Creativity Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old creativity quotes, creativity sayings, and creativity proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

A good book praises itself. German (on books and writers)
A good spectator also creates. Swiss (on art and creativity)
A goose quill is more dangerous than a lion's claw. English (on books and writers)
A library is a repository of medicine for the mind. Greek (on books and writers)
A picture is a poem without words. Latin (on art and creativity)
A picture's worth a thousand words. unknown
A thousand artisans, a thousand plans. Chinese (on art and creativity)
All the world's a stage. William Shakespeare
Even the best song becomes tiresome if heard too often. Korean (on art and creativity)
Even the best writer has to erase. Spanish (on books and writers)
Every age has its book. Arabic (on books and writers)
Every picture tells a story. unknown
Great ideas are the fuel of progress. unknown
Great minds think alike. Punch
If you believe everything you read, better not read. Japanese (on books and writers)
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Charles Caleb Colton
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself but talent instantly recognizes genius. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Men willingly believe what they wish. Julius Caesar
Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. unknown
Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds. George Eliot
Quality, not quantity. unknown
The sight of books removes sorrows from the heart. Moroccan (on books and writers)
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. Steve Jobs
Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. Edward de Bono
Creativity is the key to success in the future, and primary education is where teachers can bring creativity in children at that level. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
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
Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity Charles Mingus
Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas Donatella Versace
Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things Ray Bradbury
When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity. Linda Naiman
The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself. Alan Alda
The truly creative person is one who can think crazy; such a person knows full well that many of his great ideas will prove to be worthless. The creative person is flexible; he is able to change as the situation changes, to break habits, to face indecision and changes in conditions without undue stress. He is not threatened by the unexpected as rigid, inflexible people are. Frank Goble
The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things-ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later, or six months, or six years. But he has faith that it will happen. Carl Ally
Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun. Mary Lou Cook
Creativity is seeing something that doesn't exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God. Michele Shea
The creative person is willing to live with ambiguity. He doesn't need problems solved immediately and can afford to wait for the right ideas Abe Tannenbaum
Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self. Erich Fromm
It seems to be one of the paradoxes of creativity that in order to think originally, we must familiarize ourselves with the ideas of others. George Kneller
You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Maya Angelou
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. Joseph Chilton Pierce
Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. Arthur Koestler
The things we fear most in organizations - fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances - are the primary sources of creativity. Margaret J. Wheatley
The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions. Anthony Jay
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work. Rita Mae Brown
Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties. Gail Sheehy
Human life is inherently creative. It's why we all have different resumes. It's why human culture is so interesting and diverse and dynamic. Ken Robinson
For creativity to flourish [requires] the embrace of loss, the oldest and most constant of human experiences. Julie Burstein
Creative works may indeed be kind of like property, but it's property that we're all building on. Kirby Ferguson
The chief enemy of creativity is 'good' sense. Pablo Picasso
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. Albert Einstein
I came to believe that creativity is God's will for us, and that we can practice creativity like any other spiritual practice— a day at a time. Julia Cameron
Kids are not self-conscious. and once we are actually in the flow of our creativity, neither are we. Julia Cameron
Only those who are able to relax can create, and then ideas reach the mind like lightning. Cicero
We must forget what is behind. If we cease to originate, we are lost. We can only keep what we have, by new activity Channing
The great creative individual...is capable of more wisdom and virtue than collective man ever can be. John Stuart Mill
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. Herman Melville
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. Thomas Edison
Do a common thing in an uncommon way. Booker T. Washington
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. Jung
To create is to think more efficiently. Reverdy
Discovery consists of seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
All men are creative but few are artists. Paul Goodman
Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea. Lou Dorfsman
Curiosity is the key to creativity. Akio Morito
Creativity consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know...Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted. George Kneller
A creative person is someone who imagines what other people cannot. Their value to us lies in expanding our own possibilities. Walls fall. We break out. Art releases what was lost. Jeanette Winterson
Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. George Lois
Perhaps someday we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light. Gardner
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Erich Fromm
The idea is there, locked inside. All you have to do is remove the excess stone. Michaelangelo
Creativity is discontent translated into arts. Eric Hoffer
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. A.A. Milne
Confidence in non-sense is a requirement for the creative process. M.C. Escher
Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativity. Picasso
Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste. Duke Ellington
Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter forcing spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem. Rollo May
Americans worship creativity the way they worship physical beauty as a way of enjoying elitism without guilt: God did it. Florence King
To me, the creativity begins not when I sit down to write, but back when I'm envisioning the book and what kind of situations I can insinuate myself into. Ted Conover
We do not even own our intellect, our creativity, or our skills. We have received them as a gift and grace. Satish Kumar
You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Maya Angelou
It is tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science. Carl Sagan
Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple. Charles Mingus
Creativity is both a gift and a learned talent that is nurtured over years. Nick Belardes