“There’s a wealth of talent that lies in all of us. All of us, including those who work in schools, must nurture creativity systematically and not kill it unwittingly.”
“You can be creative in anything – in math, science, engineering, philosophy – as much as you can in music or in painting or in dance.”
“For most of us, the problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail – it’s just the opposite – we aim too low and succeed.”
“Creativity is as important now in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”
“Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it’s the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves.”
“Passion is the driver of achievement in all fields. Some people love doing things they don’t feel they’re good at.”
“Sometimes getting away from school is the best thing can happen to a great mind.”
“We stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national educational systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make — and the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.”
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”
“Many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not — because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized.”
“Life is not linear. When you follow your own true north you create new opportunities, meet different people, have different experiences and create a different life.”
“You cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do is like a farmer create the conditions under which it will begin to flourish.”
“Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability. And at the heart of the challenge is to reconstitute our sense of ability and intelligence.”
“Creativity involves putting your imagination to work. In a sense, creativity is applied imagination.”
“Some of the most brilliant, creative people I know did not do well at school. Many of them didn’t really discover what they could do—and who they really were—until they’d left school and recovered from their education.”
“You can’t be a creative thinker if you’re not stimulating your mind, just as you can’t be an Olympic athlete if you don’t train regularly.”
“Imagination is the source of all human achievement.”
“The real role of leadership in education…is not and should not be command and control. The real role of leadership is climate control – creating a climate of possibility. If you do that, people will rise to it and achieve things that you completely did not anticipate and couldn’t have expected.”
“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.”
“Every single one of the 100 billion lives who have walked the face of this earth is unique and unrepeatable. To be born at all is a miracle, so what are you going to do with your life?”
“For most of us the problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail – it’s just the opposite – we aim too low and succeed.”
“What you’re doing now, or have done in the past, need not determine what you can do next and in the future.”
“Creativity is as important as literacy.”
“For most of us the problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail. It’s just the opposite: we aim too low and succeed.”
“Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent not a singular conception of ability.”
“To be creative you actually have to do something.”
“What you do for yourself dies with you when you leave this world, what you do for others lives on forever.”
“The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it’s to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel they’re valued.”
“We are educating people out of their creative capacities.”
“Being in your element is not only about aptitude, it’s about passion: it is about loving what you do.”
“Finding your Element is not just about passion and aptitude; it’s about attitude and opportunity. It has to matter to you enough. It isn’t about walking away from your responsibilities and leaving everything behind…It is about trying to find a purpose in your life and being honorable and true to yourself.”
“The Element is about discovering your self, and you can’t do this if you’re trapped in a compulsion to conform. You can’t be yourself in a swarm.”
“Learning happens in the minds and souls, not in the databases of multiple choice tests.”
“One Size Does Not Fit All Some of the most brilliant, creative people I know did not do well at school. Many of them didn’t really discover what they could do—and who they really were—until they’d left school and recovered from their education.”
