Motivational Quotes

Ideas

An idea discovered is much better possessed.

- Young

Best Quotes about Ideas

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

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

Glasgow, Arnold H.

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

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

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

Cotvos

Very simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds

Gourmont, Remy De

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

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

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

10.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

11.

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

Hubbard, Elbert

12.

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

Howard Aiken

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.

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

15.

Many ideas are good for a limited time -- not forever.

Townsend, Robert

16.

An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.

Marquis, Don

17.

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

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

18.

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

Canetti, Elias

19.

I'm not impressed with the power of a corporate president. I am impressed with the power of ideas.

Mason, Ken

20.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

21.

It first appeared like a crazy idea. It turned out he had a great idea.

Munro, J. Richard

22.

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

23.

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

Nelson, George

24.

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

Hugo, Victor

25.

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

Rohn, Jim

26.

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

Hill, Napoleon

27.

If you want to kill any idea in the world today, get a committee working on it.

Kettering, Charles F.

28.

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

Walter Bagehot

29.

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

Jim Hightower

30.

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

Niblack, Griff

31.

Everything begins with an idea.

Nightingale, Earl

32.

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

33.

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

Emile Chartier

34.

The best ideas are common property.

Seneca

35.

An idea discovered is much better possessed.

Young

36.

Little words hurt big ideas.

Newton, Howard W.

37.

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

Samuel Goldwyn

38.

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

39.

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

Bridgman, P. W.

40.

This is my answer to the gap between ideas and action - I will write it out.

Hortense Calisher

41.

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

Picasso, Pablo

42.

Go out and buy yourself a five-cent pencil and a ten-cent notebook and begin to write down some million-dollar ideas for yourself.