“An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor.”
“Mediocrity is Death.”
“Just because it s something original, eccentric or you re not used to it; doesn t mean it s wrong.”
“Under the right circumstances, a tiny spark can grow into an inferno that can overcome an entire city. So can an idea.”
“Plots come to me at such odd moments, when I am walking along the street, or examining a hat shop…suddenly a splendid idea comes into my head.”
“Every idea is my last. I feel sure of it. So, I try to do the best with each as it comes and that s where my responsibility ends. But I just don t wait for ideas. I look for them. Constantly. And if I don t use the ideas that I find, they re going to quit showing up.”
“It is vain to try to sacrifice once for all one s youthful ideals.”
“Nothing is less like life than our idea of it.”
“Many great ideas, great love stories, and great achievements are born from a healthy irrationality.”
“You may live in an unknown small village, but if you have big ideas, the world will come and find you!”
“None of us need ever fear that we don t have an active imagination, because imagination is mostly a willingness to entertain a strange idea now and then.”
“There are enough ideas, images, symbols, and experiences in your head already to work with for a lifetime. It s a little like having a car with an unpredictable battery, though. Sometimes you get in and it starts right up. Other times, especially if it has been sitting idle for awhile, you turn the key and nothing happens.”
“You Believe what you see, You Perceive what you do.”
“Those that cannot produce ideas often speak with the old proverbs!”
“First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.”
“...ideas are definitely unstable, they not only CAN be misused, they invite misuse--and the better the idea the more volatile it is. That s because only the better ideas turn into dogma, and it is this process whereby a fresh, stimulating, humanly helpful idea is changed into robot dogma that is deadly. In terms of hazardous vectors released, the transformation of ideas into dogma rivals the transformation of hydrogen into helium, uranium into lead, or innocence into corruption. And it is nearly as relentless. The problem starts at the secondary level, not with the originator or developer of the idea but with the people who are attracted by it, who adopt it, who cling to it until their last nail breaks, and who invariably lack the overview, flexibility, imagination, and most importantly, sense of humor, to maintain it in the spirit in which it was hatched. Ideas are made by masters, dogma by disciples, and the Buddha is always killed on the road. There is a particularly unattractive and discouragingly common affliction called tunnel vision, which, for all the misery it causes, ought to top the job list at the World Health Organization. Tunnel vision is a disease in which perception is restricted by ignorance and distorted by vested interest. Tunnel vision is caused by an optic fungus that multiplies when the brain is less energetic than the ego. It is complicated by exposure to politics. When a good idea is run through the filters and compressors of ordinary tunnel vision, it not only comes out reduced in scale and value but in its new dogmatic configuration produces effects the opposite of those for which it originally was intended. That is how the loving ideas of Jesus Christ became the sinister cliches of Christianity. That is why virtually every revolution in history has failed: the oppressed, as soon as they seize power, turn into the oppressors, resorting to totalitarian tactics to protect the revolution. That is why minorities seeking the abolition of prejudice become intolerant, minorities seeking peace become militant, minorities seeking equality become self-righteous, and minorities seeking liberation become hostile (a tight asshole being the first symptom of self-repression).”
“A great idea should always be left to steep like loose tea leaves in a teapot for a while to make sure that the tea will be strong enough and that the idea truly is a great one.”