Creativity Quotes

Where does inspiration come from? These quotes explore the mysterious process of making something new.

21159 quotes

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"Creativity is contagious, pass it on."
Einstein, Albert
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"Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them."
Whitehead, Alfred North
W
"Creativity is the generating of fresh ideas into effective practice."
Whitehead, Alfred North
W
"The very essence of intellectual and artistic achievement is the refusal to accept the mundane."
Whitehead, Alfred North
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"The mind uses its faculty for creativity the same way a muscle develops by working. It must be exercised."
Poincaré, Henri
P
"The true method of discovery is like the flight of an aeroplane. It must lift off the ground before it can fly."
Poincaré, Henri
P
"The genial faculty of the mathematician is not to be estimated by the number of pages of symbols he covers."
Poincaré, Henri
P
"Innovation is not the product of logical thought, although the result is tied to logical structure."
Poincaré, Henri
P
"Invention is discernment, selection."
Poincaré, Henri
P
"Rigor is necessary only in the presentation of an idea, not in its creation."
Poincaré, Henri
P
"The greatest discoveries lie at the intersection of different fields."
Poincaré, Henri
P
"The conversation between theory and practice is where innovation lives."
Poincaré, Henri
W
"True innovation comes from seeing what others overlook through mathematical insight."
Weyl, Hermann
W
"The pursuit of mathematical truth requires both rigor and imagination."
Weyl, Hermann
W
"Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things."
Weyl, Hermann
W
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
Wigner, Eugene
W
"To create something new, one must first understand what has been created before."
Wigner, Eugene
B
"The construction of a mathematical object is more important than its mere existence."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
B
"Every mathematical system is but a human creation, a product of our thinking."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
B
"Mathematical objects exist only insofar as they can be constructed in the mind."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
B
"Every mathematical object is born from an act of creative will."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
B
"The infinite is not something we discover but something we create."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
B
"To be a mathematician is to be a builder of conceptual worlds."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
B
"The mathematician is a creator who discovers what he creates."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
B
"A mathematical definition is a creative act of the mind."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
B
"The mathematician's greatest tool is not calculation but imagination."
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan
H
"The true mathematician is not rooted in his time and place, but carries within him a creative vision."
Hilbert, David
H
"To be a mathematician is to be a poet of logic."
Hilbert, David
H
"A mathematician's work is an expression of the human spirit reaching toward the infinite."
Hilbert, David
H
"A mathematical discovery is a moment when the invisible becomes visible."
Hilbert, David