Quotes about ideas

An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.

— Don Marquis

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

— Don Marquis

I'm not impressed with the power of a corporate president. I am impressed with the power of ideas.

— Ken Mason

Once I thought ideas were exceptions not the rule. That is not so. Ideas are so plentiful that they ride by on air. You've only to reach out and snatch one...

— Rod Mckeun

The human mind treats a new idea the way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.

— Sir Peter Medawar

Long is the road from conception to completion.

— Moliere

In Texas, years ago, almost all of the oil came from surface operations. Then someone got the idea that there were greater sources of supply deeper down. A well was drilled five thousand feet deep. The result? A gusher. Too many of us operate on the surface. We never go deep enough to find supernatural resources. The result is, we never operate at our best. More time and investment is involved to go deep but a gusher will pay off.

— Alfred A. Montapert

It first appeared like a crazy idea. It turned out he had a great idea.

— J. Richard Munro

The simple joy of taking an idea into one's own hands and giving it proper form, that's exciting.

— George Nelson

Never hesitate to steal a good idea.

— Al Neuharth

Little words hurt big ideas.

— Howard W. Newton

If a man had as many ideas during the day as he does when he has insomnia, he would make a fortune.

— Griff Niblack

Everything begins with an idea.

— Earl Nightingale

It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out-of-date.

— Roger Von Oech

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

— Linus Pauling

Mere words are cheap and plenty enough, but ideas that rouse and set multitudes thinking come as gold for the mines.

— A. Owen Penny

A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and press for admission.

— Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought.

— Pablo Picasso

People find ideas a bore because they do not distinguish between live ones and stuffed ones on a shelf.

— Ezra Pound

A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it.

— Marcel Proust

Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courageous patience.

— Hyman G. Rickover

Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent.

— Antoine Rivarol

You look at any giant corporation, and I mean the biggies, and they all started with a guy with an idea, doing it well.

— Irvine Robbins

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

— Jim Rohn

Labor gives birth to ideas.

— Jim Rohn

The difference between people and ideas is... only superficial.

— Richard Rorty

To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should.

— Jean Rostand

A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind.

— Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Brain cells create ideas. Stress kills brain cells. Stress is not a good idea.

— Richard Saunders

The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Our greatest lack is not money for any undertaking, but rather ideas, If the ideas are good, cash will somehow flow to where it is needed.

— Robert H. Schuller

I tell you that as long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it.

— George Bernard Shaw

Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin. It should make you jump up and do something.

— E. L. Simpson

There is nothing in the world more powerful than an idea. No weapon can destroy it; no power can conquer it except the power of another idea.

— James R. Smith

If you pray for only one thing, .let it be for an idea.

— Percy Sutton

Many ideas are good for a limited time -- not forever.

— Robert Townsend

Ideas that enter the mind under fire remain there securely and for ever.

— Leon Trotsky

A crank is someone with a new idea -- until it catches on.

— Mark Twain

Ideas won't work unless you do.

— Source Unknown

An idea is worth nothing if it has no champion.

— Source Unknown

Too many people run out of ideas long before they run out of words.

— Source Unknown

The world moves, and ideas that were good once are not always good.

— Source Unknown

Some people entertain ideas; others put them to work.

— Source Unknown

It's a pretty good idea to be of good cheer but not all the time. Just at the most unexpected times.

— Source Unknown

It isn't easy for an idea to squeeze itself into a head filled with prejudice.

— Source Unknown

Ideas are the factors that lift civilization. They create revolutions. There is more dynamite in an idea than in many bombs.

— John H. Vincent

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervor, live for it, and if need be, die for it.

— Alfred North Whitehead

Human life is driven forward by its dim apprehension of notions too general for its existing language.

— Alfred North Whitehead

The point, simply, is that we are doing more rediscovering these days than discovering coming anew upon truths that ignorant people refused to examine, over the centuries, because the wise people who held custody of the fundamental truths of nature were unpopular.

— John Williamson

When an idea reaches critical mass there is no stopping the shift its presence will induce.

— Marianne Williamson

Think for thyself one good idea, but known to be thine own, is better than a thousand gleaned from fields by others sown.

— Alexander Wilson

An idea discovered is much better possessed.

— Young

Ideas have consequences and bad ideas can have lethal consequences.

— George Weigel

If at first an idea doesn't sound absurd, then there is no hope for it.

— Albert Einstein