On Being Uncreative

If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.’
— Mary Kay Ash
‘Too many potential creators are inhibited by a belief that gifted others solve problems directly.’
— D. T. Campbell
‘We live at a time when man believes himself fabulously capable of creation, but does not know what to create. Lord of all things, he is not lord of himself.’
— José Ortega Y Gasset
‘Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you cannot, you are absolutely right.’
— Henry Ford
‘If the individual is narrowly concentrated on the goal, to the exclusion of other relevant aspects of the problem situation, he is often unable to achieve a solution. The creative thinker must stand sufficiently detached from his work.’
— Mary Henle
‘Very few people do anything creative after the age of thirty-five. The reason is that very few people do anything creative before the age of thirty-five.’
— Joel Hildebrand
‘The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot wrong questions.’
— Anthony Jay
‘There is no better soporific and sedative than scepticism.’
— Friedrich Nietzsche
‘The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.’
— David Ogilvy
‘It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.’
— Pablo Picasso