59 Inspiring Quotes On Innovation

In the fast-paced world of today, innovation stands as the cornerstone of progress and transformation. It propels industries forward, sparks groundbreaking ideas, and challenges the status quo. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a creative thinker, or simply someone passionate about continuous improvement, finding inspiration can ignite your next innovative breakthrough. In this spirit, we've curated a selection of 59 inspiring quotes that delve into the essence of innovation. These quotes, drawn from visionaries across various fields, offer wisdom, motivation, and a fresh perspective to encourage you on your journey of thinking outside the box and driving impactful change.

1. “All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.” - Frank Zappa

2. “In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.” - Eric Hoffer

3. “Dreamers are mocked as impractical. The truth is they are the most practical, as their innovations lead to progress and a better way of life for all of us.” - Robin Sharma

4. “Throughout history, people with new ideas—who think differently and try to change things—have always been called troublemakers.” - Richelle Mead

5. “The zipper displaces the button and a man lacks just that much time to think while dressing at dawn, a philosophical hour, and thus a melancholy hour.” - Ray Bradbury

6. “I see no advantage in these new clocks. They run no faster than the ones made 100 years ago.” - Henry Ford

7. “Innovation is the creation and delivery of new customer value in the marketplace.” - Michael J. Gelb

8. “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship...the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” - Peter Drucker

9. “The vast majority of human beings dislike and even actually dread all notions with which they are not familiar... Hence it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have generally been persecuted, and always derided as fools and madmen.” - Aldous Huxley

10. “Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and, therefore, the foundation of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.” - J.K. Rowling

11. “Keep in mind that imagination is at the heart of all innovation. Crush or constrain it and the fun will vanish.” - Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

12. “[F]or all its reputation for conservatism, cricket in its history has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for innovation. What game has survived subjection to such extraordinary manipulations, having been prolonged to 10 days (in Durban 70 years ago), truncated to as few as 60 balls (in Hong Kong every year), and remained recognisable in each instance?” - Gideon Haigh

13. “An idea that's BOLD is worthless until SOLD!” - Don The Idea Guy Snyder

14. “For the most part, the best opportunities now lie where your competitors have yet to establish themselves, not where they're already entrenched. Microsoft is struggling to adapt to that new reality.” - Paul G Allen

15. “Steve Jobs gave a small private presentation about the iTunes Music Store to some independent record label people. My favorite line of the day was when people kept raising their hand saying, "Does it do [x]?", "Do you plan to add [y]?". Finally Jobs said, "Wait wait — put your hands down. Listen: I know you have a thousand ideas for all the cool features iTunes could have. So do we. But we don't want a thousand features. That would be ugly. Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It's about saying NO to all but the most crucial features.” - Derek Sivers

16. “History is filled with brilliant people who wanted to fix things and just made them worse.” - Chuck Palahniuk

17. “Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation.” - Edward Abbey

18. “The Brinktown jail is one of the most ingenious ever propounded by civic authorities. It must be remembered that Brinktown occupies the surface of a volcanic butte, overlooking a trackless jungle of quagmire, thorn, eel-vine skiver tussock. A single road leads from city down to jungle; the prisoner is merely locked out of the city. Escape is at his option; he may flee as far through the jungle as he sees fit: the entire continent is at his disposal. But no prisoner ever ventures far from the gate; and, when his presence is required, it is only necessary to unlock the gate and call his name.” - Jack Vance

19. “It isn't all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.” - Gene Roddenberry

20. “I am certain that a Sewing Machine would relieve as much human suffering as a hundred Lunatic Asylums, and possibly a good deal more.” - Margaret Atwood

21. “If humans can live for 100 years, why do companies die so young.” - Sukant Ratnakar

22. “life is a continous journey of transformation” - Sukant Ratnakar

23. “I wokeup in morning and saw, world has move on” - Sukant Ratnakar

24. “His special gift was the ability to see the essence of a worthwhile suggestion and to relate it to what was already in existence or planned. Then he would encourage and shape the new project, repeatedly redesigning the curriculum so that a new department or course could have a comfortable place in which to grow and offer it benefits.” - Charles Bracelen Flood

25. “The paradox of innovation is that it is accepted as an innovation when it has become imitation.” - Piero Scaruffi

26. “Ignore the real world“That would never work in the real world.” You hear it all the time when you tell people about a fresh idea.This real world sounds like an awfully depressing place to live. It’s a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts alwayslose. The only things that win are what people already know and do, even if those things are flawed and inefficient.Scratch the surface and you’ll find these “real world” inhabitants are filled with pessimism and despair. They expect fresh concepts to fail. Theyassume society isn’t ready for or capable of change.Even worse, they want to drag others down into their tomb. If you’re hopeful and ambitious, they’ll try to convince you your ideas are impossible.They’ll say you’re wasting your time.” - David Heinemeier Hansson

27. “Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.” - Robert A. Heinlein

28. “Good ideas may not want to be free, but they do want to connect, fuse, recombine. They want to reinvent themselves by crossing conceptual borders. They want to complete each other as much as they want to compete” - Steven Johnson

29. “Babbage had most of this system sketched out by 1837, but the first true computer to use this programmable architecture didn’t appear for more than a hundred years.” - Steven Johnson

30. “This is not the wisdom of the crowd, but the wisdom of someone in the crowd. It’s not that the network itself is smart; it’s that the individuals get smarter because they’re connected to the network.” - Steven Johnson

31. “Legendary innovators like Franklin, Snow, and Darwin all possess some common intellectual qualities—a certain quickness of mind, unbounded curiosity—but they also share one other defining attribute. They have a lot of hobbies.” - Steven Johnson

32. “Innovators are inevitably controversial.” - Eva Le Gallienne

33. “Well, I always know what I want. And when you know what you want--you go toward it. Sometimes you go very fast, and sometimes only an inch a year. Perhaps you feel happier when you go fast. I don't know. I've forgotten the difference long ago, because it really doesn't matter, so long as you move.” - Ayn Rand

34. “The companies that refused to make hard choices, or refused to admit that anything much was happening, fared badly. If they survive, it is only because their respective governments will not let them go under.” - Peter F. Drucker

35. “If Paul Revere had been a modern day citizen, he wouldn't have ridden down Main Street. He would have tweeted.” - Alec Ross

36. “I am resolutely opposed to all innovation, all change, but I am determined to understand what’s happening. Because I don’t choose just to sit and let the juggernaut roll over me. Many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent, you’re in favor of it. The exact opposite is true in my case. Anything I talk about is almost certainly something I’m resolutely against. And it seems to me the best way to oppose it is to understand it. And then you know where to turn off the buttons.” - Marshall McLuhan

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

38. “Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?” - Frank Herbert

39. “Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.” - Jim Collins

40. “The smart strategist allows strategy to be shaped by events. Good reactions can make great strategy. Strategy involves competition of goals, and the risk is the difference between those goals and the ability of the organization to achieve them. So part of the risk is created by the strategy.” - Max Mckeown

41. “Innovation! One cannot be forever innovating. I want to create classics” - Coco Chanel

42. “We interrogate the world by making.” - Bill Burnett

43. “To teach that a comparatively few men are responsible for the greatest forward steps of mankind is the worst sort of nonsense.” - Henry Ford

44. “People need to deviate away from the role of imitation, and start filling the role of innovation...” - Lionel Suggs

45. “Everyone has an idea. But it’s really about executing the idea and attracting other people to help you work on the idea.” - Jack Dorsey

46. “With a clever strategy, each action is self-reinforcing. Each action creates more options that are mutually beneficial. Each victory is not just for today but for tomorrow.” - Max Mckeown

47. “Following the rules of your industry will only get you so far.” - Max Mckeown

48. “Strategy and culture should have breakfast together.” - Max Mckeown

49. “If you knew all about it, it wouldn't be the leading edge.” - Karl Pribram

50. “I am billionaire bold bright omnipotent lively determined to go within to win opening my omnific eyes to realize wisdom innovation naturalizes…My cascading flow of financial love lavishly streams gold bars as I realize gold is intrinsic wealth as my intuitive imagination is my intrinsic innovations…” - Robert A. Wilson

51. “Failure isn't something to be embarassed about; it's just proof that you're pushing your limits, trying new things, daring to innovate.” - Gavin Newsom

52. “We've got to simplify, pull back all these layers of supposed complexity , and get down to the essentials. If we want people to engage with government, we should use the same tools that are getting them engages with companies and institutions in private life. If we want people to care about political issues, we should give them a way to understand and get involved in them.” - Gavin Newsom

53. “The Rooster Coop was doing its work. Servants have to keep other servants from becoming innovators, experimenters or entrepreneurs. The coop is guarded from the inside.” - Aravind Adiga

54. “Implementing best practice is copying yesterday, innovation is inventing tomorrow.” - Paul Sloane

55. “Fail often and fail cheap.” - Paul Sloane

56. “The innovator's motto is this; I succeed or I learn but I never fail.” - Paul Sloane

57. “The innovative leader has to be an arsonist and a firefighter.” - Paul Sloane

58. “It is critical to learn how to listen for what is not being said.” - Debra Kaye

59. “Look for patterns, and then ask why those patterns exist.” - Debra Kaye