Foraging is . . .

• being on the outlook and exploring your environment for new ideas
• seeking inspiration through nature
• getting informed gathering facts and ideas
• developing your abilities and talents

Here are some quotes which illustrate the spirit of Foraging . . .

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. --A.A. Milne 

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught. -Oscar Wilde

It takes little talent to see what is under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in what direction to point that organ. -W.H. Auden

Creative minds always have been known to survive any kind of bad training. -Anna Freud 

Anyone can look for history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store. - Robert Wieder 

Reflecting is generating lots of ideas

Reflecting is . . .

• questioning the information which you have collected
• using your imagination
• thinking, pondering, and daydreaming
• brainstorming and "what-if-ing."

Some good examples of Reflecting quotes are:

Imagination rules the world. -Napoleon Bonaparte 

There is a correlation between the creative and the screwball. So we must suffer the screwball gladly.-Kingman Brewster 

It may be that those who do most, dream most. Stephen Leacock 

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. -Friedrich Neitzsche 

Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different. -Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Adopting is embracing an idea

Adopting means . . .

• selecting among your generated ideas
• making decisions
• borrowing ideas from others
• inventing and innovating

Some Adopting quotes which I particularly like are:

It is the function of creative man to perceive and to connect the seemingly unconnected.-William Plommer 

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.-Francois Rene Chateaubriand 

Inventions that are not made, like babies that are not born, are not missed. - John Kenneth Galbraith 

Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful. -Niccolo Machiavelli 

I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping and composition of themes to settle themselves in my brain. When I felt I held enough cards I determined to pass to action, and did so. -Claude Monet

Nurturing is improving your idea

Nurturing requires . . .

• objectively evaluating an idea and rejecting what doesn't work
• simplifying the over-complicated
• lots of hard work
• failing and trying again (over and over again)

Some good Nurturing quotes are:

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. -Charles Mingus 

Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all. -Charles Babbage 

Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation. -Saki (H. H. Munro)

Knuckling Down is never giving up

Knuckling Down means . . .

• marketing your idea
• dealing with critics
• maturing with courage and patience and
• surviving success

Some particularly fine quotes about Knuckling Down are:

Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. -Dale Carnegie 

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. -Bill Cosby 

God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars. -Elbert Hubbard 

Eighty percent of success is showing up. -Woody Allen