Smith's Embrace had robbed him of the very creative spark that had attracted his sire to him in the first place. Smith still possessed the same manic conviction in the infallibility of his designs, but his creativity had ossified, despite all the knowledge that his sire had imparted to him. As a result, real innovation seldom appeared in the plans that Smith drew up; instead, his work was merely a hackneyed regurgitation of the ideas his sire expressed.
— Vampire: The Masquerade - Havens of the Damned
Kaworu: I... cannot create, not like you. I do not have that... in me.
Shinji: You play the violin with pretty good passion, though?
Kaworu: Passion, perhaps. But I can only reproduce the work of others. Not... make something new, just from your own mind, just because you wish to.
Shinji: You play the violin with pretty good passion, though?
Kaworu: Passion, perhaps. But I can only reproduce the work of others. Not... make something new, just from your own mind, just because you wish to.
Lex Luthor: I'm offering you the one thing you've always lacked. A certain something that I happen to have in abundance.
Brainiac: Which is?
Luthor: Imagination. I've got a proposition for ya, partner.
Brainiac: Which is?
Luthor: Imagination. I've got a proposition for ya, partner.
...as the Chantry teaches us, the great flaw of the spirits is that they have neither imagination nor ambition. They create what they see through their sleeping visitors, building elaborate copies of our cities, people, and events, which, like the reflections in a mirror, ultimately lack context or life of their own. Even the most powerful demons merely plagiarize the worst thoughts and fears of mortals, and build their realms with no other ambition than to taste life.
— "Tranquility and the Role of the Fade in Human Culture," Dragon Age: Origins
Cyber-Controller: I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace. And unity, and uniformity.
Tenth Doctor: And imagination? What about that? The one thing that led you here, imagination, you're killing it dead!
Tenth Doctor: And imagination? What about that? The one thing that led you here, imagination, you're killing it dead!
<Invented?> Ax's stalk eyes narrowed to slits. <Yeerks do not invent. They steal. Everything they have, they have taken from other species. Most notably the Andalites. They do not have the intelligence — or the integrity — to invent a morphing technique of their own.>
Did I mention Andalites can be a wee bit arrogant?
Did I mention Andalites can be a wee bit arrogant?
— Animorphs #49: The Diversion
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
— Common saying
"I'm not good at imagination stuff, okay?!"
— Huey, DuckTales (2017), "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!"
"Surely you've noticed that the Fused have a problem. We think along the same old, familiar pathways. We don’t create because we assume we’ve already created what we need to. We are immortal, and so think nothing can ever surprise us—and that makes us complacent."
— Raboniel, Rhythm of War
"No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul, replaced by tech. Whatever they were, gone forever. Understand now? No art, no culture. Closer to husks than slaves. Tools for Reapers. Protheans dead. Collectors just final insult. Must be destroyed."
— Mordin Solus, Mass Effect 2
"All the top ten highest-grossing films this year were sequels or franchises. They say Hollywood is running out of new ideas. I mean, poor Steven Spielberg had to make a movie about Steven Spielberg."
—Jimmy Kimmel at the 2023 Academy Awards
Turanj: I've become impatient. We penetrated this vessel, overcame their defenses, and in the moment of the kill, you forced us to stop. Now we play these incessant games. It's time we took our trophies and moved on.
Karr: Your lust for the kill has blinded you, like many young hunters. If you took the time to study your prey, to understand its behavior, you might learn something.
Turanj: There is nothing to be learned.
Karr:' You're wrong. Each prey exposes us to another way of life and makes us re-evaluate our own. Have you considered our future? What would become of us when we have hunted this territory to exhaustion?
Turanj: We will travel to another part of space, search for new prey, as we have always done.
Karr: A way of life that hasn't changed for a thousand years.
Turanj: Why should it?
Karr: Species that don't change, die. We've lost our way. We've allowed our predatory instincts to dominate us. We disperse ourselves throughout the quadrant, sending ships in all directions. We've become a solitary race, isolated. We've spread ourselves too thin. We're no longer a culture. We have no identity. In another thousand years, no one will remember the name Hirogen. Our people must come back together, combine forces, rebuild our civilization.
Turanj: What of the hunt?
Karr: The Hunt will always continue, but in a new way. I intend to transform this ship into a vast simulation, populated with a varied and endless supply of prey. In time, this technology can be duplicated for other Hirogen. These holodecks will allow us to hold onto our past, while we face the future.
Karr: Your lust for the kill has blinded you, like many young hunters. If you took the time to study your prey, to understand its behavior, you might learn something.
Turanj: There is nothing to be learned.
Karr:' You're wrong. Each prey exposes us to another way of life and makes us re-evaluate our own. Have you considered our future? What would become of us when we have hunted this territory to exhaustion?
Turanj: We will travel to another part of space, search for new prey, as we have always done.
Karr: A way of life that hasn't changed for a thousand years.
Turanj: Why should it?
Karr: Species that don't change, die. We've lost our way. We've allowed our predatory instincts to dominate us. We disperse ourselves throughout the quadrant, sending ships in all directions. We've become a solitary race, isolated. We've spread ourselves too thin. We're no longer a culture. We have no identity. In another thousand years, no one will remember the name Hirogen. Our people must come back together, combine forces, rebuild our civilization.
Turanj: What of the hunt?
Karr: The Hunt will always continue, but in a new way. I intend to transform this ship into a vast simulation, populated with a varied and endless supply of prey. In time, this technology can be duplicated for other Hirogen. These holodecks will allow us to hold onto our past, while we face the future.
"You call yourself some kind of goddess, and you know nothing, madam, nothing. What don't die can't live. What don't live can't change. What don't change can't learn. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you. You're right. I'm older. You've lived longer than me, but I'm older than you. And better 'n' you. And madam, that ain't hard."
— Granny Weatherwax to the Queen of the Elves, Lords and Ladies
