Edward de Bono Thinking Quotations

My thinking was taught to tribes in South Africa like the Zulus and Xhosas. At the time there were about 210 fights breaking out among them every month, but after they listened to my lessons, this fell to just four.

Teaching thinking for just five hours to unemployed youngsters increased employment 500 percent.

Complacency with our traditional judgement based thinking methods is not enough. Our existing thinking habits are excellent just as the rear wheel of a motor car is excellent but not enough. We need to put far more emphasis on creative and design thinking. Judgement and analysis are not enough.

Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces. It is concerned with the perception part of thinking. This is where we organise the external world into the pieces we can then 'process'.

I think school is a place where thinking should be taught.

The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future

They enjoy thinking. They enjoy being creative. They enjoy having ideas. Most people do not enjoy thinking at all.

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.

Only the human brain can deliberately change perceptions, change patterns, invent concepts and tolerate ambiguity.

Some people are aware of another sort of thinking which... leads to those simple ideas that are obvious only after they have been thought of... the term 'lateral thinking' has been coined to describe this orther sort of thinking; 'vertical thinking' is used to denote the conventional logical process.

Lateral thinking... 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.

We do not make very full value of the opportunities provided by technology because we prefer critical to constructive thinking, argument to design.

I could never be a politician because I think I'm too selfish, and I think I like to have fun.. the right to be irresponsible is a right I hold dear.

Our existing thinking habits are excellent, just as the rear wheels of a motor car are excellent, but not enough...

The concept of logical thinking is selection and this is brought about by the processes of acceptance and rejection. Rejection is the basis of logical thinking.

With vertical thinking one may look for different approaches until one finds a promising one. With lateral thinking one goes on generating as many approaches as one can even after one has found a promising one. With vertical thinking one is trying to select the best approach but with lateral thinking one is generating different approaches for the sake of generating them.

Creativity and lateral thinking have exactly the same basis as humour.

Possibilities play a much bigger role in thinking than most people believe. Without possibilities you cannot make progress.

You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough.

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

To develop thinking as a skill, it should be deliberate, focused, confident, and enjoyable.

We need both information and thinking. Information is no substitute for thinking and thinking is no substitute for information.

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.

Thinking is the ultimate human resource. Yet we can never be satisfied with our most important skill. No matter how good we become, we should always want to be better

Creative thinking - in terms of idea creativity - is not a mystical talent. It is a skill that can be practised and nurtured.

I think there is a danger with young people of being dependent in the sense that they don't acquire any identity or self-image of themselves as thinkers.

As competition intensifies, the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better . . . no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems.

Intelligence is something we are born with. Thinking is a skill that must be learned.

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

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.

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

Asking a question is the simplest way of focusing thinking...asking the right question may be the most important part of thinking.

What the joke displays is a switch in perception. This is important in changing the way we think.

Studies have shown that 90% of error in thinking is due to error in perception. If you can change your perception, you can change your emotion and this can lead to new ideas.

I used to think that one day I'd be able to resolve the different drives I have in different directions, the tensions between the different people I am. Now I realize that is who I am. I do feel I'm getting closer to the song in my head. I wasn't looking for grace. But luckily grace was looking for me.

Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learned. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and, where appropriate, profits.

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.