Creativity Quotes by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

For better or worse, our future is now closely tied to human creativity.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“To achieve creativity in an existing domain, there must be surplus attention available.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Creative individuals are more likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other one, too.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Studying creativity is not an elite distraction, but provides one of the most exciting models for living.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Even without success, creative persons find joy in a job well done. Learning for its own sake is rewarding.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Produce as many ideas as possible. Try to produce unlikely ideas.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual,…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

For original ideas to come about, you have to let them percolate under the level of consciousness in a place where we…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

And it has become a kind of a truism in the study of creativity that you can't be creating anything with less…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Creativity is any act, idea, or product that changes an existing domain, or that transforms an existing domain into a new one…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

To be creative, a person has to internalize the entire system that makes creativity possible. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time... Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline,…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives...most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“In other words, if Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy showed more than their fair share of pathology it was due less to the requirements…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Each of us is born with two contradictory sets of instructions: a conservative tendency, made up of instincts for self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, and…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Problems are solved only when we devote a great deal of attention to them and in a creative way...to have a good…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Creative people are constantly surprised. They don’t assume that they understand what is happening around them, and they don’t assume that anybody…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual,…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Today many American corporations spend a great deal of money and time trying to increase the originality of their employees, hoping thereby…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Neither parents nor schools are very effective at teaching the young to find pleasure in the right things. Adults, themselves often deluded…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“You cannot transform a domain unless you first thoroughly understand how it works. Which means that one has to acquire the tools…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“To achieve historical creativity many other conditions must be met. For instance, you must be lucky, for to excel in some domains…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“After curiosity, this quality of concentrated attention is what creative individuals mention most often as having set them apart in college from…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

If I had to express in one word what makes their [creative individuals'] personalities different from others, it's complexity. They show tendencies…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Painters must want to paint above all else. If the artist in front of the canvas begins to wonder how much he…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi