The creation of morphological novelty, biological invention, artistic creation, architectural invention ... may all be understood as products of a relatively simple process of intensifying existing latent centers.

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• Creativity comes about when we discover the new within a structure already latent in the present.quote0.839
  Alexander's definition of genuine creativity, opposing arbitrary image-making.
• Creativity comes from discovering the new within a structure already latent in the present; respect for what is leads to the most beautiful discoveries.claim0.821
  Alexander's definition of true creativity.
• Creativity is not inserting entirely new structure but revealing what is already there, serving the wholeness.claim0.814
  Reconception of creativity as attentive revelation rather than arbitrary invention.
• Only a deliberate process of creating being-like centers in built structure throughout the world encourages the world to become more alive.claim0.809
  Proposition 4 of the Mid-Book Appendix; the normative and practical conclusion tying individual search for the true self to the creation of a living world.
• The simplest thing which can be created, in real terms, is that thing which goes furthest to resolve, complete, hence to elaborate and underpin the structure of the world, its wholeness, which exists at that place.claim0.799
  Definition of real simplicity tied to resolving the wholeness.
• A realization of our own multiscale, nested architecture naturally leads to the conclusion that care needs to be extended to all sentient beings.claim0.798
  Extends ethical concern based on the collective nature of selves.
• Thinking about creation in this way, brutal and too-decisive though it may seem, is the process by which the guts of a thing, its valuable force, is made.claim0.798
  Final claim: the brutal geometric process is what gives anything its essential force and value
• Inventiveness, creativity, and discovery are directly proportional to the number and kinds of variables in an environment.claim0.797
  The central axiom of Nicholson's theory, establishing the causal relationship between environmental complexity and human cognitive/creative capacity.