Each quote is by Edward de Bono and needs to be accredited to him.
Rights reserved by Mind Design International.
| "You can analyse the past but you have to design the future." |
| "Thinking is a skill that can be taught. Unless we teach thinking we waste over fifty per cent of the talent available in society." |
| “The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future” |
| " Like the front left wheel of a car, our traditional thinking is excellent - but inadequate." |
| "Thinking is far too often concerned with the judgement of "what is" rather than the design of "what can be." |
| "Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven." |
| "Some people drift along like a cork on a river, feeling that they cannot do anything except drift, moment to moment. This is an attitude of mind. Everyone can be constructive even in tiny ways." |
| "Humour is by far the most significant activity of the human brain." |
| "If you never change your mind, why have one?" |
| "Perception is real even when it is not reality" |
| "You can analyse the past but you have to design the future" |
| "The quality of our future will depend directly on the quality of our thinking" |
| "If you do not design your own future, someone else will do it for you" |
| "In winning an argument you gain nothing, in losing you gain another point of view" |
| "A good idea never excludes a better one" |
| "Intelligence is like the horse-power of a car - thinking is the skill with which the car is driven" |
| "You do not use the reverse gear all the time but when you need it you really do. It's the same with creativity" |
| "If you learn the successes of the past you risk being trapped by them" |
| "Possibility is to progress as hunger is to cooking" |
| "Everyone behaves logically within a personal bubble of perception, values and experience" |
| "Arrogance is the real system sin because it cuts the system off from reaction and reality" |
| "With a provocation there may not be a reason for saying something until after it is said" |
| ""I think therefore I am" I do, therefore I matter" |
| "Logic will not change emotions but perception will" |
| "Once an idea has been thought, it cannot be unthought" |
| "All valued creative ideas are logical in hindsight" |
| "The excellence of the brain is that it makes stable patterns for dealing with a stable universe" |
| "Information has a value only if you have a frame to which to view it" |
| "Design is the putting together of known ingredients to create new value" |
| "Every negotiating meeting should be preceeded by a design meeting" |
| "If you never change your mind - why have one?" |
| "You can never be insulted if you never feel insulted" |
| "You should always make a point of finding more than you were seeking" |
| "Cleverness is like a sharp focus lens. Wisdom is a wide angle lens." |
| "Our thinking consists of recognizing standard situations, and then providing the standard answer" |
| "Without value sensitivity you will not recognize a good idea even if you have created it yourself" |
| "A question is only a way of directing attention" |
| "You cannot improve your decision making by being" |
| "You should always make a point of finding more than you were seeking." |
| "Cleverness is like a sharp focus lens, wisdom is a wide angle lens." |
| "Our thinking consists of recognizing standard situations and then providing the standard answer." |
| "Without value sensitivity you will not recognize a good idea even if you have created it yourself." |
| "A question is only a way of directing attention." |
| "You cannot improve your decision making by being unable to create options" |
| "Proof is often no more than lack of imagination." |
| "Most organizations are run on the basis of maintenance and problem solving" |
| "When you cannot remove the cause of a problem you may have to design a way forward." |
| "Adjectives tell you more about the observer than about what is being observed." |
| "There are different ways of feeling right and most of them are wrong." |
| "If you do not know where you are going you may have made a wrong choice of starting point" |
| "To reach the top of a mountain it is not enough to have an intention; you need to learn some climbing techniques" |
| "Being different for the sake of being different is to creativity as noise is to music" |
| "Other people’s opinions are no more random than your own: they are based on something." |
| "A proto truth is a truth you hold to be true so long as you are trying to change it." |
| "There is retardant doubt and propellant doubt" |
| "Possibilities supply the hypotheses in science and the visions in technology." |
| "When you cannot find the cause or cannot remove it, you have to design a way forward to solve the problem." |
| "We are expert at identifying “What is” but novices at designing “what can be.”" |
| "With movement you do not judge whether something is right or wrong, you move forward to new ideas." |
| "Once thought a thought cannot be unthought." |
| "Happiness is the difference between our expectations and our abilities." |
| "The purpose of thinking is to so arrange the world that we can enjoy our values." |
| "Criticism is easy because you can always choose something different and then complain about the difference." |
| "The human race has not really started ‘Thinking’ yet." |
| "Discovering the truth is important, but so is creating value." |
| "You can maximize on the past but not on the future." |
| "In the end all decisions are emotional" |
| "Aesthetics is a choreography of attention." |
| "Democracy works by substituting acceptable ideas for better ideas." |
| "Defending or attacking cases is hardly the best way to explore a subject." |
| "Philosophy is a game about words played with words." |
| "Complexity is always a failure in simplicity." |
| "Most organizations operate on the basis of continuity and problem solving." |
| "There is simplicity before understanding and there is simplicity after understanding." |
| "The only virtue of novelty is that it deserves attention." |
| "If you reward creative results you will not get creative effort. If you reward effort you will get results." |
| "In a two horse race, one horse comes in last and the other before the last." |
| "You can seek to shade behaviour by guilt or gilt." |
| "Never trust a clever man who shows no wisdom." |
| "The main purpose of bureaucracy is to sustain bureaucracy." |
| "A good new idea is good because it is good not because it is new." |
| "If you have nothing to say you can never tell when you have said enough." |
| "Strong emotions make us hostage to whatever arouses those emotions." |
| "A mistake is most useful when you avoid it the next time." |
| "Competition means running in the same race. With surpetition you create your own race with a value monopoloy." |
| "In a race you can come in second, yet you can be last." |
| "Logic will never change emotions but perception will." |
| "Logic is only a game played in a particular universe." |
| "When we analyse and judge we are thinking backwards, when we design values we are thinking forward." |
| "Design is to the future as analysis is to the past." |
| "An hypothesis seeks to discover the truth, a protothesis seeks to design a value." |
| "Universities sterilize most of the good minds in society." |
| "Language is anencyclopaedia of ignorance which forces us to look at the world in an old-fashioned way." |
| "Language is possibly the biggest barrier to human progress." |
| "Arrogance is the basic system sin because it cuts off all communication." |
| "A wine glass is half-empty or half-full – or it is too big." |
| "Any system with an input spread over time and the need to optimize periodically is always sub-optimal." |
| "Because we have been trained to solve problems, we cannot think when there are no problems." |
| "The more successful you are at defending your point of view, the less likely are you to make progress." |
| "There is nothing more wasted than a brilliant mind locked into an idea it can defend" |
| "If your idea needs support from a peer group, you are unlikely to have breakthrough ideas." |
| "The most reasonable hypothesis is not enough. We need other hypothesis in order to see the evidence differently." |
| "The creativity of children comes from ignorance, innocence and the enjoyment of new ideas." |
| "If you adapt too well, you change too little." |
| "Certainty is the enemy of possibility and so the enemy of change." |
| "You need to be ahead of your information not behind it." |
| "To know what you know is arrogance. To know what you don’t know is wisdom." |
| "Criticism is too often the only talent of those who have no other talent." |
| "The effectiveness of communication is determined by the receiver not the sender." |
| "The purpose of thinking is to abolish thinking and to turn everything into routine." |
| "Do you want to do better what you are doing – or to do better things." |
| "If most of life was not routine we would never have time for what is not routine." |
| "The prime purpose of perception is not to be objective but to trigger a pattern available in our repertoire." |
| "Creativity is the vitamin that is needed for good thinking." |
| "Recognition is looking backwards. Design is moving forward." |
| "Truth is to analysis what value is to design" |
| "Creativity only produces choices, it is judgement that produces mistakes." |
| "If advertising was really effective we might have to make it illegal." |
| "The purpose of thinking is to so arrange the world that we can enjoy and deliver our values." |