Tony Buzan Quotes

Tony Buzan's quotes share candid, critical takes on education, health and skills, resonating with readers who like straightforward, thought-provoking ideas.

34 quotes

1. I use my head.(Head First, 2000)

2. Marketing is called a hard skill, accountancy a hard skill.....that's, if I may use this phrase, bullshit! The soft skills are marketing etc - they've got it backwards.

3. We teach mental literacy and radiant thinking; a revolution in human thought.

4. We damage so many kids and so many lives by saying 'you're thick'.

5. Did you know that you use less than 1 percent of your brain? The good news is that mind mapping can help you to access the other 99 percent!

6. The mind map will change your life.

7. The world is historically mentally illiterate.

8. Even traditionally well educated and literate individuals are significantly restricted by the fact that they are able to use only a fraction of the biological and conceptual thinking tools which are available (the mind map)

9. Normal linear note taking and writing will put you into a semi-hypnotic trance, while mind mapping will greatly enhance your left and right brain cognitive skills.

10. As knowledge of the alphabet and its permutations and combinations is to traditional literacy, and as a knowledge of numbers and their permutations and combinations is to mathematics, so a knowledge of the biological and conceptual alphabets of the brain and its apparently infinite permutations and combinations is to mental literacy.

11. The human brain has left and right brain symmetry with its own nature and can process information which initially appears to have no pattern or order. However, the brain has the ability to process visual information much more efficiently.

12. The old linear pattern of thinking by reading and describing from left to right, top to bottom has many problems in organizing information coming from eyes, ears, etc. For example, the ability to read and understand the context of a book is different from memorizing them simply as sentences.

13. During the renaissances in thinking led by Shakespeare and Goethe, the first new development in memory techniques for 1,700 years appeared: the Major System. This was the first system that enabled the user to transfer easily and instantaneously from numbers to letters, thus creating the opportunity for a system that could stretch from zero to an infinite number, and which allowed the user to translate any word into its own special number, and any number into its own special letter. This multiplied the opportunity for developing memory techniques 100-fold.

14. My view is that evolution will continue to evolve!

15. 'mens sana in corpore sano' - a healthy mind in a healthy body, or a healthy body in a healthy mind.

16. The Internet will be the evolutionary mechanism that allows us to play an eternal game of intelligence 'Leap-Frog'. I look forward to leap frogging with you' (Introduction to the Buzan Centres and the Brain Trust Charity, 2003)

17. Research is increasingly showing that the faster you read, the better your comprehension. So if you read at 1000 wpm, learn to read at 2000 wpm and your comprehension will soar like a dolphin. This is because information is organized into meaningful chunks that make immediate sense to your brain. This increased ability to understand in turn helps you to remember better.

18. Acting in harmony, your super genius light-receivers can decode in less than a second, a scene containing billions of pieces of information, with super-photographic accuracy, just like a security camera.

19. If you want to learn to communicate, remember, and use your brain more effectively, learn to exaggerate. It will make you richer.

20. Whatever your discipline, become a student of excellence in all things. Take every opportunity to observe people who manifest the qualities of mastery.

21. The world isn't fast-paced, it's frenetic. People have to be managers of themselves. Time has been managing itself for 15 billion years; we have to manage ourselves in the context of time.

22. Memory and creativity are essential to education, but if you teach memory incorrectly, it is a total waste of time, and it will inhibit learning.

23. All children are much more intelligent than they are told they are or the school thinks they are; they just have different intelligences.

24. Many of us grow up thinking of mistakes as bad, viewing errors as evidence of fundamental incapacity. This negative thinking pattern can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, which undermines the learning process. To maximize our learning it is essential to ask: "How can we get the most from every mistake we make?"

25. Children need stimulation and stability. That can come from grandparents, cousins, teachers, nannies, childcare centres - as long as they engage with the children and are really fond of them. There are also times when children need to be left alone to learn to be independent and to encourage their imaginary friends.

26. As a very small boy, my passion was nature, and I had pets - cats, a dog and a bunny rabbit - and I wrote a very small book called 'My Pets,' filled with their photographs and a discussion about my pets and how much I loved them... That was my first book.

27. The Alexander Technique transformed my life. it is the result of an acknowledged genius. I would recommend it to anyone.

28. Definition is the companion of clarity; clarity is the guide to your goals.

29. And suddenly, I realized the system that I was in did not know what intelligence was, didn't know how to identify smart and not smart. They called me the best, when I knew I wasn't, and they called him the worst, when he was the best. I mean, there could be no more antipodal environment. So I began to question: What is intelligence? Who says? Who says you're smart? Who says you're not smart? And what do they mean by that?

30. How can we get the most from every mistake we make?

31. The desire for self-improvement is vital. There is no point in pushing children; they need to be the ones who want to learn new skills.

32. In 1971, when I was 29, I wrote my first volume of poetry. I am a poet, and I have published four books of my poems.

33. Mind mapping is a technique based on memory and creativity and comprehension and understanding, so when the student or a child uses the mind map, they are using their brain in the way their brain was designed to be used, and so the mind helps them in all learning and cognitive skills. It simply helps them in what the brain does naturally.

34. The early development of speed reading can be traced to the beginning of the (20th) century, when the publication explosion swamped readers with more than they could possibly handle at normal reading rates.