We went to the Moon as technicians; we returned as humanitarians.
Edgar MitchellRead
We need to make the world safe for creativity and intuition, for it's creativity and intuition that will make the world safe for us.
Interpretation
Creativity and intuition are essential for ensuring a safe and prosperous world.
This quote underscores the importance of fostering creativity and intuition in our society. Edgar Mitchell emphasizes that these qualities not only contribute to individual and collective progress but are also foundational in creating a secure and harmonious environment where human potential can thrive.
In practice
In a speech to inspire young innovators, highlighting the importance of creativity.
We went to the Moon as technicians; we returned as humanitarians.
We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there.
We're at a point in history were we have to become a part of the neighborhood of inhabited planets, like a neighborhood of a community, which we have not even acknowledged that that community exists up until this point.
You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics looks so petty.
My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.
I experienced an ecstasy of unity. I not only saw the connectedness, I felt it and experienced it sentiently. The restraints and boundaries of flesh and bone fell away.
You need courage to be creative. You need the courage to see things differently, courage to go against the crowd, courage to take a different approach, courage to stand alone, if you have to, courage to choose activity over inactivity.
The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.
I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again.
There are some projects where you have to just start doing it, and, after a while, the show starts telling you what it wants to be. You put your spirit in and, after a while, something bigger takes over, and it turns out to be much more fun and creative than what it was at the beginning.
A hallmark of a healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas, opinions, and criticisms. Our decision-making is better when we draw on the collective knowledge and unvarnished opinions of the group.
I do much of my creative thinking while golfing. If people know you're working at home they think nothing of walking in for a cup of coffee, but wouldn't dream of interrupting on the golf course.
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