17 Edward de Bono Quotes

Edward de Bono quotes

1. You can't dig a different hole by digging the same one deeper.

2. An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. We may need to solve problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place.

1. We still seek to solve conflicts with 'judgement' instead of designing the way forwards.

2. Traditional thinking is all about "what is" Future thinking will also need to be about what can be.

3. 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.

4. People should realize we're jerks just like them.

5. The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.

6. To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.

7. Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.

8. Complexity creates confusion, simplicity focus.

9. The weapons of the positive revolution are not bullets and bombs but simple human perceptions. Bullets and bombs may offer physical power but eventually will only work if they change perceptions and values. Why not go the direct route and work with perceptions and values?

10. 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.

11. The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. 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.

12. Companies that solely focus on competition will ultimately die. Those that focus on value creation will thrive.