76 Great Creativity Quotes to Inspire You at Work

You found our list of the best creativity quotes for work.

Creativity quotes are sayings about imagination and innovation. For example, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein or “Imagination creates reality.” – Richard Wagner. The purpose of these phrases is to encourage employees to be more inventive and original.

These phrases are a type of inspirational work quote and can serve as a morale booster. You can also spark employee’s curiosity and imagination with books on innovation and books on creativity.

This article includes:

• short creativity quotes
• quotes about creativity and hard work
• quotes about innovation
• creativity quotes for business
• creativity and vision quotes
• imagination quotes

Here we go!

Short creativity quotes

1. “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” – Robin Williams
2. “Imagination rules the world.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
3. “Creativity takes courage.” – Henri Matisse
4. “Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.” – Donatella Versace
5. “A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.” – Frank Capra
6. “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein
7. “Replace fear with curiosity.” – Steven Spielberg
8. “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath
9. “Creativity is just connecting things.” – Steve Jobs
10. “Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye.” – Dorothy Parker
11. “Creativity is the art of concealing your source.” Coco Chanel
12. “Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.” – Julia Cameron
13. “All creative people want to do the unexpected.” – Hedy Lamarr

Quotes about creativity and hard work

1. “Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.” – Twyla Tharp
2. “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” – Michelangelo
3. “To have a great idea, have a lot of them.” – Thomas A. Edison
4. “Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.” – Rita Mae Brown
5. “Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” – John Updike
6. “Creativity itself doesn’t care at all about results – the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it. Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work. Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
7. “In the world of creativity, laziness translates into an inability to be rigorous enough to create fearlessly. It makes us plagiarise or water our creativity down to make it more acceptable to the public.” – Shah Rukh Khan
8. “I apply the term ‘creativity’ broadly… it’s problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that’s where creativity comes in.” – Edwin Catmull
9. “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Quotes about innovation

1. “Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.” – Winston Churchill
2. “If an organization values innovation, you can assume it’s safe to speak up with new ideas, leaders will listen, and your voice matters.” – Adam Grant
3. “For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.” – Margaret Heffernan
4. “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” – William Pollard
5. “There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” – Brene Brown
6. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs
7. “The heart and soul of the company is creativity and innovation.” – Bob Iger
8. “I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts.” – Bill Gates
9. “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.” – Steven Johnson
10. “Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.” – William Pollard
11. “I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.” – Jeff Bezos
12. “Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.” – Mason Cooley

Creativity quotes for business

1. “What is now proved was once only imagined.” – William Blake
2. “Trust that little voice in your head that says ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if…’; And then do it.” – Duane Michals
3. “Creativity may be hard to nurture, but it’s easy to thwart.” – Adam Grant
4. “Creativity is not just for artists. It’s for businesspeople looking for a new way to close a sale; it’s for engineers trying to solve a problem; it’s for parents who want their children to see the world in more than one way.” – Twyla Tharp
5. “The most creative people are motivated by the grandest of problems that are presented before them.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson
6. “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” – Scott Adams
7. “If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” – John Cleese
8. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville
9. “Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they’re going to make mistakes.” – Ross Perot
10. “Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.” – Salvador Dali
11. “Creativity flows when curiosity is stoked.” – Neil Blumenthal
12. “To me there’s no creativity without boundaries. If you’re gonna write a sonnet, it’s 14 lines, so it’s solving the problem within the container.” – Lorne Michaels
13. “Ideas control the world.” – James A. Garfield
14. “Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.” Vincent Van Gogh
15. “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” – Ayn Rand
16. “Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Creativity and vision quotes

1. “The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.” – Malcolm Gladwell
2. “Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.” – William Plomer
3. “Make an empty space in any corner of your mind, and creativity will instantly fill it.” – Dee Hock
4. “For us, creativity means thinking about the lives of our audience and how to connect with them.” – Anna Wintour
5. “Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.” – Marina Abramovic
6. “Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.” – Jonathan Swift
7. “An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.” – James Whistler
8. “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – Carl Jung
9. “Vision is the true creative rhythm.” – Robert Delaunay ·
10. “All things are created twice; first mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision and a blue print of the desired result.” – Stephen R. Covey
11. “True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.” – Edith Wharton

Imagination quotes

1. “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein
2. “An idea is salvation by imagination.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
3. “Imagination creates reality.” – Richard Wagner
4. “Live out of your imagination, not your history.” – Stephen Covey
5. “The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
6. “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain
7. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein
8. “There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton
9. “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” – Henry David Thoreau
10. “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” – Carl Sagan
11. “The imagination is man’s power over nature.” – Wallace Stevens
12. “The power of imagination makes us infinite.” – John Muir
13. “The imagination is a muscle. If it is not exercised, it atrophies.” – Neil Gaiman
14. “He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.” – Joseph Joubert
15. “True intelligence requires fabulous imagination.” – Ian Mcewan

Final thoughts

Creativity is not just for the creative professions. Every field can benefit from imagination and innovation. Sometimes, employees could use encouragement to think outside the box and permission to daydream. These quotes can spark creativity, boost self confidence, and challenge listeners to think in new ways. The sayings can also work as an effective self-pep-talk when faced with unoriginality and creative blocks.

Next, check out this list of quotes about hard work.