Quotations on Creativity

“To cease to think creatively is but little different from ceasing to live.” Ben Franklin

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." Albert Einstein

"Whom the gods wish to destroy they give unlimited resources." Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

“If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” John Cleese

“Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.” Howard Aiken

“I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them.” Thomas Edison

“Access to talented and creative people is to modern business what access to coal and iron ore was to steelmaking.” Richard Florida

"Whenever I go into a company and don't hear much laughter, I know it's not a creative place." Mike Vane, former dean of Disney University

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

"The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out." Dee Hock

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

It’s a Funny Thing

“Humor helps.” John Cleese

This hasn’t been a funny week for me. While I was taking my 89-year old father to the doctor last week, a garbage truck demolished my car, which was parked innocently on the street. A few days later, we had to have my dad taken to the emergency room and he is still in the hospital with gall stones. Then I interviewed for a part-time contract position with a training company. It seemed like a perfect fit between my skills and interests and their needs, and it would have cured my current money woes. Unfortunately, they decided to go with someone who could work fulltime. Alas and alack.

Like Maya Angelou, I want “to thrive with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style,” but it isn’t always easy. When my own sense of humor gets buried under my sense of impending doom, I rely on others to, well, humor me. My current saving grace has been an audio book, No, I Don’t Want to Join a Book Club, by British author Virginia Ironside. The main character is an opinionated, contrary woman facing her 60^th birthday. Her comments on beginning old age make me laugh out loud.

When the book ends, I may have to finally watch Napoleon Dynamite, which everyone assures me is screamingly funny. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved