Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

We Americans love original ideas. But truly, there are already plenty of good ones out there, ours for the taking. If I were too proud to copy the ideas of others, I likely wouldn't have even a fraction of my current success.

Don't be afraid to borrow. The great men, the most original, borrowed from everybody.

I make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and listening to them. And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I am.

I have never been an innovator, a creative genius.

If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants.

I not only use all the brains I have but I borrow what I can from everyone about me.

I don’t give a damn where an idea comes from. If it’s good, use it.

My favorite thing about working with Lady Gaga is really just the sheer level of creativity she brings to the table. And she's really one of the most intelligent people I've ever known. Her intelligence is equaled by her heart.

Paul Cummins is a genius. He's a true visionary.

Great genial power, one would almost say, consists in not being original at all; in being altogether receptive; in letting the world do all, and suffering the spirit of the hour to pass unobstructed through the mind.

There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth.

No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.

You don't want to be the smartest person in the room; you want to be the dumbest in the room. You want to be surrounded by other thinking people who are going to say something that makes you think, "Oh, my God, that's an amazing idea. Why didn't I think of that."

Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques.

Works of genius are the first things in the world.

Theories of genius are the peculiar constructions of our own philosophical times; ages of genius had passed away, and they left no other record than their works; no preconcerted theory described the workings of the imagination to be without imagination, nor did they venture to teach how to invent invention.

Peter had a genius for imitation; but he lacked true genius, which is creative and makes all from nothing.

The great genius does not let his work be determined by the concrete finite conditions that surround him, whilst it is from these that the work of the statesman takes its direction and its termination. ... It is the genius in reality and not the other who is the creator of history, for it is only the genius who is outside and unconditioned by history.

Genius is what a man invents when he is looking for a way out.

We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and conscientiously. We must not pretend to know when we do not know.

Test everything, try everything, and then believe it, and if you find it for the good of many, give it to all.

Genius is the gold in the mine, talent is the miner who works and brings it out.

The genius is the man who has genuine and deep human relations with others, who does not cut himself off in the search for originality, but who realizes the value of artistic tradition.

There has never been any great genius without a spice of madness.

Genius appeals to the future.