Quotes About Inspiration

Ik bewonder haar, moeder, echt. Zoals zij alles aanpakt wat op haar pad komt en nooit opgeeft.' Angeline Fowl zoog verbaasd haar adem in. 'Nou, Artemis Fowl de Tweede, dat is zo'n beetje de langste niet-wetenschappelijke zin die ik je ooit heb horen uitspreken.

Would you? That would be fab.' Aseed made the triangle sign. 'What's that?' 'It's a cheese triangle. Appease the Cheese. It's kind of a slogan I made up.

and immediately

If you wish to be a writer, write.

If you wish to be a writer; write! Send quote to a friend Epictetus (50-120) Greek philosopher.

As the fire-lights in harbors by a few pieces of dry wood raises a great flame and give sufficient help to ships which are wandering on the sea; so also an illustrious man in a state which is tempest-tossed, while he is himself satisfied with a few things does great services to his citizens.

And then we'll be emulating Socrates,* once we're able to write hymns of praise in prison.

has any of you such power as Socrates had, in all his intercourse with men, of winning them over to his own convictions?

Turning up our light in the presence of those whose light is dim becomes the difference that makes the difference.

A college friend once explained that the difference Neil Young and Crazy Horse and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band was that the former made you feel as if they were really no better than you are, while the latter somehow convinces you that you can be as great as they are.

Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. —T. E. Lawrence

The artist is not a different kind of person, but every person is a different kind of artist.

W obu ?wiatach prawd? jest, ?e je?li szukasz dobra i prawdy, pi?kno znajdzie si? samo.

To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.

Those who would transform a nation or the world cannot do so by breeding and captaining discontent or by demonstrating the reasonableness and desirability of the intended changes or by coercing people into a new way of life. They must know how to kindle and fan an extravagant hope.

Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.

They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor. (Eric Hoffer 1902-1983)

The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.

Ideas have significance for him only as a prelude to action.

The most incurably frustrated—and, therefore, the most vehement—among the permanent misfits are those with an unfulfilled craving for creative work. Both those who try to write, paint, compose, etcetera, and fail decisively, and those who after tasting the elation of creativeness feel a drying up of the creative flow within and know that never again will they produce aught worth-while, are alike in the grip of a desperate passion.

The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.

As easy a day as one could wish and no sort of unpleasantness. Still the depression this evening is as black as yesterday. I must face the fact that the chief reason for the depression is that I cannot compose.

Discontent is at the root of the creative process: the most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way.