#ideas

Philosophical theories or ideas, as points of view, instruments of criticism, may help us to gather up what might otherwise pass unregarded by us. ↗

— Walter Pater

#gather #help #ideas #instruments #may

I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas. ↗

— Eliot Spitzer

#believe #i #i do #ideas #individuals

I leave a lot open so I can fill it in later. If I don't have any ideas right away, I can fill it in later. ↗

— Jaime Hernandez

#away #fill #i #i can #ideas

[The Internet] affects democracy... As more and more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and criticism improves democracy. ↗

— Lawrence Lessig

#ideas #internet #open-government #writing #change

A great idea is usually original to more than one discoverer. Great ideas come when the world needs them. Great ideas surround the world's ignorance and press for admission. ↗

— Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

#come #discoverer #great #great idea #great ideas

Will is nothing more than a particular case of the general doctrine of association of ideas, and therefore a perfectly mechanical thing. ↗

— Joseph Priestley

#case #doctrine #general #ideas #mechanical

A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system. ↗

— Jane Smiley

#child #controversial #every #germ #ideas

There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages. ↗

— Mark Twain

#age

Certaines choses que Napoléon dit des femmes, plusieurs discussiions sur le mérite des romans à la mode sous son règne lui donnèrent alors, pour la première fois, quelques idées que tout autre jeune home de son age aurait eues depuis longtemps. ↗

— Stendhal

#ideas #men #passion #romanticism #sex

In art, and maybe just in general, the idea is to be able to be really comfortable with contradictory ideas. In other words, wisdom might be, seem to be, two contradictory ideas both expressed at their highest level and just let to sit in the same cage sort of, vibrating. So, I think as a writer, I'm really never sure of what I really believe. ↗

— George Saunders

#contradiction #ideas #wisdom #writing #art