Preparation

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have an apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.[i] 

To have a great idea, have a lot of them[ii]. There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.[iii] 

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.[iv] In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.[v] 

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.[vi] Ideas won’t keep; something must be done about them.[vii] 

Get your ideas on paper and study them. Do not let them go to waste![viii] When you write down your ideas, you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.[ix] 

One's mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.[x] It is the nature of thought to find its way into action.[xi] Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats[xii] 

The only force that can overcome an idea and a faith is another and better idea and faith, positively and fearlessly upheld.[xiii] The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.[xiv] If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.[xv]

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.[xvi]  The key to happiness is having dreams. The key to success is making your dreams come true.[xvii]

Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood and will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble and logical plan never dies, but long after we are gone will be a living thing.[xviii]

__________________________________________________

[i] George Bernard Shaw 

[ii] Thomas A. Edison 

[iii] Mark Twain 

[iv] Jim Rohn 

[v] Francis Bacon 

[vi] Goethe 

[vii] Alfred North Whitehead 

[viii] Les Brown 

[ix] Michael Leboeuf 

[x] Oliver Wendell Holmes 

[xi] Christian Nevell Bovee 

[xii] Howard Aiken 

[xiii] Dorothy Thompson 

[xiv] Eleanor Roosevelt 

[xv] Henry David 

[xvi] Woodrow Wilson 

[xvii] Unknown Author 

[xviii] Lita Bane