“Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.”
W. H. Murray (verified)
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
— Ayn Rand (verified)“I don’t intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.”
— Ayn Rand (verified)“But genius always looks forward. The eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead. Man hopes. Genius creates. To create—to create—is the proof of a divine presence.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“Peace of mind is the most important prerequisite for creative work.”
— Richard Feynman (verified, secondary source)“The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no Past at my back.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“The division of labor, which has brought such perfection in mechanical industries, is altogether fatal when applied to productions of the mind. All work of the mind is superior in proportion as the mind that produces it is universal.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte (verified, secondary source)