There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”

Quotes About Creativity, Imagination, and Innovation
The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.

Human creativity drives us forward as a species. It’s this unique ability to harness thoughts and ideas that has produced everything from the first sharpened stick, to the wheel, to the space shuttle, to the micro processor.

It’s this innovation and imagination that will continue to bring forward unprecedented levels of achievement in terms of our mastery over nature.

Yet despite our incredible capacity for creativity and imagination, there’s very little we actually understand about the creative process. Where do we get our great ideas, those sparks of insight that drive us forward as a species?

How do we harness our own minds to produce incredible works of art, clever inventions, and new creations? Why can we be focused on a problem for days, months, even years, only to have a solution appear suddenly one day as if from nowhere?

While we might not truly understand the nature of creativity and the imagination (at least, not yet), we can still continue to apply ourselves in order to benefit from the rewards that come from focused concentration and those brief moments of inspiration that hit us like lightning bolts.

To that end, here are some quotes about inspiration from men and women who have achieved greatness through imagination, innovation, and ingenuity.

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.”

“A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude…”

“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.

“Invention strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can come from nothing.”

“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.”

“Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.”

“When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.”

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.”

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”

“Without freedom, there is no creation.”

“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.”

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”

“Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.”

“I began by tinkering around with some old tunes I knew. Then, just to try something different, I set to putting some music to the rhythm that I used in jerking ice-cream sodas at the Poodle Dog. I fooled around with the tune more and more until at last, lo and behold, I had completed my first piece of finished music. ”

“Because of their courage, their lack of fear, they (creative people) are willing to make silly mistakes. The truly creative person is one who can think crazy; such a person knows full well that many of his great ideas will prove to be worthless. The creative person is flexible; he is able to change as the situation changes, to break habits, to face indecision and changes in conditions without undue stress. He is not threatened by the unexpected as rigid, inflexible people are.”

“The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things-ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later, or six months, or six years. But he has faith that it will happen.”

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”

“There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.”

“Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”

“Creativity is the soul of the true scholar.”

“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.”

“The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done – men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.”

“The creative person is willing to live with ambiguity. He doesn’t need problems solved immediately and can afford to wait for the right ideas.”

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

“Held in the palms of thousands of disgruntled people over the centuries have been ideas worth millions – if they only had taken the first step and then followed through.”

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”

“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.”

“One of my early mentors, poet David Wagoner, who divides the creative process into three phases – madman, poet and critic – once told me that you need to find your own magic to stay in the world of creative play.”

“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”

“Held in the palms of thousands of disgruntled people over the centuries have been ideas worth millions – if they only had taken the first step and then followed through.”

“Life is trying things to see if they work.”

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

“Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.”