Madeleine L'Engle Quotes

Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it's the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves.

Stunt dwarf or destroy the imagination of a child and you have taken away its chances of success in life. Imagination transforms the commonplace into the great and creates the new out of the old.

Encourage your kids to be creative. When you see them tracing a character from TV or a comic, say something like, 'That's nice. Now how about you create a character yourself?' Keep kids curious and excited about creating.

I took my son to an exhibition about inventing things, and he was so inspired he started collecting toilet rolls and empty bottles for his own 'inventions.'

We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.

When we treat children's play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that's to be found in the creative spirit. We're helping ourselves stay in touch with that spirit, too. It's the things we play withand the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.

A child's instinct is almost perfect in the matter of fighting. The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends himself suddenly and splendidly against aggression.

The child has other powers than ours, and the creation he achieves is no small one; it is everything.

I think the idea of a heightened reality and then the fantasy that we're able to be swept up in, and then these larger than life heroes and the possibility of someone much more powerful than we are and greater, that can come and save the day, so to speak, is inspiring.

I love connecting with kids. I love connecting with children of all ages to keep their imagination active because that's the key to happiness and imagination and creativity.

Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination.

The hero is the one with ideas.

This lack of imagination gives his heroism to the hero.

Imagination has given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking-machine, and the automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became realities. So I believe that dreams - day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing - are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization. A prominent educator tells me that fairy tales are of untold value in developing imagination in the young. I believe it.

Fostering creativity in children is as important as any other part of the school curriculum because it feeds the soul. A daily dose of creativity helps children imagine a better world and then create it.

We start out as pretty creative beings... Children let their imaginations take them to place they've never seen and do things that seem impossible. We encourage it as fun and playtime, but we should celebrate it as the potential for great discovery and accomplishment.

Though progress starts with the imagination, only work can make things happen. And work itself works best when fueled, again by the imagination.

Ideas come from curiosity.

You make something. You give up expressing and start inventing.

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all.

Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature – all are lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you’ll find out how big a prize you’ve won.

The first step in innovation is to know that a thing can be created. After that, the rest is a matter of detail.

The creative process requires more than reason. Most original thinking isn't even verbal. It requires 'a groping experimentation with ideas, governed by intuitive hunches and inspired by the unconscious.' The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked.

Now, isn't imagination a precious thing? It peoples the earth with all manner of wonders.

To start with invention is the mark of the fertile mind ... and leads later to the interpretation of experience; to start with the reproduction of experience is the infallible index of a barren invention.