Edwin Land Quotes

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail

People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of adventure. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress.

I have a theory that the only original things we ever do are mistakes.

Creative experimentation propels our culture forward. That our stories of innovation tend to glorify the breakthroughs and edit out all the experimental mistakes doesn't mean that mistakes play a trivial role. As any artist or scientist knows, without some protected, even sacred space for mistakes, innovation would cease.

Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they're going to make mistakes.

If you're cooking and not making mistakes, you're not playing outside your safety zone. I don't expect it all to be good. I have fat dogs because I scrap that stuff out the back door.

In order to be creative you have to be allowed to fail.

It is the essence of innovation to fail most of the time.

To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas.

I have made some mistakes. No, a lot of mistakes. If you want to develop a new thing, a lot of mistakes will be inevitable. We should be allowed to make mistakes.

I think if you're going to be a little bit innovative or risk-taking, sometimes you're going to be wrong, and it's going to look bad. I understand that.

IF you are not making mistakes, then you are not doing anything.

Being wrong doesn't mean being creative - but if you aren't afraid of being wrong, you can't be creative.

Embrace error: Create an atmosphere in which prudent risk taking is strongly encouraged.

Many people keep deploring the low level of formal education in the United states (as defined by, say, math grades). Yet these fail to realize that the new comes from here and gets imitated elsewhere. And it is not thanks to universities, which obviously claim a lot more credit than their accomplishments warrant. Like Britain in the Industrial Revolution, America's asset is, simply, risk taking and the use of optionality, this remarkable ability to engage in rational forms fo trial and error, with no comparative shame in failing again, starting again, and repeating failure.

Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Whatever you're scared of doing, Do it.

Always make new mistakes.

Those who make no mistakes are making the biggest mistakes of all - they are attempting nothing new.

You're not always going to hit the bull's-eye. I'm going to make movies that work and I'm going to make movies that don't work, and that's just a part of being creative. Because really, I think if you're taking risks and you're pushing yourself and you're doing things that scare you, you are going to fall on your face, and it's not always going to work.

We know screwups are an essential part of making something good. That's why our goal is to screw up as fast as possible.

Part of being in a band, being a painter, or starting a nonprofit is that you're going to make horrible mistakes and look like a total idiot, but you're never going to create that thing that really connects with people if you don't fail over and over and over again.

To do something that you feel in your heart that's great, you need to make a lot of mistakes. Anything that's successful is a series of mistakes.

After I graduated from Brandeis, I took all the money I had in the world, which was $5,000, and I made a short film. I made every mistake you could possibly make. It was a total disaster as a piece of work, and yet, you know, it was ambitious in some way.

I'm not a trained chef, so I end up making stuff up. It either turns out brilliant or an absolute disaster. I just go for it.

It's important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.