Freeman Dyson Quotes

Most of the crackpot papers which are submitted to The Physical Review are rejected, not because it is impossible to understand them, but because it is possible. Those which are impossible to understand are usually published. When the great innovation appears, it will almost certainly be in a muddled, incomplete and confusing form. To the discoverer himself it will be only half-understood; to everybody else it will be a mystery. For any speculation which does not at first glance look crazy, there is no hope.

When you're young, with less on the line, it's easier to be audacious, to experiment. So I introduced the concerns of my generation - politics, sex, drugs, rock-and-roll, etc. - to the comics page, which for many years caused a rolling furor.

Outrageous behavior, also known as the lunatic fringe, is the seed bed of innovation and creativity.

No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law.

The day before something is a breakthrough, it is a crazy idea.

Part of the beauty of Silicon Valley is that people generally encourage you to think crazy. It's the hypothesis that there's nothing sacred that can't be changed.

The most successful people in the world are the ones who thought of that idea that was 'too crazy to work.'

For any speculation which does not at first glance look crazy, there is no hope.

Things are rarely just crazy enough to work, but they're frequently just crazy enough to fail hilariously.

I have this massive notebook called IDEAS and another one called PERSONAL IDEAS and another one called CRAZY IDEAS.

In exploring new and doubtful tracts of speculation, the mind strikes out true and original views; as a drop of water hesitates at first what direction it will take, but afterwards follows its own course.

Crazy ideas sometimes work, and the technological society that we have is built on a foundation of those crazy ideas that work.

It is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. ... Since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition.

Every new truth begins in a shocking heresy.

Because you have very limited time and you have to be very judicious and wise about how you spend it. But otherwise, I've always been - ever since I was a kid, I've always been coming up with ideas. So I'm able to come up with crazy ideas twice for two collections! It's fun.

Problems are hidden opportunities and constraints can actually boost creativity. If you have some crazy ideas in your mind, and that people tell you that it's impossible to make, well, that's an even better reason to want to do it, because people have a tendency to see the problems rather than the final result, whereas if you start to deal with problems as being your allies rather than your opponents, life will start to dance with you in the most amazing way.

I think it takes a little bit of crazy to make a difference in this world.

It's fun to be creative and innovative and come up with something crazy. So I need people to work with who are not going to be afraid to take it to the left a bit.

If you’re not doing some things that are crazy, then you’re doing the wrong things.

Innovation doesn't come from the big company. It never has and never will. Innovation is something new that looks crazy at first glance. It comes from the 19-year-olds and the start-ups that no one's heard of.

Believe me, nothing is more beautiful than to carry out crazy ideas. I'd like my whole life to be one single crazy idea.

Louis Kelso's formula sounds like Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound. The whole theory sounds crazy. But, then, one may recall, they said all that of Copernicus too.

I think they find it - they find me quite confusing, because - they know the music, but they don't know anything about me because I keep a very private lifestyle so they end up making up stories as such. But I don't really concern myself too much about them.

Obviously I was either onto something, or on something.

The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.