They tried to be too clever, and that was their undoing.
—Agatha Christie
Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful. There are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind.
—Jean Rostand
They were strange and mercantile people, these Americans. One never knew what they might come up with next.
—Lauren Willig
Whenever I found out anything remarkable, I put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people might be informed thereof.
—Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.
—Edgar Allan Poe
The more I pushed myself to get over my fears, I realised that my imagination was the thing that stopped me.
—Ami Vitale
I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is mere appendix.
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Fear is an excellent motivator. I find that it really brings out the true ingenuity of a creature.
—MD Elster
Facts aren’t everything; at least half the battle consists in how one makes use of them.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky
Only a mind free of impediment is capable of grasping the chaotic beauty of the world. This is our greatest asset.
—Oliver Bowden
You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.
—Frank McCourt
Even if the situation or challenge is very complex, usually the simplest solution is the one to go with.
—Roxanne Quimby
The world is in perpetual motion, and we must invent the things of tomorrow. Act with audacity.”
—Madame Clicquot
(This story appears in the 17 July, 2020 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)