91 creative phrases to let your imagination run wild

A collection of witty reflections on life and art.

Throughout the centuries, creative creative phrases and original reflections that have been recorded have been accumulating, leaving evidence of our ability to be witty and witty when it comes to thinking about the most varied topics.

These creative thoughts and phrases are not only entertaining to read, they are also thought-provoking and can become something that inspires us to become more creative ourselves.

At the end of the day, getting to know interesting points of view that are expressed in an original way through short phrases gives us the opportunity to review our preconceived ideas and see that there are concepts that are more related to each other than we first thought.

The best original and creative phrases

The selection of short phrases below can help you to develop your own ideas from the reflections that may arise from reading them. However, it is also worth remembering that although many of these short quotes may be shocking and provocative, to develop your own philosophy of life it is also necessary to dialogue, debate and read longer texts and books.

By the way, if you are interested in seeing more interesting quotes, you can always go to Psychology and Mind's Instagram account or check out these other compilations of selected phrases:

• 125 short positive phrases to live every day with optimism.

• 101 motivational quotes to focus on success

• 75 philosophical phrases spoken by great thinkers

• 50 phrases of heartbreak and complicated relationships

Below you can see the selection of creative phrases. Let's get started!

 

1. Miracles are born out of difficulties

Jean de la Brùyere speaks about resilience and our ability to overcome adversity.

2. Believe you can do it and you're already halfway there.

One of the reflections of Theodore Roosevelt on the ability to believe in oneself.

3. We are facilitators of our own creative evolution.

Bill HicksAnother inspirational phrase related to personal development.

4. To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.

The Spanish painter Pablo Picasso used this allegory to refer to his understanding of inspiration.

5. Life is the flower from which love is the honey

Victor Hugo captures the relationship between life and love in this poetic way.

6. Be yourself, all the others are already ordered

As in almost all the witty phrases of Oscar Wildes wit and a sense of irony are mixed here.

7. Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.

A reflection on creativity by William Plomer.

8. Originality is nothing more than judicious imitation

Voltaire thinking aloud.

9. An idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea.

Another of Oscar Wilde's creative thoughts Oscar Wilde.

10. Everything that can be imagined is real

Pablo Picassoabout the scope of our imagination.

11. A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea endures.

John F. Kennedy reflects on the mark left by ideas.

12. Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.

A creative thought on life, by John W. Gardner.

13. To define is to limit

Oscar Wilde in one of today's most popular phrases.

14. Shut up or say something better than silence

The Greek philosopher Pythagorasin a somewhat harsh but necessary phrase.

15. The secret to creativity is learning to hide your sources

Albert Einstein ironizes about talent and plagiarism.

16. Not being dead is not the same as being alive

E. E. Cummingsposes an apparent paradox.

17. Love them all, trust some, harm none.

William Shakespeare in one of his phrases most related to morality.

18. Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens

The mythical Jimi Hendrix popularized this phrase that seems to belong more to a book of Asian philosophy.

19. The greatest enemy of creativity is common sense

Another of the phrases of the renowned painter Pablo PicassoThe greatest enemy of creativity is common sense, about creativity and the elements that can threaten it.

20. No artist tolerates reality

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche talks about the nature of art.

21. Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.

One of the best known phrases of Bob Marley.

22. Go to where there is silence and say something

A very original phrase, by journalist Amy Goodman.

23. A life lived in fear is only half lived.

A well-known proverb.

24. The whole universe has a rhythm, everything dances

The artist Maya Angelou speaks about the musicality of the situations we experience in our daily lives.

25. Life is like jazz... better if it is improvised.

A reflection of George Gershwin.

26. Life is about trying things to see if they work

The writer Ray Bradbury talks about the essence of life.

27. True creativity begins where language ends

Arthur KoestlerThe true creativity begins where language ends, about the limits of language.

28. You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche left some very poetic phrases. This one is an example.

29. When one educates, two learn

One of the most frequently used quotations when talking about education, authored by Robert Heinlein.

30. Creativity is contagious, pass it on.

Albert Einstein besides being a physicist who changed the course of history, left a lot of creative and inspiring quotes like this one.

31. Time is a good healer but a bad esthetician.

A reflection with a humorous touch, by Lucille S. Harper.

32. Art is not a thing, it is a way.

Elbert Hubbart reflects on art.

33. To live a creative life we must overcome the fear of making mistakes.

Joseph Chilton PearceThe author reflects on the factors that place limits on our creative potential.

34. Without freedom there is no creation

The famous Hindu thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti talks about the nature of freedom.

35. To be brave is to be free

Senecain one of his most motivating reflections.

36. Sometimes, silence is the worst lie

Miguel de Unamuno talks about the serious implications that silence has in some contexts.

37. Beauty, like pain, makes one suffer

Thomas MannThomas Mann, on the double-edged nature of beauty.

38. Flatterers resemble friends as wolves resemble dogs.

A very inspired comparison, idea of George Chapman.

39. How banal it is to sit down to write when we have not stood up to live.

The Thinker Henry David Thoreau leaves evidence of his vitalism in this phrase.

40. Where words fail, music speaks

Hans Christian Andersenabout music and its power.

41. You cannot shake hands with clenched fists.

Indira GandhiIndira Gandhi, one of the great advocates of pacifism, speaks about the need for dialogue.

• More Gandhi's phrases in this article

45. If you have never failed, you have never lived.

A very powerful anonymous phrase.

46. We know what we are, but not what we can be.

William Shakespearein one of his witty phrases about the potential of the human being.

47. Life expands and contracts in proportion to one's courage.

Anaïs Nin uses a very powerful image to talk about what life is and its relationship to courage.

48. A lie told many times becomes the truth.

LeninLenin, about the possibility of making a lie an unquestionable idea.

49. It's not your job that you like me, it's mine.

A quote from Byron Katie.

50. If you can dream it, you can do it

Walt DisneyThe dream, about the possibilities that the simple act of imagining situations offers us.

51. The satisfied do not love, they fall asleep in habit.

Another of the phrases of Miguel de Unamunoin this case about love and relationships.

52. Music is the poetry of the air

Jean Paul Richter in a very poetic phrase about music.

53. Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet

Jean Jacques Rousseau refers to the world of flavors to explain in a short sentence one of the facets of patience.

54. Doubt is one of the names of intelligence.

The writer Jorge Luis Borges speaks about intelligence as something that is equivalent to the management of constant doubts.

55. The best way to fulfill your dreams is to wake yourself up

Paul Valéry reflects on the conditions that must be met in order to achieve goals.

56. If you are not making mistakes, you are not making choices.

Catherine CookCatherine Cook, on the courage to assume the possibility of making mistakes.

57. You have to toughen up without ever losing your tenderness.

The revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara speaks about an apparent contrast.

58. There is someone so intelligent that he learns from the experience of others.

Voltairein one of his creative and witty phrases about intelligence.

59. Violence is fear of other people's ideals

Mahatma GandhiThe first thing you should know about violence and what lies behind it.

60. A good traveler has no plans

The philosopher Lao TzuThe philosopher Lao Tzu, about one of the qualities of the traveler.

61. We are so limited that we always think we are right.

GoetheThe illusions that lead us to believe that we can grasp the absolute truth.

62. If you want to learn, teach

The orator Ciceroin a maxim that has survived for more than two thousand years.

63. Adventure may be mad, but the adventurer must be sane.

Gilbert Keith ChestertonThe adventurer must be sane, about one of the necessary requisites to go on an adventure.

64. A good life is inspired by love and guided by the intellect.

The philosopher Bertrand RussellThe philosopher Bertrand Russell, about what he understood as a good life.

65. Silence is the only friend that does not betray.

Confucius expresses here the extent to which he valued respect and prudence based on fidelity to traditions.

66. Television is a double-edged sword with which even the viewer can commit suicide.

Virginia VilanovaThe risks of television and the information it transmits.

67. The world is nothing more than a canvas for your imagination.

An imaginative phrase of the brilliant writer Henry David Thoreau.

68. Virtue can flourish only among equals

Mary Wollstonecraftin a reflection on equality.

69. Every moment is gold to those who know how to see it as such.

Henry MillerThe importance of valuing the good moments that life gives us.

70. Intelligence, without ambition, is a bird without wings.

Salvador Dalíthe famous Catalan painter, in a phrase that overflows with creativity.

71. Good artists know what to leave out

Charles de LintThe need to select only what is good and necessary.

72. Life is one long lesson in humility.

James M. Barriein a reflection aloud.

73. We admire things for reasons but love them without reasons.

Gilbert Keith Chestertonin a sentence that will leave you thinking. Certainly, love is not usually generated from rational channels.

74. What is urgent is often in conflict with what is necessary

Mao Tse Tungthe mythical Chinese communist leader, in a phrase that can be interpreted in many ways.

75. In art, the obvious is a sin

Edward Dmytryk reveals his vision of artistic creation.

76. It is useless to return to what has already been and what has ceased to be.

The pianist Frédéric Chopin on the ephemerality of human existence.

77. We live in a rainbow of chaos

Paul Cezannethe magnificent painter, in a sublime metaphor.

78. A hungry dog has faith only in meat.

Anton Chekhov left us with many creative thoughts, such as this one. How do you interpret it?

79. Man hates those who make him suffer his own inferiority.

A phrase that can awaken our creative facet, by Earl of Chesterfield.

80. The less routine, the more life

Amos Bronson AlcottA plea to get out of our comfort zone.

81. Take time to choose a friend, but take even longer to change him.

Benjamin FranklinThe book, about friendship and the process of change.

82. The supreme art of the teacher is to awaken joy from creative expression.

One of Albert Einstein's phrases about creativity.

83. The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe in.

This reflection by Gustave Flaubert emphasizes the process of self-knowledge that occurs when writing an original work.

84. Creativity is allowing yourself the luxury of being wrong.

Scott Adams offers us one of the creative phrases that value the freedom we have when it comes to producing new things.

85. To have a vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.

Jonathan Swift speaks about the power of seeing beyond the apparent to the point of detecting potentialities.

86. Our actions flow from three essential sources: desire, emotion and knowledge.

A theoretical proposal by Plato aimed at explaining human behavior.

87. Personality is everything in art and poetry.

A reflection of Goethe about the passions and motivations that guide the creation of art.

88. Hatred is blind, just as love is blind.

The great passions are capable of clouding our rationality. A quote from Oscar Wilde.

89. I have discovered that if you love life, it will love you back.

This inspiring reflection is from Arthur Rubinstein.

90. Art is the only way to run away without leaving home

This reflection on the use of art as escapism is by Twyla Tharp.

91. Stay true to the dreams of your youth

A recommendation by Friedrich Schiller.