Edward De Bono Quotes

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

If you never change your mind, why have one?

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.

The image that concerns most people is the reflection they see in other people's minds.

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.

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.

The system will always be defended by those countless people who have enough intellect to defend but not quite enough to innovate.

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.

Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.

Simplicity before understanding is simplistic; simplicity after understanding is simple. - Edward De Bono

We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.

We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving.

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of the car is separate from the way the car is driven.

A question is a polite way of demanding something.

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

In 80% of Socrates' dialogues there was no constructive outcome. He saw his role as simply pointing out what was "wrong.

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.

If you understand the system you can design appropriate action.

Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.

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.

Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

Creativity involves provocation, exploration and risk taking. Creativity involves "thought experiments." You cannot tell in advance how the experiment is going to turn out. But you want to be able to carry out the experiment.

(...) 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.

To cultivate a pleasure in being wrong sounds perverse, yet losing an argument means escaping from an old idea and the acquisition of a new way of looking at things.

There may be more danger in prejudices which are apparently founded in logic than in those which are acknowledged as emotions. (p69)

Instead of waiting for our attention to be pulled towards something unusual, we can set out frameworks for ‘directing’ our attention in a conscious manner.

Democracy is an excellent way of ensuring that nothing much gets done. There are always interests that might get trampled upon [and no elected politician would wish to make permanent enemies by trampling upon others' interests].

It is not the logical part of thinking that changes emotions but the perceptual part. If we see something differently, our emotions may alter with the altered perception. (p64)

Everything can be simplified. With enough simplification and enough patience on the part of the parent, anything can be simplified to the point that even very young children can begin to understand it.

A problem is simply the difference between what one has and what one wants.

Unfortunately, our existing traditional thinking habits insist that you must attack something and show it to be bad before you can suggest a change. It is more difficult to acknowledge that something is excellent and then to ask for change because although it is excellent, it is not enough.

There's a danger in the internet and social media. The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don't have to think, you just have to get more information - gets very dangerous.

It may be that Japanese culture is not ego-based like Western culture: argument has often a strong ego base. The most likely explanation is that Japanese culture was not influenced by those Greek thinking idioms which were refined and developed by medieval monks as a means of proving heretics to be wrong. (p36)

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

Edward de Bono wrote a book called How to be Interesting which might be summarised in two words: Be interested. Ask questions and let your tone be gentle and inquisitive.

Real life, however, is very different from school sums. There is usually more than one answer. Some answers are much better than others: they cost less, are more reliable or are more easy to implement. There is no reason at all for supposing that the first answer has to be the best one.

When the positive revolution takes hold it will no longer be enough for politicians to gain points through attack or being negative. Politicians will be expected to be constructive.

In real-life situations apparently logical lines of argument are often (not always) based on an inability to see alternative possibilities. In a similar way the ability to think of an alternative explanation is by far the best way of destroying the arrogance of an apparently logical line of argument.

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.

Kecantikan adalah sesuatu yang dapat diapresiasi oleh orang lain.

A memory is left when something happens and does not completely un-happen.

las fallas deben corregirse, las debilidades deben suprimirse y los problemas, resolverse.

Thinking is the ultimate human resource.

That wasn't a mistake, was ‘a fully justified venture which, for reasons beyond your control, did not work

почти всичко може да бъде допълнително опростено.

A person who knows all the answers, has an opinion on everything, has a certainty backed up by rational argument, has very little possibility of further progress. Such a person is unlikely to walk away from a discussion with anything more than a reaffirmation of how right he or she has been all along.

Thinking & Wisdom: Peter Bevelin, Edward de Bono, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Gilbert, Daniel Kahneman, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Steven Pinker, Tania Singer, Amos Tversky.   Philosophy & Effective Living: James Allen, Stephen Covey, Viktor Frankl, Tamar Gendler’s Open Yale philosophy lectures, Daniel Gilbert, Khalil Gibran, A.C.

أفضل تعريف للتعاسة هو أنها تمثل الفجوة بين قدراتنا وتوقعاتنا‏

No amount of excellence on the part of a computer can lead to the solution of a problem if the problem has been incorrectly defined by the programmer. In

En la búsqueda lógica se aspira al mejor enfoque

Complacency is the enemy of all progress. So is resignation. If you believe you are perfect, then you make no effort to get better. If you have given up, you also make no effort.

Facts can be used to seek to change perceptions but in the end people can only act on their individual perceptions.

Empezar por el final y elaborar la solución hacia atrás es una conocida técnica para resolver problemas.

In problems set at school we are so used to being given only the information that we need for that problem that we actually leave school believing that life will carefully lay out the information we need in every situation. Unfortunately, life does not do that. There are times when we might have to put aside some information in order to move forwards. This requires thinking.

In an atomic pile an explosion is prevented by inserting rods of cadmium, which mop up the particles that are shooting around. In this way the energy in the pile is controlled. If there are too many rods, the chain reaction stops and the pile can no longer produce any energy. People who are unable to appreciate new ideas are like the rods: some of them are necessary to prevent a destructive explosion, but too many make it impossible for the pile to produce any energy.

A landscape is a memory surface. The contours of the surface offer an accumulated memory trace of the water that has fallen upon it. The rainfall forms little rivulets which combine into streams and then into rivers. Once the pattern of drainage has been formed then it tends to become ever more permanent since the rain is collected into the drainage channels and tends to make them deeper. It is the rainfall that is doing the sculpting and yet it is the response of the surface to the rainfall that is organizing how the rainfall will do its sculpting.

En la búsqueda lógica se aspira al mejor enfoque posible, mientras que en la búsqueda lateral se aspira al mayor número posible de enfoques, prescindiendo de su valor práctico real. La búsqueda lógica se interrumpe cuando se llega a un enfoque satisfactorio. En el pensamiento lateral se reconoce también la calidad de un enfoque satisfactorio, pero se continúa la búsqueda de enfoques alternativos. Al final del proceso creador inicial se vuelve la mirada a dicho concepto prometedor para estudiarlo con más detalle. En la búsqueda lógica de alternativas se consideran sólo aquellos conceptos que poseen cierto sentido común. En la búsqueda lateral se aceptan inicialmente alternativas exentas de todo sentido común. La búsqueda lógica a menudo oculta una mera intención, que se abandona tan pronto como se encuentra una solución adecuada. La búsqueda lateral es una investigación consecuente y total, que no cesa ante un resultado, aunque el valor de éste sea obvio. Por consiguiente, la principal diferencia reside en la finalidad de la búsqueda. La inclinación lógica es buscar alternativas para encontrar la mejor solución, mientras que el pensamiento lateral tiene como objetivo, no el hallazgo inmediato de una solución óptima, sino la superación de la rigidez de los modelos conceptuales, provocando su disgregación y subsiguiente reordenación en nuevos modelos. Este proceso puede derivar en diferentes

This book is intended for use both at home and at school. At school the emphasis has traditionally always been on vertical thinking which is effective but incomplete. This selective type of thinking needs to be supplemented with the generative qualities of creative thinking. This is beginning to happen in some schools but even so creativity is usually treated as something desirable which is to be brought about by vague exhortation. There is no deliberate and practical procedure for bringing it about. This book is about lateral thinking which is the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring. Lateral thinking can be learned, practised and used. It is possible to acquire skill in it just as it is possible to acquire skill in mathematics

The missing link between animals and the real human being is most likely ourselves”. Konrad Lorenz “Nothing exists except atoms and space; everything else is opinion”. Democritus of Abdera “The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity”. Edward de Bono.

le chapeau rouge permet de solliciter les sentiments et de les exprimer en tant que partie intégrante de la réflexion.

conclusion the soundness of that conclusion is proved by the soundness of the steps by which it has been reached. With lateral thinking the steps do not have to be sequential. One may jump ahead to a new point and then fill in the gap afterwards.

With vertical thinking one concentrates and excludes what is irrelevant, with lateral thinking one welcomes chance intrusions

We can demand an effort. We can demand that time be set aside for generating new ideas. Even so, the thinker may come up with nothing new. What matters is that time has been spent in the effort.

If you never change your mind, why have one? ~ Edward de Bono

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely un-happen

Why a problem appears to be difficult may be much more interesting than the solution itself.

It would be nice if everyone could see in an idea the brilliance and potential that is obvious to the originator of that idea. This is not often the case. Part of the creative process is to shape the idea so that it better fits the need profile of those who are going to have to 'buy' the idea.

People are much too ready to accept that creativity is a matter of talent or personality, and since they do not have this, they had better leave creativity to others.

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen. —Edward de Bono, The Mechanism of Mind

numerous books and audiobooks specifically designed to help stimulate the imagination and create solutions to problems: Super Creativity by Tony Buzan; The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron; Lateral Thinking, Six Thinking Hats, and Super Thinking, all by Edward De Bono; Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards; The Zen of Seeing by Frederick Franck; Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg; Peak Learning by Ronald Gross; Thinkertoys by Michael Michaiko; Superlearning by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder; Writing the Natural Way by Gabriele Rico; A Kick in the Seat of the Pants by R. von Oech.

Lateral thinking has very much to do with perception. In lateral thinking we seek to put forward different views. All are correct and all can coexist. The different views are not derived each from the other but are independently produced. In this sense lateral thinking has to do with exploration just as perception has to do with exploration.

Design is the basis for action.

DESTRUCTIVE ARGUMENTS I am not sure which is the more enjoyable: to win an argument or to annihilate the opponent. Instead of building a case for ourselves we attack the opponent or his case. Attack is rather easy. We choose our frame of reference and attack something for not fitting it. We can attack an orange for not being an apple. No matter what is being done we attack it for not being enough. No matter how worthwhile a project seems we attack it for the hidden and sinister purposes behind it. If something is done that benefits a particular group then that group is being bribed or bought off. If something is couched in general terms then it is too vague and ill-defined. If something is popular then people are being conned. If something is unpopular then it is being forced on people. If something stops early then there is lack of persistence. If something is carried on then it is flogging a dead horse or blind ambition. The most curious thing is that we actually esteem this sort of thinking and consider it clever instead of facile.

be moving usefully in some direction. With lateral thinking one may play around without any purpose or direction. One may play around with experiments, with models, with notation, with ideas. The movement and change of lateral thinking is not an end in itself but a way of bringing about repatterning. Once there is movement and change then the maximizing properties of the mind will see to it that something useful happens. The vertical thinker says: ‘I know what I am looking for.’ The lateral thinker says: ‘I am looking but I won’t know what I am looking for until I have found it.’ Vertical thinking is analytical, lateral thinking is provocative.

A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because, looked at through the myth, all evidence supports that myth. —Edward de Bono

There may be more danger in prejudices which are apparently founded in logic than in those which are acknowledged as emotions.

Other than his ex-wife and despite appearances with a series of cultivated blondes, Edward de Bono has never publicly aligned himself with a woman. 'I’m looking for a fat, cross-eyed hunchback,' he explains, stifling a giggle. 'A prosthetic hump would do.' His delight evaporates when asked about his three grandchildren. 'Am I a doting grandfather?' He pauses. 'I’m a … something grandfather, yes.' The fact that De Bono remains unperturbed by this lack betrays an emotionally austere childhood, and his passions for play, toys, and bad jokes tell of the same deprivation. 

Unfortunately, Western thinking, with its argument habits, prefers to give a conclusion first and then to bring in the facts to support that conclusion. In contrast, in the map-making type of thinking that I am advocating, we have to make the map first and then choose the route. That means that we have to have the facts and figures first.

Dr. Edward de Bono devised the concept of the “six thinking hats” as a tool for getting out of whatever rut of thinking one might be mired in.1 Regularly used to help groups problem-solve in a more productive way, it is easily adaptable by any individuals hoping to keep their thinking fresh. The core notion is to separate thinking into six distinctly defined functions by progressively donning a series of metaphorical hats: