Ideas quotes
16.4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside ideas — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Having the world's best idea will do you no good unless you act on it. People who want milk shouldn't sit on a stool in the middle of a field in hopes that a cow will back up to them."
"Bookshops are infested with ideas. Books are quivering, murmuring creatures."
"Misguided people sometimes create misguided ideas. Some of my ancestors were Oromo. How can I colonize myself?"
"We think in language. The quality of our thoughts and ideas can only be as good as the quality of our language."
"No one has the right to enter literature without fresh new ideas. We’ve got too many dexterous drudges as it is."
"If you have it you don't need it. If you need it, you don't have it. If you have it, you need more of it. If you have more of it, you don't need less of it. You need it to get it. And you certainly need it to get more of it. But if you don't already have any of it to begin with, you can't get any of it to get started, which means you really have no idea how to get it in the first place, do you? You can share it, sure. You can even stockpile it if you like. But you can't fake it. Wanting it. Needing it. Wishing for it. The point is if you've never had any of it ever people just seem to know."
"Most of my ideas belonged to other people who never bothered to develop them."
"Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him."
"I do not rush into constructive work. When I get an idea, I start right away to build it up in my mind. I change the structure, I make improvements, I experiment, I run the device in my mind. It is absolutely the same to me whether I operate my turbine in thought or test it actually in my shop. It makes no difference, the results are the same. In this way, you see, I can rapidly develop and perfect an invention, without touching anything."
"The proletarians, driven to despair, will seize the torch which Stephens has preached to them; the vengeance of the people will come down with a wrath of which the rage of 1795 gives no true idea. The war of the poor against the rich will be the bloodiest ever waged."
"Ideas aren't magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down."
"The State of liberated Being can be reached only by "dying"; but (this) dying does not consist in destruction of the body; one should understand that true death is the extinction of the ideas "I" and "mine.""
"Once again, only religion can answer the question of the purpose of life. One can hardly be wrong in concluding that the idea of life having a purpose stands and falls with the religious system."
"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said, Harry."
"Other people's ideas of us are dependent largely on what they've hoped for."
"I find it very fascinating that one person or a group of people can get together as a choir and come up with a song that ends up inspiring people to create emotions, love and togetherness. Communication, which comes from this idea that sparks off of humanity and becomes something that is cherished and loved by the people, is very fascinating to me."
"The kingdom of God must never be reduced to talk, ideas and principles. The kingdom of God is power"
"The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting"
"Weak logic, inconsistencies and alienation from the people are common features of authoritarianism. The relentless attempts of totalitarian regimes to prevent free thought and new ideas and the persistent assertion of their own rightness bring on them an intellectual stasis which they project on to the nation at large. Intimidation and propaganda work in a duet of oppression, while the people, lapped in fear and distrust, learn to dissemble and to keep silent."
"The true painter must be able, with the most usual things, to have the most unusual ideas."
