“The chief enemy of creativity at work is not time; it is fear.”
“Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.”
William Temple, in "Heads Designed for an Essay on Conversation" in The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart. in Four Volumes (1757), Vol. III, p. 547.
Misattributed
“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
No. 138.
Spiritual Exercises (1548)
“My memory is not as good as… Chief Justice Roberts.”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/21/biden-jabs-roberts-for-oath-flub/ Remarks] while administering oath of office for White House senior staff; poking fun at memorable incident in which John G. Roberts misplaced words while swearing-in President Obama at the presidential inauguration the previous day (January 21, 2009)
2000s
“That which is good for the enemy harms you, and that which is good for you harms the enemy.”
Quello che giova al nimico nuoce a te, e quel che giova a te nuoce al nimico.
Rule 1 from Machiavelli's Lord Fabrizio Colonna: libro settimo (Book 7) http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101013672561;view=1up;seq=176 (Modern Italian uses nemico instead of nimico.)
The Art of War (1520)
From a speech to the United Nations on 4 October 1984 https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2007/10/SANKARA/15203
