25 Inspiring Innovation Quotes

By: Gijs van Wulfen

Gijs van Wulfen shares 25 of his favorite motivational quotes to jump start innovation. Do you have more?

In my daily work as a facilitator of the FORTH innovation method I often use innovation quotes. Why? I found out that quotes really inspire people. They give new insights. And motivate people to go beyond their borders. That’s why I like to share with you 25 inspiring quotes to jump start innovation.

1. “Innovation is anything, but business as usual.” (Anonymous).

2. “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman”. (David Ogilvy).

3. “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there will be no hope for it.” (A. Einstein).

4. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” (A. Warhol).

5. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” (George Bernard Shaw).

6. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” (Alan Kay).

7. “There are no old roads to new directions.” (Advertisement of the Boston Consulting Group).

8. “Nothing is stronger than habit.” (Ovid).

9. “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” (A. Einstein).

10. “Organizations, by their very nature are designed to promote order and routine. They are inhospitable environments for innovation.” (T. Levitt).

11. “It’s tough when markets change and your people within the company don’t.” (Harvard Business Review).

12. “Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.” (Goethe).

13. “What we’ve done to encourage innovation is make it ordinary.” (C. Wynett, Procter & Gamble).

14. “To gain customer insights, we must understand that we are prisoners of what we know and what we believe”. (Mohanbir Sawhney).

15. “He who ask a question is a fool for 5 minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool for ever.” (China)

16. “A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.” (A. von Szent-Gyorgyi).

17. “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises”. (Demosthenes).

18. “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”  (Anonymous).

19. “People who don’t take risks generally make about 2 big mistakes a year, people who do take risks generally make about 2 big mistakes a year” (Peter Drucker).

20. “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” (R. Emerson).

21. “The impossible is often the untried.” (J. Goodwin).

22. “Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.” (Tao Te Ching).

23. “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” (D. Adams).

24. “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow” (Rupert Murdoch).

25. “The key to success is for you to make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear.” (Vincent Van Gogh).

I hope these quotes inspire you. Do you like more tips, formats and checklists to jump start innovation? You can download thirteen free checklists of the FORTH innovation method here. Do you have other innovation quotes you like to share? Please add them!