Creative Thinking Quotes

There is a distinction between what may be called a problem and what may be considered an exercise. The latter serves to drill a student in some technique or procedure, and requires little if any, original thought ... No exercise, then, can always be done with reasonbable dispatch and with a miniumum of creative thinking. In contrast to an exercise, a problem, if it is a good one for its level, should require though on the part of the student. ~ Howard Whitley Eves

I finally understood that I didn't lack pen and paper but my own
memorizing mind. It had been given away with a hundred poems, called
rote learning, old-fashioned, backward, an enemy of creative thinking,
a great human gift disowned. ~ Grace Paley

Most consumers are simultaneously neophilic, curious to discover new things, and deeply neophobic, afraid of anything that is too new. The best hit makers are gifted at creating moments of meaning by marrying new and old, anxiety and understanding. They are architects of familiar surprises. ~ Derek Thompson

The city (regardless which one it is) does provide a certain degree of sophistication and intellectualism. It offers the challenge of professional matters. It throws new and interesting people in one's path. There is a dynamic and an energy in cities which is diametric to the life-forces of the forest.
Still the cabin is the wellspring, the source, the hub of my existence. It gives me tranquility, a closeness of nature and wildlife, good health and fitness, a sense of security, the opportunity for resourcefulness, reflection and creative thinking ... ~ Anne LaBastille

To be a successful person you often have to create a strong foundation with the bricks others throw at you. ~ Rod Judkins

Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. ~ Anita Roddick

I believe in businesses where you engage in creative thinking, and where you form some of your deepest relationships. If it isn't about the production of the human spirit, we are in big trouble. ~ Anita Roddick

The child experiences the world through wonderment
with amazement, awe & curiosity.

It is amazement that captivates the child, awe that opens
the child, & curiosity that draws the child further into an
ever fascinating world.

​Wonderment is the first step to learning.
​Wonder-filled education inspires creative thinking,
​engages the heart & enlivens the spirit. ~ Sieglinde De Francesca

Creative thinking poses a dynamic asset to every human ~ Wogu Donald

Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it. ~ Steven Pressfield

The answers lie in not just hard science or philosophical rhetoric but in experiments of the imagination as well. Human perspective must be re-examined through an almost whimsical fount of imagination of species, magic, and clear creative thinking. ~ Leviak B. Kelly

Photographers don't take pictures. They create images. ~ Mark Denman

I only know that I know nothing ~ Socrates

They get the same rush from a well-executed trade that a writer finds in a well-turned paragraph - not because there's money in it, necessarily, but because it takes technical skill and some measure of creative thinking to pull off. ~ Anonymous

It's not my job to tell people what to think. If I can actually in some way help the readers' own creative thinking, then that's got to be to everybody's benefit. ~ Alan Moore

Trust your imagination. There is always something in the box. ~ Patricia Ryan Madson

Tim Olyphant is a machine. He never stops thinking and being creative. ~ Mykelti Williamson

Want to know the secret behind The Secret? The Law of Attraction will not bring you abundance and prosperity for just thinking pleasant, positive thoughts. It is no cosmic mistake that the word "attraction" has the word "action" in it. Abundance is, in fact, the result of creative thinking and a lot of action. Much action, much prosperity, in other words. What are you waiting for? ~ Ernie J Zelinski

Ideation is not a synonym for innovation, conformity is not its simple antonym, and innovation is not the automatic consequence of "creative thinking.". ~ Theodore Levitt

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. ~ Maya Angelou

While engaged in automatic writing I strain to create a protective personal haven, ferret out a padded cell where I can rapturously hold court with the voltaic cells of the self. I labor in solitary, transfixed in a suspended state of consciousness. Freewheeling writing creates a bridgeworks to the situs where hidden gems of insight and candid genuineness wait to be unsheathed by the penetrating beam of a reflective mind trolling for inspirational insight. Probing putative desires while contemporaneously fencing with a barrage of suppressed insecurities, requires piercing protective layers of denial and traveling with teratological demons to confront the monstrous self-destructive gene lodged in the deepest recesses of a confused psyche. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

A conclusive mind cannot be a creative mind. ~ Amit Kalantri

As competition intensifies, the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better ... no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems. ~ Edward De Bono

In great teams, conflict becomes productive. The free flow of conflicting ideas is critical for creative thinking, for discovering new solutions no one individual would have come to on his own. ~ Peter Senge

Invention is the natural outcome of creative thinking. ~ SARK

Creativity is paradoxical. To create, a person must have knowledge but forget the knowledge, must see unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder, must work hard but spend time doing nothing as information incubates, must create many ideas yet most of them are useless, must look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different, must desire success but embrace failure, must be persistent but not stubborn, and must listen to experts but know how to disregard them.
[Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking (The Creativity Post, December 6, 2011)] ~ Michael Michalko

Everyone lives in two worlds," Maggie said, speaking in an absentminded sort of way while she studied her letters. "There's the real world, with all its annoying facts and rules. In the real world, there are things that are true and things that aren't. Mostly the real world s-s-s-suh-sucks. But everyone also lives in the world inside their own head. An inscape, a world of thought. In a world made of thought - in an inscape - every idea is a fact. Emotions are as real as gravity. Dreams are as powerful as history. Creative people, like writers, and Henry Rollins, spend a lot of their time hanging out in their thoughtworld. S-s-strong creatives, though, can use a knife to cut the stitches between the two worlds, can bring them together. Your bike. My tiles. Those are our knives. ~ Joe Hill

People want to be thought of as something other than a source of money. They want to be thought of as creative, thinking people. ~ Ethan Zuckerman

When starting out, don't worry about not having enough money. Limited funds are a blessing, not a curse. Nothing encourages creative thinking in quite the same way. ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Maybe because we're women, we have a very high respect level for each other. And when you do have ownership, you're going to make it the best it can be. And I think that's a really - although subtle - very important point in - when you're doing anything creative. ~ Maryann Brandon

I think math is a hugely creative field, because there are some very well-defined operations that you have to work within. You are, in a sense, straightjacketed by the rules of the mathematics. But within that constrained environment, it's up to you what you do with the symbols. ~ Brian Greene

The best way to get a good idea is to have a lot of ideas. ~ Linus Pauling

Look for patterns, and then ask why those patterns exist. ~ Debra Kaye

To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution. ~ Steven Pressfield

Creative thinking - in terms of idea creativity - is not a mystical talent. It is a skill that can be practised and nurtured. ~ Edward De Bono

There's no denying the benefits of the Internet. But electronic immersion, without a force to balance it, creates the hole in the boat - draining our ability to pay attention, to think clearly, to be productive and creative. ~ Richard Louv

Citizens should be looked to for what they can give of their own nobility, virtue, creative thinking, passion, and natural talent for community building and relating to others. ~ Marianne Williamson

Courage loves the idea of infinity. ~ Talismanist Giebra

God flourished my ministry and my career of creative thinking, communicating and writing back 50 years. ~ Robert H. Schuller

Creativity isn't a switch that's flicked on or off; it's a way of seeing, engaging and responding to the world around you. ~ Rod Judkins

It's always dangerous when boring people think they're creative. ~ Alec Sulkin

There wasn't anything that I didn't love about her. Her sarcasm and wit were so much fun. She was strong and driven and so good with her creative thinking. She was so caring, and a good friend - she was everything I'd been looking for, when I wasn't even looking. But as strong as she tried to be, there was a vulnerability about her that made me feel so protective of her. I couldn't help that I went all alpha male anytime a man approached her. She had no idea how attractive she is. ~ Taryn Plendl

We'd buy brochures of Dylan lyrics and stay up late interpreting them. Dylan's words struck chords of creative thinking. ~ Walter Isaacson

Self-creative mind is divine force. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. ~ William Plomer

I have a really, really, really normal family. And by normal I mean we're all nuts on some level. I think you've gotta be a little nuts to pursue any kind of creative job. I was also a really good kid. I know that sounds really dull, but I didn't rebel in the traditional sense. ~ Anna Paquin

A team of researchers, led by Ravi Mehta of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, found that those exposed to moderate noise levels (seventy decibels) performed better on a creative-thinking exam than those exposed to either high levels of noise or complete silence. Moderate noise, Mehta believes, allows us to enter "a state of distracted, or diffused, focus." Again, the ideal state for creative breakthroughs. ~ Eric Weiner

Excellence demands the environment that's full of focus, independent thinking and creative thinking. This kind of environment produces innovators. ~ Euginia Herlihy

I am tapping into a place in you that is unexplored, and very dangerous, but I think essential to the creative life of an artist. ~ Brandon Boyd

The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes. ~ Saul Steinberg

Change the questions you ask, the way you view the issue will be transformed and innovation will start! ~ Isaac You

It was during the Renaissance that creativity was first seen, not as a matter of divine inspiration, but as a gift of a great learned man to imitate God's ability to create. As Prometheus stole the fire of the Gods and brought it to the mankind, humanity needed to steal the secret of 'creation' from Gods and understand its essence. ~ Natasa Nuit Pantovic

Sustainability is contingent on the power of creative thinking. ~ Gerri Russell

Creativity is our one ubiquitous commonality so perhaps that is where all constructive communication should begin. ~ Ken Poirot

Applying creative thinking to our clients' business strategy-this should be our industry's new core competency. And-in what is very good news for our industry-this kind of creativity, creativity that goes to the heart of business, is more in-demand than ever. ~ Bob Schmetterer

I'm an observer. I am fascinated by people and how their minds work (and, of course, my own). Why we are the way we are, why we do the things we do – and that interest drives my writing. I was a physicist before fiction claimed my soul, so I'm an experimenter. I'm open to different ways of thinking. I like exaggerating, making things up. I'm a very open, honest person in life and that's the way it should be, but when it comes to fiction, I want to pour a few sharp objects into the comfort zone. Our fears are powerful, yet we've all got a desire to laugh and be entertained. I could have followed the same path I do now as a scientist, examining how the brain works. Ironically I get much more freedom to experiment as a writer. That's why I love it. ~ Carla H. Krueger

In my early life my mother tried to create a nurturing environment in which my mind could play. Her big rule was "Never lose in your imagination." She told me that thoughts were things and that I would become the thing I thought of most. This kind of empowerment is crucial to creative thinking. ~ Joey Reiman

But if you think you aren't creative that's cool, too. I think being around people who aren't creative is kind of refreshing and nice. ~ Joel Hodgson

Critical Thinking narrows and creative thinking expands, but they must work in tandem for problem solving and decision making. ~ Pearl Zhu

Creativity is the product of your imagination. ~ Martin Uzochukwu Ugwu

I think there's a certain magic that comes from being creative. ~ Brett Dennen

Great artists have wild and untamed reality. ~ Talismanist Giebra

On the road to liberation, learn to press Next.
Even if there is no such an option. ~ Talismanist Giebra

Creative geniuses redefine the desired solution. They don't just push the envelope; they create a whole new courier system. ~ Puneet Bhatnagar

Driving a car provides a person with a rush of dopamine in the brain, which hormonal induced salience spurs modalities of creative and critical thinking regarding philosophical concepts such as truth, logical necessity, possibility, impossibility, chance, and contingency. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

People should think things out fresh and not just accept conventional terms and the conventional way of doing things. ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

My way is the way of silent revolution; revolution to raise the human consciousness through positive vibrations. ~ Amit Ray

Consider Rutherford playing his thoroughly unlikely hunch about alpha backscattering, Heisenberg remembering an obscure remark of Einstein's and concluding that nature only performed in consonance with his mathematics, Lawrence flipping compulsively through obscure foreign journals: Were this thinking not in the framework of scientific work, it would be considered paranoid. In scientific work, creative thinking demands seeing things not seen previously, or in ways not previously imagined; and this necessitates jumping off from "normal" positions, and taking risks by departing from reality. ~ Richard Rhodes

You don't think your way to creative work. You work your way to creative thinking. ~ George Nelson

When dreams come true creativity becomes art. ~ Martin Schuster

A culture of unaccountability is a culture without incentive, and a culture without incentive is the death of critical and creative thinking. ~ Michael R. LeGault

Take the next little step-the smaller you make it, the more likely you'll take it.. ~ Jill Badonsky

Creative thinking encompassed by the Word of God infuses into you the divine ability to turn the seemingly ugly situation around. ~ Jaachynma N.E. Agu

I think sometimes there are negative connotations for those who have a business mind as well as a creative side. ~ Alexander Wang

Become a creative thinking detective! Ask probing questions. There is no such thing as a wasted question. ~ Elaine Dundon

Being creative is a beautiful thing. Being creative for other people is work. No one wants to work at being creative. ~ A.V. Dalcourt

There's an old saying that great writing is simple but not easy, and so it is. The search for that one plain but inobvious [SIC] word that will do the work of five, the agony of untangling a complex idea that has become a mess of phrases in the writer's mind, the willingness to keep doing it over and over again until it is right
all of that plus some luck yields prose so clear that it seems a child could have written it. ~ William Souder

Breakthrough artists always expand the very concept of freedom. ~ Talismanist Giebra

It's well-documented that stress and low self-confidence are detrimental to productivity, especially on tasks requiring creative thinking. Maintaining a healthy exercise routine saves time, creativity, and energy in the long run. ~ Timur Zhiyentayev

Humankind's struggle against a hostile environment causes people throughout the ages to deploy their full armory of logic, training, strategy, imagination, inventiveness, and creativity. We are born with the natural ability to strategize. The most influential tool in humankind's intellectual tool kit is the ability to regenerate a sense of unruffled alertness, to establish a poised stance that leads to intuitive discoveries generated by the conscious and unconscious mind constantly filtering a plethora of data, selecting critical facts, and producing elegant solutions to seemingly insoluble dilemmas. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Over the following week, I attempted to leave the Lydia situation for my subconscious to work on. Creative thinking benefits from an incubation period. ~ Graeme Simsion

The ultimate creative thinking technique is to think like God. If you're an atheist, pretend how God would do it. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

As in the piling up of hypothetical alternatives, creative accidents follow the law of probabilities the more we fish, the more likely we are to get a strike. ~ Alex Faickney Osborn

It could be anything. It could be Jesus and it could be the Furby and it could be the lint that lives in my navel, but it's probably not. Whatever it is, I doubt we as humans on Earth could have any perception of it while we're here. So, why give yourself a headache thinking about it. Just be a good person. That's what an ethicist is. ~ Bill Maher

For kind of sophisticated art I'm interested in, the larger structural rebuke has to be so subtle that it has to be distributed at an almost sub-atomic level. Otherwise, you fall into the kind of preachy, moralistic fable that I don't think makes for good literature. ~ Junot Diaz

Trying to be funny is one of the hardest things on the planet. I think that's tough for everyone. If you're just naturally funny it's a hell of a lot easier. ~ Doc Brown

Anything is possible as long as you want it, you work for it. Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, the only person that can really put pressure on you is yourself ~ Michael Phelps

Some people think their fingers are toes or claws, but they're actually finger bones. ~ Ann Burton

And I think if you're going to be with somebody, you owe it to them to show yourself. ~ Chris Crutcher

When we think of war, the tendency is to picture young soldiers only in their military roles. To a large extent this dehumanizes the soldiers and makes it easier for society to commit them to combat. ~ Walter Dean Myers

Show respect for your money ... Then your money will think and care about you in return. ~ Suze Orman

Love is one of those things that should be so simple. You don't need to think about it and over analyze it when it's good. ~ Taylor Swift

During an individual's immersion in a domain, the locus of flow experiences shifts: what was once too challenging becomes attainable and even pleasurable, while what has long since become attainable no longer proves engaging. Thus, the journeyman musical performer gains flow from the accurate performance of familiar pieces in the repertoire; the youthful master wishes to tackle the most challenging pieces, ones most difficult to execute in a technical sense; the seasoned master may develop highly personal interpretations of familiar pieces, or, alternatively, return to those deceptively simple pieces that may actually prove difficult to execute convincingly and powerfully. Such an analysis helps explain why creative individuals continue to engage in the area of their expertise despite its frustrations, and why so many of them continue to raise the ante, posing ever-greater challenges for themselves, even at the risk of sacrificing the customary rewards. ~ Howard Gardner

No peace and security among mankind - let alone common friendship - can ever exist as long as people think that governments get their authority from God and that religion is to be propagated by force of arms. ~ John Locke

I like working on the house, small carpentry stuff. I also like working on the van. That's about as quiet as my mind gets, I think. I always loved working on the How's Your News? TV show and at Camp Jabberwocky too. ~ Chad Urmston

I love the working class, and everyone from it that I've met, and think they're incredible witty, inventive - there's a lot of poetry there. A lot of rough stuff as well. What there is, too, is an awful lot of expressiveness and intelligence and originality down there. And a lot of thwarted intelligence. ~ Martin Amis

Dog love is not the special realm of childhood or of boyhood, no matter what the movies keep telling us. It is highly significant, I think, that at both ends of human life span the bond between human and dog speaks with an insistent clarity - if we have the ears to hear. ~ Marjorie Garber

Although the rumors are of Apple doing an iWatch, I think that design idea is actually too limited. ~ Tim Bajarin

People think it's the mind that drives us. It is the heart. The mind is a slave to the heart. So check the condition of the heart. ~ Yasmin Mogahed

Kids are in ongoing need of support, and they get various versions of it from grownups which aren't legitimate - a grownup's version of what we think you should have. We tell you what creativity is, and we even tell you what you're thinking. ~ Jules Feiffer