Ideas Quotes

I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess.

~ Walt Whitman

On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death. ... Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights.

~ John Muir

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.

~ John F. Kennedy

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

~ John Cage

The lampshade on my head is for my bright ideas. I won't be able to convey them until Monday, when my curtain gets out of the dry cleaners.

~ Bauvard

Whenever I think of something but can't think of what it was I was thinking of, I can't stop thinking until I think I'm thinking of it again. I think I think too much.

~ Criss Jami

Ownership is not limited to material things. It can also apply to points of view. Once we take ownership of an idea — whether it’s about politics or sports — what do we do? We love it perhaps more than we should. We prize it more than it is worth. And most frequently, we have trouble letting go of it because we can’t stand the idea of its loss. What are we left with then? An ideology — rigid and unyielding.

~ Dan Ariely

Each voice carries a portion of value, no matter how unpalatable or distasteful that voice may be: no one person, government, ideology, transnational, or religious institution can own and dominate the whole.

~ B.w. Powe

A writer is one who communicates ideas and emotions people want to communicate but aren't quite sure how, or even if, they should communicate them.

~ Criss Jami

Ideas and philosophies have a shelf-life. They must be kept fresh and renewed or they will spoil. If left unattended, the same ideas and philosophies that once nourished you and helped you grow can poison you and make you sick. Become aware of new ideas that can refresh your way of life and be open to the fact that your old ideas and philosophies can work for you for some time, but when the shelf-life has passed, those ideas and philosophies could also harm you.

~ Steve Maraboli

The best ideas will eat at you for days, maybe even weeks, until something, some incident, some impulse, triggers you to finally express them.

~ Criss Jami

Books can be immensely powerful. The ideas in them can change the way people think. Yet it was the Nazis and Stalin's officers who committed terrible crimes, and not Mein Kampf or the Communist Manifesto - and of course, the Manifesto contained many key ideas that are still relevant and important today, long after Stalin has gone. There is a crucial distinction between the book and its effect - it's crucial because if you talk about a book being harmful rather than its effect you begin to legitimise censorship. Abhorrent ideas need to be challenged by better ones, not banned.

~ John Farndon

Some of my best ideas come from when I'm sitting on the toilet.

~ Anthony T Hincks

The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and truth.

~ Albert Einstein

The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

~ John F. Kennedy

The worst thing in life is having parents that always stand against you and never with you. They discourage you, instill fear in you, hold you back, push you down and never encourage you to fly forward. When I have kids, they'll already be born with propellers with added wings. Even if one tells me they want to go learn how to ride lions in Africa, if their heart is driving that desire, I'd say DO IT.If we throw blankets over our children's dreams, we darken their world and extinguish their desire to live. I'd rather my kid die with a wild fire in his/her heart than with a malfunctioning or drained out fuse. Always allow your kids to keep humming with dreams and ideas that fuel their passions. Never tell them something is impossible. If you have a really strong determined kid, they'll go out there killing themselves trying to do the unachievable just to prove you wrong. And if you have a weak kid, they'll give up on life and settle for bagging Cokes and potato chips at your local grocery store.

~ Suzy Kassem

All the papers that matter live off their advertisements, and the advertisers exercise an indirect censorship over news.

~ George Orwell

The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas – complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse.

~ George F. Kennan

It always seems as though the definition of love will remain debatable by an opinionated world.

~ Criss Jami

Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true.

~ Jonah Lehrer

At beyond continent of reality, there are oceans of ideas.

~ Toba Beta

Intellectuals are judged not by their morals, but by the quality of their ideas, which are rarely reducible to simple verdicts of truth or falsity, if only because banalities are by definition accurate.

~ Perry Anderson

I saw that there is no Nature,That Nature doesn’t exist,That there are hills, valleys, plains,That there are trees, flowers, weeds,That there are rivers and stones,But there is not a whole these belong to,That a real and true wholenessIs a sickness of our ideas.

~ Alberto Caeiro

True ideas seem to suffer from repetition, while stupid ones tend to flourish.

~ James Rozoff

Physics advances by accepting absurdities. Its history is one of unbelievable ideas proving to be true.

~ Rivka Galchen

So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?' Mr. Okamoto: 'That's an interesting question?' Mr. Chiba: 'The story with animals.' Mr. Okamoto: 'Yes. The story with animals is the better story.' Pi Patel: 'Thank you. And so it goes with God.

~ Yann Martel

Solitude with God is a place for pregnancy. Solitude is also a place to receive great ideas and creative ideas from God. The power of imagination is strongest in the place of solitude.

~ Sunday Adelaja

You are an explorer, and you represent our species, and the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness.

~ Terence Mckenna

In art, and maybe just in general, the idea is to be able to be really comfortable with contradictory ideas. In other words, wisdom might be, seem to be, two contradictory ideas both expressed at their highest level and just let to sit in the same cage sort of, vibrating. So, I think as a writer, I'm really never sure of what I really believe.

~ George Saunders

When you attain the highest wisdom, you will disappear physically because people will start seeing only your ideas and thinking about only your wisdom; you will die physically and you will turn into an empty chair full of universe simply!

~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Belief is a wonderful way to pass the time until the facts come in.

~ Carl R White

If you are someone who dislikes, condemns and rejects new ideas, you aren’t fit to lead.

~ Israelmore Ayivor

A good idea always attracts other good ideas.

~ Patrick Ness

There is a very old saying that says, Strike the iron when its hot. So start working on the idea when its young. The more you delay the execution of your idea, more will be your drop in enthusiasm and lesser will be your chances for its success.

~ Jiten Bhatt

And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds joy luck is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.

~ Amy Tan

You will always think that you cant do it, you may think that the idea you have is useless, but the idea you only have can change your life.

~ Neymat Khan

If the thought inspires you, and it feels good and right...it is yours, alone, to exercise. So get right on it!

~ T.f. Hodge

The kind of lies that someone tells us gives us an idea of how stupid, knowledgeable, intelligent, or ignorant they are … or they think we are.

~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Let us not dwell into past thoughts, worn out ideas, false beliefs. Let them go so that you can create a new self by emptying your mind and filling it with new thoughts, ideas, and visions.

~ Debasish Mridha

Voll Blüten steht der Pfirsichbaum nicht jede wächst zur Frucht sie schimmern hell wie Rosenschaum durch Blau und Wolkenflucht. Wie Blüten geh'n Gedanken auf hundert an jedem Tag -- lass' blühen, lass' dem Ding den Lauf frag' nicht nach dem Ertrag! Es muss auch Spiel und Unschuld sein und Blütenüberfluss sonst wär' die Welt uns viel zu klein und Leben kein Genuss.

~ Hermann Hesse

Ideas quote from classy quote