Creative thinking is essential to making something new (invention) or something better (innovation) .

I agree with David and Tom Kelley, co-authors of Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All , that almost anyone can think more creatively about what they do and how they do it:  “It turns out that creativity isn’t some rare gift to be enjoyed by the lucky few—it’s a natural part of human thinking and behavior. In too many of us it gets blocked. But it can be unblocked. And unblocking that creative spark can have far-reaching implications for yourself, your organization, and your community.”

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Here are several of my other favorite observations and insights on creativity

“I had always seen myself as a star; I wanted to be a galaxy.” Twyla Tharp

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Pablo Picasso

“You see a child play…and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what’s wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever’s in them rises to the surface in free play.”  Erk Erikson

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”  John Maynard Keynes

“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”  Victor Hugo

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”  Peter F. Drucker

“Everything I do is original — I made it up when I was a child.”  Claes Oldenburg

“You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club” Jack London

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”  George Bernard Shaw

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” Steve Jobs

“Creativity is putting your imagination to work, and it’s produced the most extraordinary results in human culture.”  Ken Robinson

“There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” Brene Brown

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” Charles Mingus

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” Albert Einstein

“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it” Salvador Dali