creativity quotes from influential philosophers, authors and people
"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."
54
"Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain."
56
"The ability to see relationships and patterns, and make unfamiliar combinations and connections, is the core of creativity."
99
"A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty."
122
"Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance."
305
"Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It's a repelling force. It's negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work."
306
"The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we feel toward pursuing it."
307
"Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North - meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing. We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others."
308
"The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day."
309
"Resistance has no strength of its own. Every ounce of juice it possesses comes from us. We feed it with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance."
310
"The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight. At this point, Resistance knows we're about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it's got."
311
"The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration."
312
"Attention Deficit Disorder, Seasonal Affect Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder. These aren't diseases, they're marketing ploys. Doctors didn't discover them, copywriters did. Marketing departments did. Drug companies did. Depression and anxiety may be real. But they can also be Resistance."
313
"When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul's call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers. We're doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth. Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification and hard work, we simply consume a product."
314
"Casting yourself as a victim is the antithesis of doing your work. Don't do it. If you're doing it, stop."
318
"What does Resistance feel like? First, unhappiness. We're bored, we're restless. We can't get no satisfaction. There's guilt but we can't put our finger on the source. We want to go back to bed; we want to get up and party. We feel unloved and unlovable. We're disgusted. We hate our lives. We hate ourselves."
319
"As artists and professionals it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture. We overthrow the programming of advertising, movies, video games, magazines, TV, and MTV by which we have been hypnotized from the cradle."
320
"We unplug ourselves from the grid by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, Inc., but only by doing our work."
321
"The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death."
325
"The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you - and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it."
326
"The true man wants two things: danger and play."
355
"Without music, life would be a mistake."
369
"In every real man, a child is hidden that wants to play."
373
"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."
376
"The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."
380
"The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms."
504
"If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence."
513
"Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair."
562
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
609
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything."
645
"The society based on production is only productive, not creative."
1039
"What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.... And people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon' - that is, 'May new sufferings torment your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful."
1068
"See that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man."
1187
"As usual, nature’s imagination far surpasses our own, as we have seen from the other theories which are subtle and deep."
1188