Quotes
"Creativity has become the most universally endangered species in the Twenty First Century. Never has the need for creativity been so compelling and never has genuine creativity been in such short supply. From boy bands to barbeque sauces the problem is the same – instead of experiencing the refreshing spray of authentic originals we risk drowning in a sea of superficiality and imitations. We have built a broadband culture but not the creative content to supply it. Our ability to communicate the potentially creative far outstrips actual creative input. In the absence of creativity life becomes predictable, repetitious and boring. We live in a world of echoes and shadows like the inhabitants of Plato’s cave." Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker
"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."Albert Einstein
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein
"Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It’s the most practical thing a business person can employ." Bill Bernbach
"The significant problems we face today cannot be solved by the level of thinking we were at when we created them." Albert Einstein
"Victory is not final. Defeat is not failure. It's all about courage." Winston Churchill
"Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people, adding strength to their natural abilities, which...improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate profits." Edward de Bono
"For a business person, the numbers are the measure of success. If we don’t have the numbers, that’s the end of the conversation. But if we don’t have the conversations that’s the end of the numbers. It’s a paradox."
Yves Bastien, president Sanofi–Synthelabo, Canada
"A profound change is taking place in the organisations that are seriously concerned about the future of business and society as they are realising that ‘rational man’ is giving way to ‘artful human’." Lotte Darsø, in her book, ‘Artful Creation’
"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything" George Lois
"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star" Friedrich Nietzsche
"Sing like no one’s listening, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, and live like it’s heaven on earth."
Mark Twain
"One's got to live creatively - creativity means you lose what you expect to have, but you find something better and then you grow, If that's what's happening, I say let it happen and embrace it." Michael Leunig speaks about the positive side of the economic downturn, 25 June 09
"Everyone has simply by existing, a right to be intelligent. And to be provided with a way to become consistently more intelligent. This is a right that must be recognised and held sacred. Above all, the necessary conditions for the exercise of this right must be available. This is society's mission and primary obligation of its leaders. All of them." Luis Machado
"Creativity, in today’s world, is an undeniable force.The impulse that leads people to write, to sing, to dance, to paint –to be active, in the sense of making and celebrating culture -is born of the same desire that causes people to participate, to innovate and create in diverse fields of human activity, and indeed oftentimes to make a wider contribution." The Hon Peter Garrett AM MP Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, 10 Jun 09
"As the effects of the global downturn start to wash through our domestic economy, we are witnessing more and more people turning, and returning, to the arts for solace, nourishment and inspiration." The Hon Peter Garrett AM MP Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, 10 Jun 09
"Every human being is creative. Creative capital is a limitless resource. Each of us has creative potential that we strive to exercise, and that can be turned to valuable ends. The great challenge of our time will be to spark and stoke the creative furnace inside every human being." Richard Florida
"My aim in innovation is not to flood the country with shiny gadgets, but to change the culture. Of course we will need new technologies to answer the challenges and grasp the opportunities that lie before us. But we will also need new institutions, new forms of community - new ways of understanding ourselves and our world. In all of this, the humanities, arts and social sciences are critical." Senator the Hon. Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research at the National Press Club, 3 September 2008.
"The very idea that there is another idea is something gained." Richard Jeffries
"Creative thinking may simply mean the realization that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done." Rudolph Flesch
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge." Daniel Boorstin
"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece." John Ruskin
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." Sir Cecil Beaton
"As human beings, our greatest achievement lies not in remaking the world, but in remaking ourselves." Mohandas Ghandi
"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." Maya Angelou
"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." Einstein
"Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud
"Conditions for creativity are: to be puzzled, to concentrate, to accept conflict and tension, to be born everyday, to feel a sense of self." Erich Fromm
"We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, directions, missions, callings." Abraham Maslow
"A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension." Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior
"To the extent a person makes, invents or thinks something that is new to him, he may be said to have performed a creative act." Margaret Mead
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." Anais Nin
"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." Joseph Campbell
"Creativity: a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil
are located in the same individual." Arthur Koestler
"When you get to the end of all the light you know it's time to step into the unknown. Faith is knowing that one of two things will happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly." Edward Teller
"Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer." Marilyn Monroe
"The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out." Dee Hock
"Creativity is not an escape from disciplined thinking. It is an escape with disciplined thinking." Jerry Hirshberg
"Rather than denying problems, focus inventively, intentionally on what solutions might look or feel like. Our mind is meant to generate ideas that help us escape circumstantial traps - if we trust it to do so." Marsha Sinetar
"Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted." George Kneller
"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail." Abraham Maslow
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." Einstein
"One hundred percent of the shots I don't make don't go in." Wayne Gretzky
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self evident." Arthur Schopenhauer
"Just for today, I will be unafraid. Especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful, and to believe that as I give to the world, the world will give to me." Anonymous
"It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years." Anonymous
"We do not remember years, we remember moments." Anonymous
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breath away." Anonymous
"The part of the mind
That once held poems is
Now used for storing
Passwords
The part of the mind
That once remembered
Songs is now used for
Storing pin numbers
The part of the mind that
Once helped us to hold
Each other is now used
For processing media content
The part of the mind that
Once had no apparent function
It’s still as mysterious as ever
It’s our greatest hope." Leunig, 15 November 2008
"Discover your possibilities." Dr Robert Schuller
"The greatest crime in the world is not developing your true potential. When you do what you do best, you are helping not only yourself, but the world." Roger Williams
"If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves." Thomas Edison
"There has never been another you. With no effort on your part, you were born to be something very special and set apart. What are you going to do in appreciation of that gift is a decision only you can make." Dan Zadra
"Caution! The left-brained world wants you to "be realistic"..."quit dreaming"..."get your head out of the clouds"..."get your feet on the ground"...and "be just like us." To advance and prosper steadfastly ignore that advice." Marilyn Grey
"Traditionally, right-brain dominant people have been labelled creative and left-brain dominant people have been regarded as logical and rigid. Today we know that both right and left-brain preferences can think and act creatively. We all have a unique way of dealing with our creativity. You may not even be aware of the fact that you have the ability to think creatively. The fact is, we are faced with challenges every day and we often deal with them by doing something new, something different, without even realising that it’s unique at the time. You may have discovered a way of making a dull task more agreeable, or you may have started to handle someone in the workplace in a different way, with good results. Without realising it, you have probably been creative quite often. Here are a few facts to remember:
- Creativity implies whole brain thinking.
- Creativity and negativity do not go together.
- Creativity can be taught and learned.
- Creativity is a matter of breaking down barriers and coping with life, and not only acquiring skills and techniques." Kobus Neethling
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw
"There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it." Minnie Aumonie
"Perhaps many more of us could hear inner melodies, find guidance and inspiration, achieve breakthrough insight, if we would only pay more attention to the fleeting images and the quiet intuition presented to us by the creative mind." Wills Harmen
