only level which moves the world.

Corey, Arthur F.

21.

Not just in commerce but in the world of ideas too our age is putting on a veritable clearance sale. Everything can be had so dirt cheap that one begins to wander whether in the end anyone will want to make a bid.

Kierkegaard, S°ren

22.

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervor, live for it, and if need be, die for it.

Whitehead, Alfred North

23.

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

Bridgman, P. W.

24.

There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than politicians think. We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas... that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.

Foucault, Michel

25.

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

Everson, Ray D.

26.

A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.

James, William

27.

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

Frost, Robert

28.

Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.

Eliot, George

29.

An idea is a putting truth in check-mate.

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

30.

Long is the road from conception to completion.

Moliere

31.

Ideas are, in truth, force.

James, Henry

32.

But how shall I get ideas? Keep your wits open! Observe! Observe! Study! Study! But above all, Think! Think! And when a noble image is indelibly impressed upon the mind -- Act!

Marden, Orison Swett

33.

Ideas are fatal to caste.

Forster, Edward M.

34.

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

Sir Frederick G. Banting

35.

Ideas... they have the power

Hill, Napoleon

36.

If a man had as many ideas during the day as he does when he has insomnia, he would make a fortune.

Niblack, Griff

37.

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

Rickover, Hyman G.

38.

When patterns are broken, new worlds can emerge.

Kupferberg, Tuli

39.

Once I thought ideas were exceptions not the rule. That is not so. Ideas are so plentiful that they ride by on air. You've only to reach out and snatch one...

Mckeun, Rod

40.

Man's mind, stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

41.

Do something. If it doesn't work, do something else. No idea is too crazy.

Jim Hightower

42.

Every new idea is an impossibility until it is born.

Brown, Ron

43.

Mere words are cheap and plenty enough, but ideas that rouse and set multitudes thinking come as gold for the mines.

Penny, A. Owen

44.

In Texas, years ago, almost all of the oil came from surface operations. Then someone got the idea that there were greater sources of supply deeper down. A well was drilled five thousand feet deep. The result? A gusher. Too many of us operate on the surface. We never go deep enough to find supernatural resources. The result is, we never operate at our best. More time and investment is involved to go deep but a gusher will pay off.

Montapert, Alfred A.

45.

A crank is someone with a new idea -- until it catches on.

Twain, Mark

46.

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

47.

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

Keynes, John Maynard

48.

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

Edison, Thomas A.

49.

We are governed not by armies, but by ideas.

Caird, Mona

50.

Ideas are powerful things, requiring not a studious contemplation but an action, even if it is only an inner action. Their acquisition obligates each man in some way to change his life, even if it is only his inner life. They demand to be stood for. They dictate where a man must concentrate his vision. They determine his moral and intellectual priorities. They provide him with allies and make him enemies. In short, ideas impose an interest in their ultimate fate which goes far beyond the realm of the merely reasonable.

Decter, Midge