We try not to have ideas, preferring accidents. To create, you must empty yourself of every artistic thought.

We try not to have ideas, preferring accidents. To create, you must empty yourself of every artistic thought.

There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has read more

There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has come.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same read more

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.

The lash may force men to physical labor, it cannot force them to spiritual creativity.

The lash may force men to physical labor, it cannot force them to spiritual creativity.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

It seems safe to say that significant discovery, really creative thinking, does not occur with regard to problems about which read more

It seems safe to say that significant discovery, really creative thinking, does not occur with regard to problems about which the thinker is lukewarm.

First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my read more

First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.

The human mind cannot create anything. It produces nothing until after having been fertilized by experience and meditation; its acquisitions read more

The human mind cannot create anything. It produces nothing until after having been fertilized by experience and meditation; its acquisitions are the gems of its production.