Motivational Quotes

Ideas

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Best Quotes about Ideas

Ideas are the roots of creation.

Dimnet, Ernest

Great people talk about ideas. Small people talk about other people.

Gibson, Tobias S.

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

Niblack, Griff

An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought.

Picasso, Pablo

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

H. L. Mencken

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

Berry, John

The ideas dictate everything, you have to be true to that or you're dead.

Lynch, David

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

Jim Hightower

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

10.

Every new idea is an impossibility until it is born.

Brown, Ron

11.

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

12.

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.

Victor Hugo

13.

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

14.

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.

15.

Ideas are fatal to caste.

Forster, Edward M.

16.

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

Avery, Milton

17.

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

18.

Not the one who has many ideas, but the one who has a single conviction may become a great person.

Cotvos

19.

Our greatest lack is not money for any undertaking, but rather ideas, If the ideas are good, cash will somehow flow to where it is needed.

Schuller, Robert H.

20.

Ideas too are a life and a world.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

21.

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

Saunders, Richard

22.

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

Glasgow, Arnold H.

23.

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

Emile Chartier

24.

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.

25.

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

Chamfort, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De

26.

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

Anatole France

27.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things.

Dogen

28.

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

29.

Labor gives birth to ideas.

Rohn, Jim

30.

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

Trotsky, Leon

31.

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

32.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

33.

Nothing dies harder than a bad idea.

Cameron, Julie

34.

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

Block, Henry

35.

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

36.

It's a pretty good idea to be of good cheer but not all the time. Just at the most unexpected times.

37.

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

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

38.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

John Steinbeck

39.

It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out-of-date.

Oech, Roger Von

40.

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

Hubbard, Elbert

41.

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

Pauling, Linus

42.

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

Penny, A. Owen

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

46.

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

Hugo, Victor

47.

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

48.

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

Chartier, Alain

49.

Never hesitate to steal a good idea.

Neuharth, Al

50.

A handsome parson is fit for nothing but ti put ideas into the young woman's heads.

Judith Brocklehurst