Timeless Pieces of Wisdom to Awaken Your Inner Genius

1 . "Possessing a creative mind, after all, is something like having a border collie for a pet: It needs to work, or else it will cause you an outrageous amount of trouble. Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents." - Elizabeth Gilbert

2 . "Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion." - Martha Graham

3 . "There are no formulas in creative work. I do many variations, which is a question of curiosity. I arrive at many different configurations ­- some just slight variations, others more radical - of an original idea. It is a game of evolution." - Paul Rand

4 . "What's the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules." - Christopher Nolan

5 . "Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art." - Neil Gaiman

6 . "We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." - Ray Bradbury

7 . "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine De Saint Exupery

8 . "If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don't stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don't compromise, and don't waste time. Start now. Not 20 years from now, not two weeks from now. Now." - Debbie Millman

9 . "It's not about breaking the rules. It is about abandoning the concept of rules altogether" - Paul Lemberg

10 . "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist." - Pablo Picasso

‎11 . "Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got." - Steven Pressfield

12 . "Failure is built into creativity... the creative act involves this element of 'newness' and 'experimentalism,' then one must expect and accept the possibility of failure." - Saul Bass

13 . "Divergent thinking isn't the same as creativity. I define creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value. Divergent thinking isn't a synonym but is an essential capacity for creativity. It is the ability to see lots of possible answers to a question, lots of possible ways to interpret a question, to think laterally, to think not just in linear or convergent ways, to see multiple answers, not one." - Ken Robinson

14 ."If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world, it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature." - Bruce Fairchild Barton

15 . "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." - John Maynard Keynes

16 . "Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." - William Faulkner

17 . "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." - Scott Adams

18 . "There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost." ― Martha Graham

19 . "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one." - Elbert Hubbard

20 . "The neural processes underlying that which we call creativity have nothing to do with rationality. That is to say, if we look at how the brain generates creativity, we will see that it is not a rational process at all; creativity is not born out of reasoning." ―Rodolfo R. Llinás

21 . "If you hear a voice within you say, 'You cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh

21 . "If you hear a voice within you say, 'You cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh

22 . "Nothing comes from nothing. You must continuously feed the inner beast that sparks and inspires." -- George Lois

23 . "Originality is nothing but judicious imitation" - Voltaire

24 . "Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people" - Leo Burnett

25 . "Failure sucks, but instructs." ―David Kelley