“You may turn a bad idea into a good idea — don't kill the bad idea prematurely. A bad idea can evolve into a good idea.”
Essay on Creativity in Science and Engineering
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Martin Lewis Perl 9
American scientist 1927–2014Related quotes
“The idea of the thing was attacked by good and bad men, in good faith and bad.”
Source: Fourth Mansions (1969), Ch. 4
Context: "There was a later time when sincere men tried to build an organization as wide as the world to secure the peace of the world. It had been tried before and it had failed before. Perhaps if it failed this time it would not be tried again for a very long while. The idea of the thing was attacked by good and bad men, in good faith and bad. The final realization of it was so close that it could be touched with the fingertips. A gambler wouldn't have given odds on it either way. It teetered, and it almost seemed as though it would succeed. Then members of that group interfered."
"And it failed, O'Claire?"
"No. It succeeded, Foley, as in the other case. It succeeded in so twisted a fashion that the Devil himself was puzzled as to whether he had gained or lost ground by it. And he isn't easily puzzled."
“The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away.”
Variant: The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.
“A good idea catches on, snowballing as it picks up adherents. Sometimes a bad idea does the same.”
Source: Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies - (Second Edition), Chapter 7, The Political Stream, p. 161
