Famous Quotes & Sayings

Friedrich Schiller

Regarded in isolation, an idea may be quite insignificant, and venturesome in the extreme, but it may acquire importance from an idea which follows it; perhaps, in a certain collocation with other ideas, which may seem equally absurd, it may be capable of furnishing a very serviceable link.

Frederick W. Smith

My innovation involved taking an idea from the telecommunications and banking industries, and applying that idea to transportation business.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

New ideas can be good and bad, just the same as old ones.

George Gershwin

Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.

George Gershwin

Originality is the only thing that counts. But the originator uses material and ideas that occur round him and pass through him. And out of his experience comes the original creation.

Jon M. Chu

When I'm doing something, it's something that I had a perspective on in my childhood, or now, but it may be different. I always can go back to what I love, but if somebody has a better idea, then I'm all for it.

Jon M. Chu

The thing that keeps me interested is that I love stories. I love going to movies and I love watching stuff that sparks ideas in my brain.

Jon Ronson

It's not a good idea to define the boundaries of normality by tearing apart people who are outside of it.

Jon Meacham

Environmental concern is a little like dieting or paying off credit-card debt - an episodically terrific idea that burns brightly and then seems to fade when we realize there's a reason we need to diet or pay down our debt. The reason is that it's really, really hard, and too many of us in too many spheres of life choose the easy over the hard.

Jojo Moyes

All that counts is the truth. Without it you're basically just juggling people's daft ideas.

Jojo Moyes

The thing about being catapulted into a whole new life--or at least, shoved up so hard against someone else's life that you might as well have your face pressed against their window--is that it forces you to rethink your idea of who you are. Or how you might seem to other people.

Jon Brion

Brian Eno developed systems to keep himself on edge and to keep himself in a position where he's generating ideas.

Lynn Margulis

We are unconscious of most of our body's processes, thank goodness, because we'd screw it up if we weren't. The human body is so complex, with so many parts...a system which is far more complex than we can fully imagine. The idea that we are consciously care-taking such a large and mysterious system is ludicrous.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas, that is what makes him a philosopher.

Luc Montagnier

The idea of the live-virus vaccine is to produce in a continuous way some viral antigens.

Luc de Clapiers

Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless.

Louis Sachar

An idea doesn't die," said Trapp. "It exists somewhere, in its own dimension, waiting to be perceived.

John Cleese

The really good idea is always traceable back quite a long way, often to a not very good idea which sparked off another idea that was only slightly better, which somebody else misunderstood in such a way that they then said something which was really rather interesting.

Myleene Klass

This is my ideal job and I can't wait to get started.

Eric Hoffer

The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome.

James Beard

I’m going to break one of the rules of the trade here. I’m going to tell you some of the secrets of improvisation. Just remember—it’s always a good idea to follow the directions exactly the first time you try a recipe. But from then on, you’re on your own.

James Altucher

If coming up with ten ideas sounds too hard, then come up with twenty.

Napoleon Hill

The story of practically every great fortune starts with the day when a creator of ideas and a seller of ideas got together and worked in harmony.

Napoleon Hill

First you give life and action and guidance to ideas, then they take on power of their own and sweep aside all opposition.

Napoleon Hill

The mind becomes withered, stagnant, narrow and closed unless it searches for new ideas.

Napoleon Hill

The fear of criticism is at the bottom of the destruction of most ideas which never reach the planning and action stage.

Napoleon Hill

No form of human exchange is more profitable than the exchange of ideas. If I give you a thought in return for one of your thoughts, each of us will have gained a 100 percent dividend.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Machiavelli is right: one always must live with one's friends with the idea that they may turn into one's enemies. He should have said, with everyone.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Patriotism is a word which represents a noble idea.

Norman Tebbit

[The poll tax] was a classic case of a good idea being entrusted to Chris Patten and becoming a terrible failure.

Norman Thomas

The difference between Democrats and Republicans is: Democrats have accepted some ideas of Socialism cheerfully, while Republicans have accepted them reluctantly

Norman Wisdom

I've got one idea I want to do for a film and you know I just enjoy myself doing bits and pieces.

Norman Rockwell

I know of no painless process for giving birth to a picture idea. When I must produce, I retire to a quiet room with a supply of cheap paper and sharp pencils; my brain knows it's going to take a beating.