How to be INNOVATIVE

USE THE STEPPING STONES OF ANALOGY
"I invent nothing; I rediscover." Rodin


MAKE THE STRANGE FAMILIAR AND THE FAMILIAR STRANGE
"Discovery consists of seeing what everyone has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." Anon


WIDEN YOUR SPAN OF RELEVANCE
"To perseive things in the germ is intelligence." Lao-Tzu


PRACTISE SERENDIPITY
"The real majic of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust


CHANCE FAVOURS ONLY THE PREPARED MIND
"Where observation is concerned, chance favours only the prepared mind." Louis Pasteur


CURIOSITY
"Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect." Samuel Johnson


KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN
"Here is a great observer, and looks quite through the deeds of men." William Shakespeare

"If a man looks sharply and attentively, he shall see fortune; for though she is blind yet she is not invisible." Francis Bacon


LISTEN FOR IDEAS
"Give us grace to listen well." John Keble


READING TO GENERATE IDEAS
"The use of reading is to aid us in thinking." Edward Gibbon


KEEP A NOTEBOOK
"A commonplace book contains many notions in garrison, whence the owner may draw out an army into the field on competant warning." Thomas Fuller


TEST YOUR ASSUMPTIONS
"If a man begins with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he will end with certainties." Francis Bacon


MAKE BETTER USE OF YOUR DEPTH MIND
"While the fisher sleeps the net takes the fish." Ancient Greek Proverb


DO NOT WAIT FOR INSPIRATION
"Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labour." Leonardo da Vinci


SHARPEN YOUR ANALYTICAL SKILLS
"One should never imopse one's views on a problem; one should rather study it, and in time a solution will reveal itself." Albert Einstein

SUSPECT JUDGEMENT
"Criticism often takes from the tree caterpillars and blosomes together." Jean-Paul Sartre


LEARN TO TOLERATE AMBIGUITY
"Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit." Henry Adams


DRIFT, WAIT AND OBEY
"Day-dreaming is thought's Sabbath." Amiel


SLEEP ON THE PROBLEM
"It is the heart that always sees, before the head can see." Thomas Carlyle


WORKING IT OUT
"There is an old saying 'Well begun is half done'. 'Tis a bad one. I woud use instead, 'Not begun at all till half done." John Keats


THINK CREATIVELY ABOUT YOUR LIFE
"Creativeness and creative attitude to life as a whole is not man's right, it is his duty." Nikolai Berdyaev


Quotes from 'The Art of Creative Thinking' by John Adair