Luis Walter Alvarez Quotes

Everything has been thought of before... the real problem is to think of it again.

I give people ideas on how to solve intractable problems.

I'm not a craftsman of graphics or art or film. I'm more of an idea generator and manufacturer.

If you want to think new thoughts that are different, then do what creative people do - get the problem reasonably clear and then refuse to look at any answers until you've thought the problem through carefully how you would do it, how you could slightly change the problem to be the correct one.

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought.

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.

The best work for creative folks on the team is when the problem is big and the solution escapes everyone.

Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.

No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

We can't get any new thinking because we can't get any new thinkers.

When trying to innovate, most people stop after 10-15 possibilities, failing to recognize that their first ideas are usually the most obvious ones.

I think you have to be creative to make a difference in science.

I know how to think outside of the box and be creative.

I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.

Good problem-seekers are in higher demand than good problem-solvers.

But how shall I get ideas? ''Keep your wits open! Observe! Observe! Study! Study! But above all, Think! Think! And when a noble image is indelibly impressed upon the mind - Act!

Invent. I love inventing, that's my first passion.

Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again.

Creating is no problem - problem solving is not creating.

To complicate things in new ways, that is really very easy; but to see things in new ways, that is difficult and that is why genius is so rare.

To use your head, you have to go out of your mind.

Enterprise is first creativity. You need creativity to see what's out there and shape it to your advantage. You need creativity to look at the world a little differently. You need creativity to take a different approach, to be different.

So much of what we try to do is get to a point where the solution seems inevitable: you know, you think "of course it's that way, why would it be any other way?" It looks so obvious, but that sense of inevitability in the solution is really hard to achieve.

Most organizations do not value imagination, do not encourage it, do not reward it. In many cases, they don't even think about it. But if you're not thinking about imagination, I guarantee you're not going to have meaningful innovation.