Ideas

"Historians must break out of the prison of ideas."

"Nothing is as difficult as to achieve results in this world if one is filled full of great tolerance and the milk of human kindness. The person who achieves must generally be a one-ideaed individual, concentrated entirely on that one idea, and ruthless in his aspect toward other men and other ideas."

"Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare."

"Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange."

"Man has always been afraid of anything mysterious, forgetting that the key to the mystery is within himself. One must free oneself from all impeding conditions or circumstances, which are different for everyone. Progress depends upon free will that is directed toward good. The power of good compels even machines to act not for themselves, but for humanity. Thus, Our apparatuses function with Our collaboration. People may laugh, but ideas do rule the world. These words are entered into the Statutes of the Brotherhood."

"Unknown names, unknown places and unfamiliar words often come to the surface from the depths of consciousness. Scientists call this the subconscious, but they are unaware that communications from space accumulate... and when given an impulse, are transferred to the brain... one should pay heed to such flashes of consciousness... In everyday life one should learn to recognize these messages which always come at the right moment. People complain that they are deprived of lofty Guidance, but such a strong statement is unreasonable. We give much, and it is they who perceive little! Therefore, We remind people to pay more heed to words that spring forth suddenly in the conscious mind. Such words should not be dismissed, but should be carefully applied in life. Many other useful ideas come in a flash, like flying butterflies, but people only brush them aside. We never tire of disseminating useful information, and We advise you to treat it with care, for it will be of use in the Subtle World. Thus, one should develop the particular ability to catch the thoughts of space."

"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea."

"It is in this realm of ideas that humanity is not a free agent. . . . Once an idea becomes an ideal, humanity can freely reject or accept it, but ideas come from a higher source and are imposed... whether men want them or not. Upon the use made of these ideas (which are in the nature of divine emanations, embodying the divine plan for planetary progress) will depend the rapidity of humanity's progress, or its retardation for lack of understanding."

"You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them. It is perseverance in the pursuit of studies that is really wanted."

"That neither our Thoughts, nor Passions, nor Ideas formed by the Imagination, exist without the Mind, is what every Body will allow. And it seems no less evident that the various Sensations or Ideas imprinted on the Sense... cannot exist otherwise than in a Mind perceiving them... For as to what is said of the absolute Existence of unthinking Things without any relation to their being perceived, that seems perfectly unintelligible. Their Esse is Percipi, nor is it possible they should have any Existence, out of the Minds or thinking Things which perceive them."

"It’s important not to overstate the benefits of ideas. Quite frankly, I know it’s kind of a romantic notion that you’re just going to have this one brilliant idea and then everything is going to be great. But the fact is that coming up with an idea is the least important part of creating something great. It has to be the right idea and have good taste, but the execution and delivery are what’s key."

"... the best way to think about investments is to be in a room with no one else and just think. And if that doesn't work — nothing else is going to work. ... what you are looking for is some way to get one good idea a year ... and then ride it to its full potential. ... Wall Street makes its money on activity — you make your money on inactivity."

"Incredulity doesn't kill curiosity; it encourages it. Though distrustful of logical chains of ideas, I loved the polyphony of ideas. As long as you don't believe in them, the collision of two ideas — both false — can create a pleasing interval, a kind of diabolus in musica. I had no respect for some ideas people were willing to stake their lives on, but two or three ideas that I did not respect might still make a nice melody. Or have a good beat, and if it was jazz, all the better."

"But arms – instrumentalities, as President Wilson called them – are not sufficient by themselves. We must add to them the power of ideas. People say we ought not to allow ourselves to be drawn into a theoretical antagonism between Nazidom and democracy; but the antagonism is here now. It is this very conflict of spiritual and moral ideas which gives the free countries a great part of their strength. You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. On all sides they are guarded by masses of armed men, cannons, aeroplanes, fortifications, and the like – they boast and vaunt themselves before the world, yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts; words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home – all the more powerful because forbidden – terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. They make frantic efforts to bar our thoughts and words; they are afraid of the workings of the human mind. Cannons, airplanes, they can manufacture in large quantities; but how are they to quell the natural promptings of human nature, which after all these centuries of trial and progress has inherited a whole armoury of potent and indestructible knowledge?"

"It seems to me that in many ways, ideas have a life of their own. They appear to seize on people and make use of them."

"Fundamental ideas play the most essential role in forming a physical theory. Books on physics are full of complicated mathematical formulae. But thought and ideas, not formulae, are the beginning of every physical theory. The ideas must later take the mathematical form of a quantitative theory, to make possible the comparison with experiment."

"A man to whom it has been given to bless the world with a great creative idea has no need for the praise of posterity. His very achievement has already conferred a higher boon upon him."