Top 100 Edward De Bono Quotes
#1. Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.
Edward De Bono
#2. A good listener is very nearly as attractive as a good talker. You cannot have a beautiful mind if you do not know how to listen.
Edward De Bono
#3. You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper
Edward De Bono
#4. If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd.
Edward De Bono
#5. Companies that solely focus on competition will ultimately die. Those that focus on value creation will thrive.
Edward De Bono
#6. The solid wealth of insurance companies and the success of those who organsie gambling are some indication of the profits to be derived from the efficient use of chance.
Edward De Bono
#7. The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future
Edward De Bono
#8. Man owes his success to his creativity. No one doubts the need for it. It is most useful in good times and essential in bad.
Edward De Bono
#9. Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
Edward De Bono
#10. The system will always be defended by those countless people who have enough intellect to defend but not quite enough to innovate.
Edward De Bono
#11. Lateral thinking ... is the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring. Lateral thinking can be learned, practised and used. It is possible to acquire skill in it just as it is possible to acquire skill in mathematics.
Edward De Bono
#12. In 80% of Socrates' dialogues there was no constructive outcome. He saw his role as simply pointing out what was wrong.
Edward De Bono
#13. A discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos.
Edward De Bono
#14. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone.
Edward De Bono
#15. We do not make very full value of the opportunities provided by technology because we prefer critical to constructive thinking, argument to design.
Edward De Bono
#16. This new meta-system is very much in favor of the self, but a self that is based on a proper sense of dignity, not on an inflated ego. A person who dare not admit he is wrong inflates his ego but weakens his self.
Edward De Bono
#17. You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough.
Edward De Bono
#18. I'm tired of dreaming. I'm into doing at the moment. It's, like, let's only have goals that we can go after.
Edward De Bono
#19. Instead of waiting for our attention to be pulled towards something unusual, we can set out frameworks for 'directing' our attention in a conscious manner.
Edward De Bono
#20. Western traditions of education have emphasized knowledge analysis, description and debate. They all have a part to play, but today there is a whole vast aspect of doing that has just been left out. Operacy is what keeps society going.
Edward De Bono
#21. Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces. It is concerned with the perception part of thinking. This is where we organise the external world into the pieces we can then 'process'.
Edward De Bono
#22. Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists.
Edward De Bono
#23. They enjoy thinking. They enjoy being creative. They enjoy having ideas. Most people do not enjoy thinking at all.
Edward De Bono
#24. Some people drift along like a cork on a river, feeling that they cannot do anything except drift, moment to moment. This is an attitude of mind. Everyone can be constructive even in tiny ways.
Edward De Bono
#25. What is urgent will always take precedence over what is important.
Edward De Bono
#26. Unfortunately, our existing traditional thinking habits insist that you must attack something and show it to be bad before you can suggest a change. It is more difficult to acknowledge that something is excellent and then to ask for change because although it is excellent, it is not enough.
Edward De Bono
#27. There may be more danger in prejudices which are apparently founded in logic than in those which are acknowledged as emotions. (p69)
Edward De Bono
#28. There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.
Edward De Bono
#29. You can analyse the past, but you need to design the future. That is the difference between suffering the future and enjoying it.
Edward De Bono
#30. To cultivate a pleasure in being wrong sounds perverse, yet losing an argument means escaping from an old idea and the acquisition of a new way of looking at things.
Edward De Bono
#31. A problem is simply the difference between what one has and what one wants.
Edward De Bono
#32. To deal with future we have to deal with possibilities. Analysis will only tell us what is.
Edward De Bono
#33. The awful thing is that you can never be aware of what you are not aware of.
Edward De Bono
#34. To me, a faith in Jesus Christ that is not aligned with the poor ... it's nothing.
Edward De Bono
#35. When the story of these times gets written, we want it to say that we did all we could, and it was more than anyone could have imagined.
Edward De Bono
#36. You do not go out into the street in your underwear, although usually you are wearing underwear. The underwear is not visible but it is there all the time. It is the same with concepts. They are there. They underlie practical things we do- even when we are not conscious of them.
Edward De Bono
#37. Once a new idea springs into existence, it cannot be unthought. There is a sense of immortality in a new idea.
Edward De Bono
#38. Opportunity ideas do not lie around waiting to be discovered. Such ideas need to be produced.
Edward De Bono
#39. The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it.
Edward De Bono
#40. Everywhere I go, I see very much the same thing. I see the same compassion for people who live half a world away. I see the same concern about events beyond these borders. And, increasingly, I see the same conviction that we can and we must join together to stop the scourge of AIDS and poverty.
Edward De Bono
#41. Simplicity before understanding is simplistic; simplicity after understanding is simple.
Edward De Bono
#42. As competition intensifies, the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better ... no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems.
Edward De Bono
#43. Although feelings are not supposed to intrude on business discussions, they do anyway - we just disguise them as logic.
Edward De Bono
#44. We still seek to solve conflicts with 'judgement' instead of designing the way forwards.
Edward De Bono
#45. Thinking is the ultimate human resource. Yet we can never be satisfied with our most important skill. No matter how good we become, we should always want to be better
Edward De Bono
#46. It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
Edward De Bono
#47. A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because, looked at through the myth, all evidence supports the myth.
Edward De Bono
#48. The purpose of art is to reflect new emerging values and to define the new heroes and heroines so that people can absorb them into their perceptions.
Edward De Bono
#49. It is not the logical part of thinking that changes emotions but the perceptual part. If we see something differently, our emotions may alter with the altered perception. (p64)
Edward De Bono
#50. Everyone has the right to doubt everything as often as he pleases and the duty to do it at least once. No way of looking at things is too sacred to be reconsidered. No way of doing things is beyond improvement.
Edward De Bono
#51. The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.
Edward De Bono
#52. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea.
Edward De Bono
#53. It's always amazed me how little attention philosophers, psychologists, or anyone else actually has paid to humor.
Edward De Bono
#54. Creativity and lateral thinking have exactly the same basis as humour.
Edward De Bono
#55. We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.
Edward De Bono
#56. I must say, I don't feel very qualified to be a pop star. I feel very awkward at times in the role.
Edward De Bono
#57. To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.
Edward De Bono
#58. Our existing thinking habits are excellent, just as the rear wheels of a motor car are excellent, but not enough ...
Edward De Bono
#59. To develop thinking as a skill, it should be deliberate, focused, confident, and enjoyable.
Edward De Bono
#60. In a sense, words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better.
Edward De Bono
#61. My thinking was taught to tribes in South Africa like the Zulus and Xhosas. At the time there were about 210 fights breaking out among them every month, but after they listened to my lessons, this fell to just four.
Edward De Bono
#62. Creativity can be learned like basketball, which does not mean we will all be NBA stars.
Edward De Bono
#63. The image that concerns most people is the reflection they see in other people's minds.
Edward De Bono
#65. Asking a question is the simplest way of focusing thinking ... asking the right question may be the most important part of thinking.
Edward De Bono
#66. Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of the car is separate from the way the car is driven.
Edward De Bono
#67. Possibilities play a much bigger role in thinking than most people believe. Without possibilities you cannot make progress.
Edward De Bono
#68. In the art world, creativity involves aesthetic sensibility, emotional resonance and a gift for expression.
Edward De Bono
#69. A characteristic of intuitive solutions and new ideas is that of being obvious once they are discovered.
Edward De Bono
#70. A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.
Edward De Bono
#71. Studies have shown that 90% of error in thinking is due to error in perception. If you can change your perception, you can change your emotion and this can lead to new ideas.
Edward De Bono
#72. I think school is a place where thinking should be taught.
Edward De Bono
#73. The analysis of data will not by itself produce new ideas ...
Edward De Bono
#74. Creative thinking - in terms of idea creativity - is not a mystical talent. It is a skill that can be practised and nurtured.
Edward De Bono
#77. Traditional thinking is all about "what is" Future thinking will also need to be about what can be.
Edward De Bono
#78. Real life, however, is very different from school sums. There is usually more than one answer. Some answers are much better than others: they cost less, are more reliable or are more easy to implement. There is no reason at all for supposing that the first answer has to be the best one.
Edward De Bono
#79. The winner is the chef who takes the same ingredients as everyone else and produces the best results.
Edward De Bono
#80. It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor, since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them.
Edward De Bono
#81. Intelligence is something we are born with. Thinking is a skill that must be learned.
Edward De Bono
#82. Maybe the social value of truth is as a destination - so long as we do not assume we have arrived there.
Edward De Bono
#83. It wouldn't cost too much to change the rules of trade so that poor countries can work their way out of poverty. But the world's leaders won't act unless they hear enough people telling them. And every day they fail to act, thousands of people die because they can't afford the basics of survival.
Edward De Bono
#85. I could never be a politician because I think I'm too selfish, and I think I like to have fun.. the right to be irresponsible is a right I hold dear.
Edward De Bono
#86. Teaching thinking for just five hours to unemployed youngsters increased employment 500 percent.
Edward De Bono
#87. A question is a polite way of demanding something.
Edward De Bono
#88. Being right is not too difficult. Your choose your perception. You select your information. You leave out what does not suit you. You drag in some general-purpose value words. You throw in a sneer or two about the opposition, and you are a fine fellow who made a fine speech.
Edward De Bono
#89. I know it aches, how your heart it breaks. You can only take so much. Walk on.
Edward De Bono
#90. Creativity involves provocation, exploration and risk taking. Creativity involves "thought experiments." You cannot tell in advance how the experiment is going to turn out. But you want to be able to carry out the experiment.
Edward De Bono
#91. Only the human brain can deliberately change perceptions, change patterns, invent concepts and tolerate ambiguity.
Edward De Bono
#92. The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.
Edward De Bono
#93. In the future, instead of striving to be right at a high cost, it will be more appropriate to be flexible and plural at a lower cost. If you cannot accurately predict the future then you must flexibly be prepared to deal with various possible futures.
Edward De Bono
#95. The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas.
Edward De Bono
#96. What the joke displays is a switch in perception. This is important in changing the way we think.
Edward De Bono
#97. The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.
Edward De Bono
#98. On trade, our hypocrisy is at its most appalling. Trade reform isn't about charity, it's about justice, and this campaign, Trade Justice is an unstoppable idea.
Edward De Bono
#99. Democracy is an excellent way of ensuring that nothing much gets done. There are always interests that might get trampled upon [and no elected politician would wish to make permanent enemies by trampling upon others' interests].
Edward De Bono
#100. Analysis is simplifying, breaking down things into parts, picking out strands and elements. Analysis is comparing unknown things with things that are known. Analysis also involves picking out relationships and putting them back together as a whole.
Edward De Bono
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