39 Quotes on Innovation, Creativity, and Performance

As we work to learn, grow, and thrive, let’s learn from the legends. Here are 39 of my favorite quotations from the giants of business, art, music, and innovation. I hope you guzzle and share these powerful nuggets of wisdom…

Children are happy because they don't have a file in their minds called "All the things that could go wrong." -Marianne Williamson, American Spiritual Teacher

If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less. -General Erick Shinseki, Former US Secretary of Veterans Affairs

We overestimate the risk of trying something new, but we underestimate the risk of standing still. -Josh Linkner

Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction. -Picasso, Spanish Painter

Out there is an entrepreneur who's forging a bullet with your company's name on it. You've got one option - shoot first. -Gary Hamel, Consultant & Business Thinker

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. John Steinbeck, Nobel Prize Winner & Author

Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, progress stops. Thomas J. Watson, Former Chairman & CEO, IBM

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident. -Arthur Schopenhauer, German Philosopher

Challenge everything, assume nothing. -Sergio Zyman, Marketing Genius

You don't need to wear a hoodie or a lab coat to be an innovator. -Josh Linkner

Restlessness & Disconnect are the first necessities of progress. -Thomas Edison, American Inventor

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works. If from the head, almost nothing. -Marc Chagall, Russian-French Artist

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire. Ferdinand Foch, French General & Military Theorist

Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking we can get on with creating the future. James Bertrand, French Painter

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember: Amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic - Anonymous

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in a world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Adidas, mission statement

Growth & comfort sledom ride the same horse. -Unknown

You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction. Edward deBono Physician & Lateral Thinker

Playing it safe has become the riskiest move of all. -Josh Linkner

You can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark, but not an adult who is afraid of the light. - Plato Classical Greek Philosopher

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music. -Unknown

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones. John Cage, American Composer

If the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside, the end is near. - Jack Welch, Former Chairman & CEO, GE

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. -Maya Angelou

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun. -May Lou Cook

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. -Vincent Van Gogh

The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense. -Pablo Picasso

We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down. -Kurt Vonnegut

Someday, a company will put us out of business. Might as well be us. -Josh Linkner

When patterns are broken, new worlds emerg. -Tuli Kupferberg

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. -Pablo Picasso

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all. -Edward De Bono

You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club. -Jack London

If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. -Sir Ken Robinson

Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. -Friedrich Nietzche

The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones. -Unknown

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. -Albert Camus

Everyone who's ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference. -Nolan Bushnell

Top Keynote Speakers for a Travel or Hospitality Conference in 2026

Introduction Hospitality and travel conferences ask more of a keynote than most industries do. The audience runs from owners and asset managers to general managers ...

Top AI Keynote Speakers in 2026

Introduction There is no shortage of AI keynote speakers in 2026, which is precisely the problem. The category filled faster than almost any in the ...

Top Keynote Speakers for Industry Association Events in 2026

Introduction Association events run on a different economy than corporate ones. Nobody is required to attend, the budget is often the member's own, and the ...

Top Keynote Speakers for Leadership or Company Offsite in 2026

Introduction A leadership offsite is not a conference, and booking it as though it were is the most common way to waste one. The audience ...

Top Keynote Speakers on AI Strategy for Executives in 2026

Introduction Executive audiences have moved past the question of whether AI matters and arrived at a harder one: where it actually creates durable advantage, and ...

Top Gaming Keynote Speakers for 2026

Introduction Gaming entered 2026 as the largest entertainment industry on earth and one of the least comfortable. Studios are absorbing the aftermath of several years ...

Top Keynote Speakers for Business AI Adoption in 2026

Introduction Most organizations no longer have an AI strategy problem. They have an AI adoption problem. The licenses are bought, the pilots have run, the ...

Top Keynote Speakers for a Remote or Hybrid Event in 2026

Introduction The remote or hybrid event is no longer a fallback. It is a format with its own economics, its own production standards, and its ...

Best Virtual Speakers for 2026

Introduction The best virtual keynote speakers in 2026 do more than deliver a strong speech through a webcam. Organizations use virtual and hybrid events to ...

Read All Blogs