Roger von Oech Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Roger von Oech's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Author Roger von Oech's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 28 quotes on this page collected since February 16, 1948! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
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  • Take advantage of the ambiguity in the world. Look at something and think what else it might be.

    Thinking   Looks   World  
  • It's important for the explorer to be willing to be led astray.

    Roger Von Oech (1986). “A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge, & Warrior to Be More Creative”, Harper Perennial
  • If you fall in love with an idea, you won't see the merits of alternative approaches-and will probably miss an opportunity or two. One of life's great pleasures is letting go of a previously cherished idea. Then you're free to look for new ones. What part of your idea are you in love with? What would happen if you kissed it goodbye?

  • It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out-of-date.

    Roger Von Oech (1986). “A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge, & Warrior to Be More Creative”, Harper Perennial
  • When everyone thinks alike, no one is doing very much thinking.

  • Look for the second right answer.

    Roger Von Oech (1986). “A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge, & Warrior to Be More Creative”, Harper Perennial
  • New ideas are not born in a conforming environment.

  • Life is like a maze in which you try to avoid the exit.

    Roger Von Oech (2001). “Whack on the Side of the Head”, Mjf Books
  • Most brilliance arises from ordinary people working together in extraordinary ways.

  • There is a close relationship between the "ha-ha" of humor and the "aha!" of discovery.

    Roger Von Oech (2002). “Expect the Unexpected (or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus”, p.115, Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • The hallmark of creative people is their mental flexibility... Sometimes they are open and probing, at others they're playful and off-the-wall. At still other times, they're critical and faultfinding. And finally they're doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals.

    Wall   People   Goal  
    Roger Von Oech (1986). “A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge, & Warrior to Be More Creative”, Harper Perennial
  • What excuses stand in your way? How can you eliminate them?

    Way   Excuse  
  • Most burning issues generate far more heat than light.

    Light   Issues   Burning  
  • Most people think of success and failure as opposites, but they both are products of the same process.

  • Going to a junkyard is a sobering experience. There you can see the ultimate destination of almost everything we desired.

    Roger Von Oech (2001). “Whack on the Side of the Head”, Mjf Books
  • We grow up thinking that the best answer is in someone else's brain. Much of our education is an elaborate game of 'guess what's in the teacher's head?' What the world really needs to know right now is what kind of dreams and ideas are in your head.

  • Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn't work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.

    Business   Work   Failure  
  • By the time the average person finishes college, he or she will have taken over 2,600 tests, quizzes, and exams. The right answer approach becomes deeply ingrained in our thinking. This may be fine for some mathematical problems where there is in fact only one right answer. The difficulty is that most of life isn’t this way. Life is ambiguous; there are many right answers- all depending on what you’re looking for. But if you think there is only one right answer, then you’ll stop looking as soon as you find one.

    Life   Taken   College  
  • The worlds of thought and action overlap. What you think has a way of becoming true.

    Thinking   Way   Becoming  
    Roger Von Oech (2001). “Whack on the Side of the Head”, Mjf Books
  • Everyone has a 'risk muscle.' You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don't, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a day.

    Roger Von Oech (1986). “A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge, & Warrior to Be More Creative”, Harper Perennial
  • If you make an error, use it as a stepping stone to a new idea you might not have otherwise discovered.

    Errors   Ideas   Use  
  • Open your mind up to things that have no connection with the problem you're trying to solve: subscribe to an unusual magazine; spend a morning at an elementary school; go to work two hours early; test drive an exotic car; attend a city council meeting; ...try an Indonesian recipe.

  • If you don't execute your ideas, they die.

    Ideas   Dies   Ifs  
  • Knowledge is the stuff from which new ideas are made. Thus, the real key to being creative lies in what you do with your knowledge.

    Real   Lying   Keys  
    Roger Von Oech (2001). “Whack on the Side of the Head”, Mjf Books
  • It's difficult to get your creative juices flowing if you're always being practical, following rules, afraid to make mistakes, not looking into outside areas, or under the influence of any of the other mental locks.

  • Here's my advice: Go ahead and be whacky. Get into a crazy frame of mind and ask what's funny about what you're doing.

    Crazy   Advice   Mind  
  • Am I Getting Lazy? Am I Too Busy? Am I Becoming Arrogant? Am I Getting Timid? If you answer 'yes' to any one of these questions, that's your warning to Kick that attitude!

  • Flexibility is a requirement for survival.

    Roger Von Oech (2001). “Whack on the Side of the Head”, Mjf Books
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We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 28 quotes from the Author Roger von Oech, starting from February 16, 1948! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
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