Greene County Daily World: Blog: 'The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates'

'The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates'

Posted Wednesday, August 12, 2009, at 7:08 AM
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On creativity and freedom:

* The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. -- Albert Einstein, German physicist

* The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself. -- Alan Alda, American actor, director, screenwriter

* You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. -- Albert Einstein, German physicist

* The things we fear most in organizations, fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances, are the primary sources of creativity. -- Margaret J. Wheatley, writer and management consultant

* The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates. -- Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, poet and author

* Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way they always have been done. -- Rudolf Flesch, writer

* Another word for creativity is courage. -- George M. Prince, writer

* As for freedom, it will soon cease to exist in any shape or form. Living will depend upon absolute obedience to a strict set of arrangements, which it will no longer be possible to transgress. The air traveler is not free. In the future, life's passengers will be even less so: they will travel through their lives fastened to their (corporate) seats. -- Jean Baudrillard, French sociologist, philosopher

* It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living. -- Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, mathematician, historian

* If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, U.S Supreme Court jurist

Comments
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My creativity potential has been hampered recently by a serious absence of enthusiasm as I reluctantly greet each morning sun. --- Ol' Simmons

-- Posted by simmons on Wed, Aug 12, 2009, at 10:41 AM

I notice how the French philosopher got squeezed in there condemning conformist and corporations.

Also, Albert Einstein left Germany during the rise of Nazi fascism (1930's) and became a United States citizen in 1940. He is not a German physicist; he denounced that when he became a US citizen.

Albert Einstein was a US physicist.

You are right, as was Oliver Wendell Holmes spoke correctly when he said the Constitution encourages free thought. Therefore, there should be no problem with expressing dislike for the Cap and Trade bill, the bailout, and the Healthcare Reform bill.

-- Posted by cow rancher on Thu, Aug 13, 2009, at 7:42 AM

Thanks, cow rancher, for showing that we share that same critical spirit! You might add READ THE BILL!

-- Posted by Mr. F on Thu, Aug 13, 2009, at 10:41 AM

My favorite:

Who are you when nobody is looking?

-- Posted by gary g on Sun, Aug 16, 2009, at 7:36 AM