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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"... The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom."
"The only force that can overcome an idea and a faith is another and better idea and faith, positively and fearlessly upheld."
"If you get into the mental habit of relating what you're reading to the basic structure of the underlying ideas being demonstrated, you gradually accumulate some wisdom."
"It's not the bad ideas that do you in, but the good ones."
"The idea of excessive diversification is madness."
"Fashion is in the sky, the streets, fashion has to do with ideas, the way in which we live, the events surrounding us."
"Yoga is not about touching your toes. It's about unlocking your ideas about what you want, where you think you can go, and how you will achieve it when you get there."
"God is so big. It's a gigantic concept in God. The idea that God might love us and be interested in us is kind of huge and gigantic, but we turn it, because we're small-minded, into this tiny, petty, often greedy version of God, that is religion."
"Ideas are a dime a dozen, but people who put them into effect are extremely rare. Be the minority and make it happen!"
"There are MAYBE 30 years worth of ideas out there... watch for the feature version of ER in about 25 years... Hollywood has become hopelessly chained to the bottom line."
"I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing."
"I wanted to be president of the United States. I really did. The older I get, the less preposterous the idea seems."
"Roughly speaking, any man with energy and enthusiasm ought to be able to bring at least a dozen others round to his opinion in the course of a year no matter how absurd that opinion might be. We see every day in politics, in business, in social life, large masses of people brought to embrace the most revolutionary ideas, sometimes within a few days. It is all a question of getting hold of them in the right way and working on their weak points."
"Above all things we must be aware of what I will call 'inert ideas' - that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations."
"Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas."
"My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living."
"You are so terribly nimble, so clever. I distrust your cleverness. You make a wonderful pattern, everything is in its place, it looks convincingly clear, too clear. And meanwhile, where are you? Not on the clear surface of your ideas, but you have already sunk deeper, into darker regions, so that one only thinks one has been given all your thoughts, one only imagines you have emptied yourself in that clarity. But there are layers and layers - you're bottomless, unfathomable. Your clearness is deceptive. You are the thinker who arouses most confusion in me, most doubt, most disturbance."
"Most men are very attached to the idea of being male, and usually experience a lot of fear and insecurity around the idea of being a man. Most women are very identified with their gender, and also experience a tremendous amount of fear and insecurity."
"Everybody has a different idea of love. One girl I know said, "I knew he loved me when de didn't come in my mouth."
"My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person. People are only glamorous if you don't see them. Like the movies used to make people years ago. There is something about people on screen that makes them so special; when you see them in person, they are so different and the whole illusion is gone."
