14 Favorite Quotes on Innovation and Creativity

From the BMGI innovation team, here are a few favorite quotes on innovation, creativity, experimentation and the process of coming up with new ideas. We hope you enjoy!

1. “Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” – Albert Szent-György | Physiologist

2.  “Point of view is worth 80 IQ points.” – Alan Kay | Computer Scientist

3. “True intuitive expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes.” – Daniel Kahneman | Psychologist

4. “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.” – Elon Musk | Engineer, Inventor, Investor

5. “Not every innovation is the result of a fortunate mistake!” – Participant in Rapid Innovation Cycle

6. “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing.” – Dr. W. Edwards Deming | Engineer, Statistician, Professor, Consultant

7. “Once you embrace the spirit of experimentation, the world becomes a sandbox in which to try out new ideas, ask new questions, and challenge the prevailing orthodoxies.” – Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt | Authors, Think Like a Freak

8. “It is the brain, not the heart or lungs, that is the critical organ.” – Roger Bannister | Athlete, Physician, Academic

9. “When all think alike, then no one is thinking.” – Walter Lippmann | Writer, Reporter, Political Commentator

10. “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it is the only one you have.” – Émile Chartier | Philosopher, Journalist

11. “There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” –Edward de Bono | Physician, Psychologist, Author, Inventor, Consultant

12. “The things we fear most in organizations—fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances—are the primary sources of creativity.” – Margaret J. Wheatley | Writer, Consultant

13. “Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” – Theodore Levitt | Economist, Professor

14. “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” – Erich Fromm | Psychologist, Sociologist, Philosopher

Thanks to Perry Giles, Riaan Brits, Dana Ginn and Tevfik Durmusoglu for sharing some of their favorites!

Which quotes or sayings would you add to the list?

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