110 Innovation Quotes to Motivate You to Create

These innovation quotes will inspire you to find new successes by trying new things.

In our technology-driven world, it seems like the word innovation is thrown around all the time.

When you read the word innovation in the news, you could expect something as minor as a way to make a smartphone a couple of milligrams lighter, or it could mean a medical breakthrough that could save countless lives.

How can you create new innovations?

The best inventors and innovators of the past seem to agree that being willing to try new things and risk failure are the most important values when you want to achieve greatness.

Often, you may not know why you are trying something new or what its value will be until much later.

If you want to be an innovator, you can’t be afraid of the unknown.

By browsing the quotes below, you can build up the courage and patience you’ll need for true innovation.

Don’t forget to also check out these achievement quotes to motivate you for massive success.

Also, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily wisdom. 

See the rest of our quote database for even more inspirational ideas and thoughts.

Innovation Quotes About the Value of Creativity

1.) “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” – Peter Drucker

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2.) “With any advent in technology, any technological innovation, there is the good and the bad.” – Henry Rollins

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3.) “Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.” – Winston Churchill

4.) “You have all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Imagination plus innovation equals realization.” – Denis Waitley

5.) “Human societies vary in lots of independent factors affecting their openness to innovation.” – Jared Diamond

6.) “Innovation accelerates and compounds. Each point in front of you is bigger than anything that ever happened.” – Marc Andreessen

7.) “Innovation is the unrelenting drive to break the status quo and develop anew where few have dared to go.” – Steven Jeffes

8.) “Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.” – Theodore Levitt

9.) “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but building on the new.” – Socrates

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Innovation Quotes About Leadership

10.) “Innovation is serendipity, so you don’t know what people will make.” – Tim Berners-Lee

11.) “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

12.) “If I had to pick my greatest strength as a football coach, I say it would be innovation.” – Tom Landry

13.) “The heart and soul of the company is creativity and innovation.” – Bob Iger

14.) “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.” – Steven Johnson

15.) “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” – George Patton

16.) “Innovation is critical to the heartbeat of any successful corporation in the industrialized world.” – Dinesh Paliwal

17.) “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw

18.) “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Alan Kay

19.) “I skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretzky

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20.) “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol

21.) “If I had asked the public what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford

22.) “Be an innovator, not an imitator.” – Audrey Carballo

Innovation Quotes About Taking Risks

23.) “There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” – Brené Brown

24.) “Innovation requires an experimental mindset.” – Denise Morrison

25.) “You can’t allow tradition to get in the way of innovation. There’s a need to respect the past, but it’s a mistake to revere your past.” – Bob Iger

26.) “Without trust, the most essential element of innovation – conflict – becomes impossible.” – Patrick Lencioni

27.) “Innovation is so hard and so frustrating; it takes the intersections of people with courage, vision, and resources.” – Dean Kamen

28.) “Innovation- any new idea- by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience.” – Warren Bennis

29.) “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair

30.) “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – Albert Einstein

31.) “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.” – Woody Allen

32.) “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” – William Shedd

33.) “If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.” – Alfred Nobel

34.) “I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.” – Jeff Bezos

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Innovation Quotes on How it Happens

35.) “Predicting innovation is something of a self-canceling exercise: the most probable innovations are probably the least innovative.” – P. J. O’Rourke

36.) “There’s a way to do it better. Find it.” – Thomas Edison

37.) “I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.” – Jeff Bezos

38.) “Young people are the entrepreneurs of the future, and we should be looking to them as one of our sources of innovation for the high streets of tomorrow.” – Theo Paphitis

39.) “Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.” – George Lucas

40.) “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” – William Pollard

41.) “Innovation comes from, one, acknowledging yourself; two, studying and understanding the problem; and three, finding a solution.” – Marley Dias

42.) “Surprise drives progress because innovation depends on the sort of knowledge no one can gather in a central place.” – Virginia Postrel

43.) “Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.” – Mason Cooley

44.) “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” – John Steinbeck

45.) “A dream will not become an innovation if there is no realization.” – Ciputra

46.) “There’s nothing efficient about innovation.” – Simon Sinek

47.) “Innovation is taking two things that exist and putting them together in a new way.” – Tom Freston

48.) “The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” – Thomas Edison

49.) “What is the calculus of innovation? The calculus of innovation is really quite simple: Knowledge drives innovation, innovation drives productivity, productivity drives economic growth.” – William Brody

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Innovation quotes about change

50). “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

51.) “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

52.) “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

53.) “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

54.) “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” – Albert Einstein

55.) “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller

56.) “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” – Rumi

57.) “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” – Unknown

58.) “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw

59.) “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa

60.) “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky

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More innovation quotes and sayings

61. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” – Brene Brown

62. “Innovation is an evolutionary process, so it’s not necessary to be radical all the time.” – Marc Jacobs

63. “Do not get obsolete like an old technology, keep innovating yourself.” – Sukant Ratnakar

64. “The paradox of innovation is that it is accepted as an innovation when it has become imitation.” – Piero Scaruffi

65. Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation.” – Edward Abbey

66. “Innovation does not come from grades, it is result of craziness and hard work!” – Atlas Gondal

67. “Innovation journey is like taking a hiking trip at the trail very few or even no people ever went before, it takes courage and emotional maturity.” – Pearl Zhu

68. “Continue to fight until you win.” – Sanjeev Sharma

69. “If you want innovation, and you should always, you should give permission to fail.” – Robert Iger

70. “Innovation is progress when it improves the human experience in the whole.” – Andrea Benoni

Innovation Quotes From Famous People

71. “Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not a threat” — Steve Jobs

72. “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old” — Peter Drucker

73. What is now proved was once only imagined.” — William Blake

74. “Innovation is the creation of the new or the re-arranging of the old in a new way” — Mike Vance

75. “The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child.” — Thomas A. Edison

76. “Business has only two basic functions – marketing and innovation.” — Peter Drucker

77. “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” — John Cage

78. “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” — Steve Jobs

79. Never before in history has innovation offered the promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” — Bill Gates

80. “The enterprise that does not innovate ages and declines. And in a period of rapid change such as the present, the decline will be fast.” — Peter Drucker

Innovation Quotes To Encourage Creativity

81. “To stay ahead in innovation, look at horizontal industries and the ones leading your current industry, someone is always doing something new.“ — Jeff Butler

82. “Innovation is progress in the face of tradition.“ — Divad 

83. “Most innovation involves doing the things we do every day a little bit better rather than creating something completely new and different.“ – Darin

84. “Innovation comes from saying NO to 1000 things.“ – Steve Jobs

85. “Innovation survives only when people believe in their own ideas.“ – Levo League

86. “When looking to innovate—fail forward. Innovation can be a chaotic process, embrace it and learn from your failures.“ – Luke Wester

87. “Innovation is more likely to come from a person who sits down and does the same thing every single day until they become an expert than from a person who sits down once because they feel inspired.“ – Stacy Caprio

88. “Modern society is built upon two things: truth, which is discovered, and innovation, which is created.“ – True Tamplin

89.  “Organizations, by their very nature are designed to promote order and routine. They are inhospitable environments for innovation.” – T. Levitt.

90. “What we’ve done to encourage innovation is make it ordinary.” – C. Wynett

Innovation Quotes For A Brighter Future

91. “Culture is so incredibly important because it is the foundation for all future innovation. People with passion can change the world.” ― Brian Chesky

92. “We know that dreams fuel innovation.” ― Bertrand Piccard

93. “All innovation begins with vision. It’s what happens next that is critical.” ― Eric Ries

94. “If you open up the mind, the opportunity to address both profits and social conditions are limitless. It’s a process of innovation.” ― Jerry Greenfield

95. “Innovation basically involves making obsolete that which you did before.” ― Jay Abraham

96. “To be successful, innovation is not just about value creation, but value capture.” ― Jay Samit

97. “Improvement is about doing something better; innovation is about doing something new.” ― Andy Hargreaves

98. “Want to increase innovation? Lower the cost of failure.” ― Joichi Ito

99. “Good ideas and innovations must be driven into existence by courage and patience.” ― Hyman Rickover

100. “Great innovation only happens when people aren’t afraid to do things differently.” ― George Cantor

Innovation Quotes To Boost Your Creativity

101. “I believe innovation is the most powerful force for change in the world.” — Bill Gates

102. “Innovation is born from the interaction between constraint and vision.” — Marissa Mayer

103. “An innovation need not be especially ingenious, but it must be well worked out.” — Paul Keres

104. “Without curiosity, there will never be any innovation.” — Steve Stoute

105. The secret of innovation is to see what all see but think what none think.” — Robin Sharma

106. “Innovation comes from long-term thinking and iterative execution.” — Reid Hoffman

107. “Innovation is all about people. Innovation thrives when the population is diverse, accepting and willing to cooperate.” — Vivek Wadhwa

108. “Individual curiosity, often working without practical ends in mind, has always been a driving force for innovation.” — Frederick Seitz

109. “Progress and innovation happen when you set unrealistic goals.” — Simon Sinek

110. “When you start with next to nothing, all you’ve got is a lot of thought, a lot of innovation, figuring new ways to do things without using a lot of money.” — John Paul DeJoria

Why is innovation important in your life?

Innovation is responsible for all the technologies that we rely on every day, like the wheel, electricity, antibiotics, and much more.

What would we do without these concepts?

Innovation is also crucial to social change.

For example, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the head of an innovative movement of nonviolent resistance to racism.

Innovation has shaped the world we live in.

But you can also innovate new ways to help you live your daily life, or to advance your work, studies, art, or other successes.

Perhaps you will innovate for social justice or science, or you’ll find a new philosophy to carry you through your day-to-day struggles.

However you choose to innovate, you can always find new successes by trying new things.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these motivational innovation quotes?

Do you have any other thoughtful quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.