Edward de Bono quotes

Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain. (Edward de Bono)
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
Edward de Bono
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
You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.
Edward de Bono
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
If you never change your mind, why have one?
Edward de Bono
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
A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.
Edward de Bono
Instead of striving to be right at 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
Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.
Edward de Bono
An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore. (Edward de Bono)
One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.
Edward de Bono
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
The concept of logical thinking is selection and this is brought about by the processes of acceptance and rejection. Rejection is the basis of logical thinking.
Edward de Bono
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
The image that concerns most people is the reflection they see in other people's minds.
Edward de Bono
Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.
Edward de Bono
If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd.
Edward de Bono
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
Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.
Edward de Bono
A discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos. (Edward de Bono)
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
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
Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.
Edward de Bono
We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving.
Edward de Bono