Innovation and Creativity Quotes

The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cobb (Leonardo Dicaprio): What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?
An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed – fully understood – that sticks; right in there somewhere.
– The Movie Inception

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
– Steve Jobs

If the idea isn’t absurd there is no hope for it.
– Albert Einstein

Invention is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
-Thomas A. Edison

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
-Thomas A. Edison

Experiment is the expected failure to deliberately learn something.
– Scott Berkun

Commit yourself to taking enough risks that you will fail some of the time. If you’re not failing, we’re not doing something sufficiently difficult or creative.
– Scott Berkun

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries … and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.
– Niccolo Machiavelli

Nearly every major breakthrough innovation has been preceded by a string of failed or misguided executions.
– Frans Johansson

If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.
– Steven Johnson

Innovation—the heart of the knowledge economy—is fundamentally social.
– Malcolm Gladwell

M. A. Rosanoff: “Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe.”
Edison: “There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish somep’n!”
– Thomas Edison

Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life.
– Harvey Firestone

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.
– Roger von Oech

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
– Albert von Szent-Gyorgy

The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction.
– Lawrence Miller

Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.
– Theodore Levitt

Innovation is the process of turning ideas into manufacturable and marketable form.
– Watts Humprey

Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.
– Zig Ziglar

It isn’t the incompetent who destroy an organization. The incompetent never get in a position to destroy it. It is those who achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up.
– F. M. Young

In conflict, direct confrontation will lead to engagement and surprise will lead to victory. Those who are skilled in producing surprises will win.
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 6th century BC

The innovation point is the pivotal moment when talented and motivated people seek the opportunity to act on their ideas and dreams.
– W. Arthur Porter