Preface to The Right To Be Greedy (1983 edition)
Context: Egoism in its narrowest sense is a tautology, not a tactic. Adolescents of all ages who triumphantly trumpet that "everyone is selfish," as if they’d made a factual discovery about the world, only show that they literally don’t know what they’re talking about. Practical egoism must be something more, it must tell the egoist something useful about himself and other selves which will make a difference in his life (and, as it happens, theirs). My want, needs, desires, whims — call them what you will — extend the ego, which is my-self purposively acting, out where the other selves await me. If I deal with them, as the economists say, "at arm’s length," I can’t get as close as I need to for so much of what I want. At any rate, no "spook," no ideology is going to get in my way. Do you have ideas, or do ideas have you?
“You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.”
“If you're waiting to have good ideas before you have any ideas, you won't have many ideas.”
Source: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001), Ch. 3
“Ideas do matter and do have consequences.”
Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
George Bernard Shaw never said these words, but Charles F. Brannan did. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/12/13/swap-ideas/
Misattributed
Source: The Courage to Create (1975), Ch. 1 : The Courage to Create, p. 12
