The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
All opening moves were the same, like in chess. You don't have to come up with anything new, there's no point, because you're both after the same thing anyway. The game soon finds its own way and it's only at that point that you need a strategy.
—Samuel Goldwyn
The key to every man is his thought.… He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.
—Seneca
The best ideas are common property.
—Sir Frederick G. Banting
Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.
—Evan Esar
Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun.
—Don Marquis
Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.
—Ansel Adams
The only good ideas are the ones I can take credit for.
—R. Stevens
To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself.… Anybody can have ideas—the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.
—Mark Twain
It is not simply the brightest who have the best ideas; it is those who are best at harvesting ideas from others. It is not only the most determined who drive change; it is those who most fully engage with like-minded people. And it is not wealth or prestige that best motivates people; it is respect and help from peers.
—Alex Pentland in Social Physics
Words are often seen hunting for an idea, but ideas are never seen hunting for words.
—Josh Billings