Quotes about ideas and thoughts
page 10

“I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.”

Source: The Hippopotamus Pool

“Be authentic to your dreams. Be authentic to your own idea about yourself. Grind away at your own minds and bodies until you become your own invention. Be Mad Scientists.”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer

Source: Doktor Sleepless, Volume 1: Engines of Desire

Dreams, Madness

“A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.”

Jane Smiley (1949) American novelist

“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

Books

“I have an idea. It’s risky, and Max will kill us when she finds out.”
Iggy raised his head. “Sounds like my kind of idea.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

“Our ideas can enslave or liberate us.”

Ken Robinson (1950) UK writer

Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative

“In the Night World there's this idea called the soulmate principle. It says that every person has one soulmate out there, just one. And that person is perfect for you and is your destiny.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

World, Personality, Perfection, Night

“To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

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1910s, Prejudices, First Series (1919)

Men

“Mothers support certain illusions about their children, and one of my illusions was that I liked who I was, because she did. When she passed away, so did that idea.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Children, Support

“When you put on a clown suit and a rubber nose, nobody has any idea what you look like inside.”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

“I loved the idea of a girl going into a dark alley, and a monster comes, and then she just aces him. It’s like, you want to see the tiny person suddenly take control. God, my whole career is basically about that!”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Love, God, Girl, Personality

“But men are less used to the idea of being raped than women are, and it strikes them with a fresh horror. With women, that horror comes right along with the female genitals.”

Charlaine Harris book An Ice Cold Grave

Source: An Ice Cold Grave

Women, Men

“Aunt B walked out onto the helipad wearing loose yoga pants. “I’m just here to stretch. Kate, want to help?”
“Sure.”
Thirty seconds later, as I was flying through the air, I decided that this wasn’t the best idea.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Rises

Help, Flying

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

George Bernard Shaw never said these words, but Charles F. Brannan did. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/12/13/swap-ideas/ <br class="br">Misattributed

“For there are two distinct sorts of ideas: Those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Variant: ... for there are two distinct sorts of ideas, those that proceed from the head and those that emanate from the heart.
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Heart

“If ideas and beliefs are to be denied validity outside the geographical and cultural bounds of their origin, Buddhism would be confined to north India, Christianity to a narrow tract in the Middle East and Islam to Arabia.”

Aung San Suu Kyi book Freedom from Fear

Source: Freedom from Fear

“I come from a family of screamers. If they are trying to express any emotion or idea beyond pass the salt, it comes in shrieks.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Family

“A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him. All of the brilliant ideas in the world cannot save your kingdom if no one will listen to them.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Well of Ascension

World

“If I'd known how wrong I was - if I'd had any idea of the awful night that lay ahead - I'd have run after him and never returned to that disgusting circus of blood, that revolting circus of death.”

Darren Shan (1972) Irish writer of English-language fiction under pen name, real name Darren O'Shaughnessy

Death, Night

“How dreadful… to be caught up in a game and have no idea of the rules.”

Caroline Stevermer (1955) American writer

Source: Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

Game

“Total commitment," I said. "You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Variant: You have to admit, it's kind of impressive.... Total commitment. You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?
Source: Lock and Key

“Otis barreled towards them empty-handed, before apparently realizing that a) he was empty-handed and b) charging towards a large body of water to fight a son of Poseidon was maybe not a good idea.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Water, Fight

“If you want to communicate an idea to a man's brain, you must talk to him through his pecker. It's like an ear horn, y'all.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Variant: If you want to communicate an idea to a man's brain, talk to him through his pecker. It's like an ear horn, y'all.
Source: Lothaire

Communication

“I never thought there might be one like you out there. Unaware, untrained.
Unbelievable. You have no idea what you are, do you?”
“Crazy?”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

“It didn't fit her ideas of who was bad, and who was good, and what was a happy ending, and what wasn't.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Happiness

“They've got no idea what happiness is, they don't know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us--there is no life.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Love, Life, Happiness, Happy

“Remember that you don't write a story because you have an idea but because you have a believable character.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

“Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.”

Brendan Gill (1914–1997) American journalist

Life

“Social scientists sometimes talk about the concept of "identity". It is the idea that you have a particular vision of the kind of person you are, and you feel awful when you do things that are out of line with that vision.”

Steven D. Levitt (1967) American economist

Source: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Feeling, Personality

“You live in a deranged age - more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.”

Walker Percy (1916–1990) Southern philosophical novelist

Source: Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book

Age

“I have things in my head that are not like what anyone taught me — shapes and ideas so near to me, so natural to my way of being and thinking.”

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) American artist

Way, Nature, Thinking

“An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them.”

Stephen Fry book The Liar

The Liar (1991)
1990s

“What could be more superstitious than the idea that money brings forth food?”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Money, Food

“You and I are meant to be. It's the only thing I'm absolutely sure of. And while I have no idea what to expect, I promise I'll do whatever it takes to find my way back.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Everlasting

Way

“Bob, would you be willing to take on Evil Bob?"

Bob's eyes darted nervously. "I'd… prefer not to. I'd really, really prefer not to. You have no idea. That me was crazy. And buff. He worked out.”

Jim Butcher book Ghost Story

Source: Ghost Story

Evil

“I find more and more that I am a man of the 1920s. I still expect something exciting. Drinks, animated conversation, gaiety: the uninhibited exchange of ideas.”

Edmund Wilson (1895–1972) American writer, literary and social critic, and noted man of letters

Drink, Animals

“Our standard rate. A doubloon a day."
It was generous. More than generous--some families would put him up for a week for a single coin.
"Half a doubloon a day," she said.
"No, you see, the idea behind bargaining is that you ask for a larger amount.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: On the Edge

Family

“That was the moment he got the idea he possessed me in a certain way, and that was the moment I grew tired of him.”

Jamaica Kincaid Lucy

Source: Lucy

Way

“It's just that I'm fifteen, and I have this crazy idea I might actually have a life in front of me. I don't see how it's going to do me much good to believe that the world is over and this is just an epilogue.”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

Source: Rot & Ruin

Life, World

“When you spring to an idea, and decide it is truth, without evidence, you blind yourself to other possibilities.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Apprentice

Source: Assassin's Apprentice

Truth, Spring

“One can no more keep the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. For a sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty it is called remorse. God stirs up the soul as well as the ocean.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

God, Soul, Sea

“You have no idea how much the last few days have meant to me," I began. "Meeting you has been the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

“Damn it," I said. "I don't suppose you have any ideas on how to kill Littleton."

He smiled at me, his teeth very white in the darkness of his face. "Eat him," he said.”

Patricia Briggs book Blood Bound

Source: Blood Bound

Smile

“When you think about it, most of the good ideas came along to make sin a whole lot easier.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

Thinking

“I felt myself in a solitude so frightful that I contemplated suicide. What held me back was the idea that no one, absolutely no one, would be moved by my death, that I would be even more alone in death than in life.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Source: La náusea

Life, Death, Solitude, Suicide

“At school, new ideas are thrust at you every day. Out in the world, you'll have to find your inner motivation to seek for new ideas on your own.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

World, School, Motivation

“The knowledge that she would never be loved in return acted upon her ideas as a tide acts upon cliffs.”

Thornton Wilder book The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Source: The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Love, Knowledge

“The odd thing in this world is that an eager-beaver type, with no original ideas, who mimes those in authority above him right to the last twist of necktie and scrape of chin, always gets noticed. Gets selected. Rises.”

Philip K. Dick book Time Out of Joint

Source: Time Out of Joint

World

“The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube, you know. It's very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. You can't fight the world alone.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

World, Beauty, Fight, Personality

“Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

13 November 2009 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/5673602109 <br class="br"> Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy

“I want to write my life. I want to be able to write my life.

You are a second away from saying it.

You have no idea how much I love you.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

Love, Life

“College isn't the place to go for ideas.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

“I did not tell Fat this, but technically he had become a Buddha. It did not seem to me like a good idea to let him know. After all, if you are a Buddha you should be able to figure it out for yourself.”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

Source: VALIS

“A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.”

Carl Sagan book Contact

Source: Contact (1985), Chapter 14 (p. 244)

“My idea of good company… is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.'
'You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company, that is the best.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

People

“The irony of the process of thought control: the more energy you put into trying to control your ideas and what you think about, the more your ideas end up controlling you.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Thinking

“Character comes from following our highest sense of right, from trusting ideas without being sure they’ll work.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

Sense

“It's a curious idea to reproduce when you don't even like life.”

Michel Houellebecq book Atomised

Source: The Elementary Particles

Life

“It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.”

Robert Anton Wilson book The Illuminati Papers

Source: The Illuminati Papers (1980), p. 111

Change

“My heart belongs to you,' He promised.
'Would you have loved me when I was a girl?'
'I have always loved you. Even before I met you I loved the idea of you.”

Isobelle Carmody book Greylands

Source: Greylands

Love, Girl, Heart

“i dunno," i said, "but i have an idea that people who don't think too much tend to look younger longer”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

People, Thinking

“Wherever we go, there seems to be only one business at hand - that of finding workable compromises between the sublimity of our ideas and the absurdity of the fact of us.”

Annie Dillard (1945) American writer

Source: Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters

Business

“In the quiet spaces opened up by the prolonged, undistracted reading of a book, people made their own associations, drew their own inferences and analogies, fostered their own ideas. They thought deeply as they read deeply.”

Nicholas Carr (1959) American writer

Source: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

People, Books, Reading

“It's a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.”

Paulo Coelho book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

Life, Decision

“There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves. People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal (equal, after all, to what and to whom?) but they love the idea of being superior.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Love, People

“Coming up with ideas is the easiest thing on earth. Putting them down is the hardest.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

“["The Devil in the Dark"] impressed me because it presented the idea, unusual in science fiction thennow, that something weird, and even dangerous, need not be malevolent. That is a lesson that many of today's politicians have yet to learn.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

Learning, Science

“Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.”

Will Self (1961) English writer and journalist

Memory

“You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.”

Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005) American politician

Motivational, Powerful

“My idea is to give hope, because where there is no hope, there is no vision, and where there is no vision, people will perish.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Source: The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey: A Portrait in Her Own Words

People, Hope

“I guess the real reason that my wife and I had children is the same reason that Napoleon had for invading Russia: it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Children, Time

“It is a good idea sometimes to think of the importance and dignity of our every-day duties. It keeps them from being so tiresome; besides, others are apt take us at our own valuation.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Thinking

“All genders?' whispered Nudge. 'Aren't there just the two'
I shrugged. 'No idea. Maybe they've created others.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

“One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“Do you have any idea how much I've loved you?”

Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory

Source: My Name Is Memory

Love

“She spoke of evenings in the country making popcorn on the porch. Once this would have gladdened my heart but because her heart was not glad when she said it I knew there was nothing in it but the idea of what one should do.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Heart, Country

“How many times do we all have to do this? Get up, go to school, again? Before everyone admits it's a crap idea?”

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer

Source: Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?

School, Time

“What do you think Dimitri? Is this a good idea, Dimitri? Please give us your blessing so that we can fall down and worship you, Dimitri.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Thinking

“Do you know, one of the greatest problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas? Now, thoughts and ideas, that interests me.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Variant: Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.
Source: Margaret Thatcher

People, Age, Feeling, Problem

“If you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“And flash him!” Annabeth’s face reddened. “That came out wrong. But yeah, good idea.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“Don't surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn't true anymore.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Joy

“The minute you get a religion you stop thinking. Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.”

Ray Bradbury book The October Country

The Next in Line (1947)
Source: The October Country (1955)
Context: “Don’t these people ever get lonely?”
“They’re used to it this way.”
“Don’t they get afraid, then?”
”They have a religion for that.”
“I wish I had a religion.”
“The minute you get a religion you stop thinking,” he said. “Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.”

Religion, Thinking

“Thus, from admiration of one wise and innocent child, and from a misheard remark, the process that not even Aristotle could codify was triggered.
Where do you get your ideas?
I purposely mishear things.”

Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) American writer

“Not my favourite topic, Smedley."
"Simon," said Simon. "if I'm going to die for you all, the least you could do is remember my name."………

"Alright, everybody. Get over here. Sheldon's had an idea."
"Who's Sheldon?" Said Isabelle.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“The idea of having faith in Jesus has come to be totally isolated from being his apprentice and learning how to do what he said.”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God

Faith, Learning

“But you want murderous feelings? Hang around librarians," confided Gamache. "All that silence. Gives them ideas.”

Louise Penny (1958) Canadian woman writer

Source: A Rule Against Murder

Feeling, Confidence, Silence

“So that's how you're going to fix the family problem. Little Dragomirs. Good idea.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Family, Problem

“The ideas of debtor and creditor as to what constitutes a good time never coincide.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Love Among the Chickens

Source: Love Among the Chickens

Time

“The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Way

“I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.”

Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) German theoretical physicist

Das Naturgesetz und die Struktur der Materie (1967), as translated in Natural Law and the Structure of Matter (1981), p. 34

Mathematics, Thinking, Sense

“The idea is to die young as late as possible.”

Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) British-American anthropologist

Deep, Powerful

“I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

The Zookeeper's Wife (2008)
Context: I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don't be old. Don't be stale.

Life

“An idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you”

Morris Berman (1944) American historian

“Question (from a reader) : Will the Wise Goddess Athena overthrow Zeus and become the ruler of Olympus?
Athena's answer : What an interesting idea… No, just kidding, Dad. Put away the lightning bolt.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Question