Quotes about Ideas

Even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man. Science has liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the American example has kindled feelings of right in the people.

Means and Ends The purpose of a fish trap Is to catch fish, And when the fish are caught The trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare Is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught The snare is forgotten. The purpose of words Is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped The words are forgotten. Where can I find a man Who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.

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.

The telephone book is full of facts but it doesn't contain a single idea.

Even the most sublime ideas sound ridiculous if heard too often. Be the change that you want to see in the world.

Offendedness is just about the last shared moral currency in our country. And, I'm sorry, but it's really annoying. We don't discuss ideas or debate arguments, we try to figure out who is most offended.

RICHES begin in the form of THOUGHT!

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.

Criticism as a form of knowledge is capable of robbing literature not only of its own implicit and explicit ideology but of its ideas as well; it can dismiss the difficult, arduous work writers do to make an art that becomes and remains part of and significant within a human landscape.

So far as we have any information about man, we know that he has always and everywhere been under the influence of dominating ideas. Any one who alleges that he is not can immediately be suspected of having exchanged a known form of belief for a variant which is less known both to himself and to others. Instead of theism he is a devotee of atheism, instead of Dionysus he favours the more modern Mithras, and instead of heaven he seeks paradise on earth.

People make suggestions on what to say all the time. I'll give you an example I don't read what's handed to me. People say, 'Here, here's your speech, or here's an idea for a speech.' They're changed. Trust me.

Ideas are not intellectuals' toys: ideas have consequences, for good and for ill, in what even intellectuals sometimes call "the real world".