Emilio De Bono Quotes

Emilio De Bono's page presents plain-spoken, grand musings on war, ideology, and personal duty.

17 quotes

1. Listen: if there is war down there- and if you think me worthy of it, and capable -you ought to grant me the honor of conducting the campaign. Surely, you don't think me too old?

2. If you know anything, deny, deny, deny. I want to save Fascism.

3. Forgive me, that was the soldier speaking. Now this is the man speaking again. And the man is more than the soldier. I can bear anything. Death is a more solemn thing than all the earthly trash.

4. This was a great reward for us. We had not had the good fortune to meet the enemy in force.

5. We look on seriously, but serenely.

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

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

8. 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.

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

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

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

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

13. Complexity creates confusion, simplicity focus.

14. 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?

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

16. 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.

17. 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.