There is a close connection between lack of confidence and the passionate state of mind...

There is a close connection between lack of confidence and the passionate state of mind...

The prerequisite of originality is the art of forgetting, at the proper moment, what we know.

The prerequisite of originality is the art of forgetting, at the proper moment, what we know.

Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be read more

Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.

The stricter standards and independent, often conclusive, evidence in the physical sciences cannot be generalized to intellectual activity as a read more

The stricter standards and independent, often conclusive, evidence in the physical sciences cannot be generalized to intellectual activity as a whole, even though the aura of scientific processes and results is often appropriated by other intellectuals.

All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

...passionate intensity may serve as a substitute for confidence.

...passionate intensity may serve as a substitute for confidence.

To illustrate the difference between the innovator and the dull crowd of routinists who cannot even imagine that any improvement read more

To illustrate the difference between the innovator and the dull crowd of routinists who cannot even imagine that any improvement is possible, we need only refer to a passage in Engel's most famous book. Here, in 1878, Engels apodictically announced that military weapons are "now so perfected that no further progress of any revolutionizing influence is any longer possible." Henceforth "all further [technological] progress is by and large indifferent for land warfare. The age of evolution is in this regard essentially closed." This complacent conclusion shows in what the achievement of the innovator consists: he accomplishes what other people believe to be unthinkable and unfeasible.

Innovators and creators are persons who can to a higher degree than average accept the condition of aloneness. They are read more

Innovators and creators are persons who can to a higher degree than average accept the condition of aloneness. They are more willing to follow their own vision, even when it takes them far from the mainland of the human community. Unexplored places do not frighten them- or not, at any rate, as much as they frighten those around them. This is one of the secrets of their power. That which we call "genius" has a great deal to do with courage and daring, a great deal to do with nerve.

He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.

He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.