Edward de Bono quotes - page 4

Simplicity before understanding is simplistic; simplicity after understanding is simple. (Edward de Bono)
We need both information and thinking. Information is no substitute for thinking and thinking is no substitute for information. View quote
Edward de Bono
Only the human brain can deliberately change perceptions, change patterns, invent concepts and tolerate ambiguity. View quote
Edward de Bono
The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity. View quote
Edward de Bono
What is urgent will always take precedence over what is important. View quote
Edward de Bono
Language is the biggest barrier to human progress because language is an encyclopedia of ignorance. Old perceptions are frozen into language and force us to look at the world in an old fashioned way. View quote
Edward de Bono
The winner is the chef who takes the same ingredients as everyone else and produces the best results. View quote
Edward de Bono
The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking. View quote
Edward de Bono
To develop thinking as a skill, it should be deliberate, focused, confident, and enjoyable. View quote
Edward de Bono
Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting. View quote
Edward de Bono
America is not just a country, it's an idea. (Edward de Bono)
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. View quote
Edward de Bono
Every valuable creative idea must always be logical in hindsight. If it were not, we would never be able to see its value. View quote
Edward de Bono
To deal with future we have to deal with possibilities. Analysis will only tell us what is. View quote
Edward de Bono
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. View quote
Edward de Bono
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. View quote
Edward de Bono
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. View quote
Edward de Bono
Critical thinking does seem a superior sort of thinking because it seems as though the critic is actually going beyond the scope of what is being criticized in order to criticize it. That is only rarely a true assumption because, most often, the critic will seize on some little aspect that he or she understands and tackle only that. View quote
Edward de Bono
Complexity creates confusion, simplicity focus. View quote
Edward de Bono
Don't criticise a hypothesis, come up with a better one. View quote
Edward de Bono
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)
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. View quote
Edward de Bono
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. View quote
Edward de Bono
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. View quote
Edward de Bono
It is well known that "problem avoidance" is an important part of problem solving. Instead of solving the problem you go upstream and alter the system so that the problem does not occur in the first place. View quote
Edward de Bono