life on planet earth on Ideas

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

When the Venetian botanist Prospero Alpini introduced the use of coffee to Europe from Egypt, the Vatican advocated against its infernal influence. That is, until Pope Clement VIII tried the foreign b...

Ideas are a matter of life and death. Take slavery, for example, which deems some peoples as inferior to others and regards people as objects to be used. Eugenics similarly witnesses to a whole set of...

In 1991, a yet-to-be-identified flea market enthusiast discovered a simple picture frame to his liking. Securing the purchase, the shopper returned home only to discover an ancient document hiding inc...

Why do my best ideas come to me in the shower? I feel like my IQ is at least twenty points higher while lathering up than at any other time of the day. And I’m not alone in finding my light bulb momen...

The American writer and journalist Frank Lyman Baum found that his first book began when a band of children, including his own four sons, asked him to tell a story one night in their home in Chicago. ...

Mark Batterson met John Kilcullen at a writers' conference where they shared their stories. Kilcullen’s massively popular “For Dummies” series of books began with a single comment: “Do you have an...

If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.

Once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate.

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

All words are pegs to hang ideas on.

All great ideas are dangerous.

It is quite possible that I may be altogether wrong in this idea. My own impression, however, is, that I am right.

A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.