quotes and passages on inspiration

Leadership is based on inspiration,
not domination; on cooperation,
not intimidation.

William Arthur Ward

It usually happens that the more faithfully people follow the inspirations they receive, the more do they experience new inspirations which ask increasingly more of them. Joseph de Guibert

Inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic, striving, but it comes to us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. Brenda Ueland It is a fact often observed, that people have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances. Ralph Waldo Emerson

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. Frank Tibolt

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be. Patanjali

Here is the secret of inspiration: Tell yourself that
thousands and tens of thousands of people, not very
intelligent and certainly no more intelligent than the
rest of us, have mastered problems as difficult as
those that now baffle you.

William Feather

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Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.

Pablo Picasso

Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every
day for inspiration in the day's work. I follow in building
the principles which nature has used in its domain.

Frank Lloyd Wright

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London

Inspiration comes whenever it wants, even at the most unlikely times
and in the most inappropriate situations. Often it arrives bit by bit.
Therefore it must be anchored, and this is where a most valuable
item makes its appearance: the notebook.

Piero Ferrucci

Inspiration means that you don't have to figure things out, or think
about them. Ideas and answers pop into your head and the energy
carries you forward, if you allow it. Planning. . . is a way of ritually
killing inspiration, which transcends the need for planning.

Chuck Spezzano

The notion that inspiration is something that happened thousands of years ago,
and was then finished and done with. . . the theory that God retired from business
at that period and has not been heard from since, is as silly as it is blasphemous.

George Bernard Shaw

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect
wood, and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach
them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

Antoine de Saint Exupery

Whether it’s Mother Teresa’s acts of charity, Gandhi’s perseverance,
or your aunt Betty’s calm demeanor, as long as you’re motivated to be
better today than you were yesterday, it doesn’t matter who inspires you.

Timber Hawkeye
Buddhist Boot Camp

Articles and book excerpts on inspiration:

Allowing the Soul to Breathe Tammy Renea Rizer-Averyt
Ten Ways to Inspire Others Michael Angier

Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration
at the time. True inspiration always steals on a person,
its importance not being fully recognized for some time.

Samuel Butler

Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop
an approach for the rest of the time. . . The wait is simply too long.

Leonard Bernstein

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The magic that he taught me was not confined to words; he had a way of
generating in me an excitement about things I had always taken for granted.
He might point to a bank of clouds. "What do you see there? Colors?
That's not enough. Look for towers and drawbridges. Look for dragons
and griffins and strange and wonderful beasts."
Or he might pick up an angry claw-brandishing blue crab, holding it
cautiously by the back flippers as I had taught him. "Pretend you're this
crab," he'd say. "What do you see through those stalk-like eyes? What
do you feel with those complicated legs? What goes on in your tiny brain?
Try it for just five seconds. Stop being a boy. Be a crab!" And I would
stare in amazement at the furious creature, feeling my comfortable identity
lurch and sway under the impact of the idea. So the days went by.

Arthur Gordon

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.

Bo Bennett

There is something in our minds like sunshine and the weather, which is
not under our control. When I write, the best things come to me
from I know not where.

George Christoph Lictenberg

As I grow older, part of my emotional survival plan must be to actively
seek inspiration instead of passively waiting for it to find me.

Bebe Moore Campbell

What do you do when inspiration doesn't come: be careful not to spook,
get the wind up, or force things into position. You must wait
around until the idea comes.

John Huston

Inspiration is the moment in which the spirit within is accessed and revealed.
Inspiration dawns when something in your outer world sparks a flame within
you and calls forth a message. It arrives to remind you that all your answers
lie inside of you, and that you alone are the wisest wizard in your kingdom.
It is often easy to miss those moments until you learn to truly hear the inner
"ding!" and give it the space to emerge into your consciousness. As you move
toward honoring your inner knowing, you can more easily recognize those
moments of inspiration--many of which can be life-transforming.

Cherie Carter-Scott
If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination;
do not become the slave of your model.

Vincent van Gogh

Of course inspiration is nothing but your imagination. But your imagination
will tell you the truth if you seek with prayer (tuning in), and if you will stop
thinking with your brain and offer up every nerve, from the top of your head
to the tips of your fingers and toes, for inspiration. What is inspiration? First
it is a "feeling" and then the feeling sings a song, writes a book, or solves a
problem that changes the course of history.

Joseph Sadony