Edward de Bono Quotes

45 Sourced Quotes

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.

Edward de Bono
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
The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas.

Edward de Bono
It is historical continuity that maintains most assumptions,
not repeated assessment of their validity.

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.

Edward de Bono
With vertical thinking one may look for different approaches until one finds a promising one. With lateral thinking one goes on generating as many approaches as one can even after one has found a promising one. With vertical thinking one is trying to select the best approach but with lateral thinking one is generating different approaches for the sake of generating them.

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.

Edward de Bono
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
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
Some people are aware of another sort of thinking which…leads to those simple ideas that are obvious only after they have been thought of…the term 'lateral thinking' has been coined to describe this other sort of thinking; 'vertical thinking' is used to denote the conventional logical process.

Edward de Bono
A discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos.

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
Creative thinking — in terms of idea creativity — is not a mystical talent. It is a skill that can be practised and nurtured. You can never tell how a policy has been reached just by looking at the end result. Some people who have achieved a huge amount do not come across as impressive when you speak to them.

Edward de Bono
Maybe the social value of truth is as a destination - so long as we do not assume we have arrived there.

Edward de Bono
(...) being right all the time acquires a huge importance in education, and there is this terror of being wrong. The ego is so tied to being right that later on in life you are reluctant to accept that you are ever wrong, because you are defending not the idea but your self-esteem. (...) this terror of being wrong means that people have enormous difficulties in changing ideas.

Edward de Bono
In the art world, creativity involves aesthetic sensibility, emotional resonance and a gift for expression.

Edward de Bono
Design is really a special case of problem solving. One wants to bring about a desired state of affairs. Occasionally one wants to remedy some fault but more usually one wants to bring about something new. For that reason design is more open ended than problem solving. It requires more creativity. It is not so much a matter of linking up a clearly defined objective with a clearly defined starting position (as in problem solving) but more a matter of starting out from a general position in the direction of a general objective

Edward de Bono
Pouncing on an idea as soon as it appears kills the idea. Too early and too enthusiastic logical attention either freezes the idea or forces it into the old moulds. Concentration on an idea isolates it from its surroundings and arrests its growth. The glare of attention inhibits the fertile semi-conscious processes that go to develop an idea.

Edward de Bono
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
An idea is far more fertile if seduced rather than raped.

Edward de Bono
Once a new idea springs into existence, it cannot be unthought. There is a sense of immortality in a new idea.

Edward de Bono
When you have got somewhere interesting, that is the time to look back and pick out the surest way of getting there again. Sometimes it is very much easier to see the surest route to a place only after you have arrived. You may have to be at the top of a mountain to find the easiest way up.

Edward de Bono
Humour is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.

Edward de Bono
The rejection process is incorporated in the concept of the negative. The negative is a judgement device. It is the means whereby one rejects certain arrangements of information. The negative is used to carry out judgement and to indicate rejection. The concept of the negative is crystallized into a definite language tool. This language tool consists of the words no and not. Once one learns the function and use of these words one has learned how to use logical thinking. The whole concept of logical thinking is concentrated in the use of this language tool. Logic could be said to be the management of NO.

Edward de Bono
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