Jim Lehrer Quotes

I'm not a big believer in doing too much research - I think you can get lost in it. You can get constrained by it, which I think is a mistake. But if you've done your homework, the audience feels it.

I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them.

We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.

I think it works differently for everyone. Some people do amazing things with research, but for me, it just gets convoluted, and I start to think too much.

You cannot be insightful if you're deluged with information.

Good intelligence analysis, after all, is all about discrimination between what's important and what's not.

Mechanical rules are never a substitute for clarity of thought.

Just because we increase the speed of information doesn't mean we can increase the speed of decisions. Pondering, reflecting and ruminating are undervalued skills in our culture.

Think deeply about things. Don’t just go along because that’s the way things are or that’s what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think.

Whenever I think about an issue, I always argue the opposite side of it. So, when I ultimately decide on a course of action, I've already been through all the conceivable scenarios, and I'm going to go for it.

Usually, I'm pretty good about sorting through the options and then making decisions that I'm confident are the best decisions in that moment, given the information we have. But there are times where I think I wish I could have imagined a different level of insight.

Intelligence is not discernment and judgment or critical evaluation.

Distilling truth from overwhelming amounts of information is the essence of leadership.

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.

A good brain ain't diddley, if you don't have the facts.

I have often heard that the outstanding man is he who thinks deeply about a problem, and the next is he who listens carefully to advice.

Reason and the ability to use it are two separate skills.

He that gives a portion of his time and talent to the investigation of mathematical truth, will come to all other questions with a decided advantage over his opponents.

Let the dataset change your mindset

I think, though, that we need to be armed with the critical thinking skills that lawyers and scientists and journalists such as yourself have. We all need to have those as we make our way through the day. And they're not that hard to acquire.

When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher.

Thinking is one of the most important weapons in dealing with problems

The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question.

In a world in which we are exposed to more information, more options, more philosophies, more perspectives than ever before, in which we must choose the values by which we will live (rather than unquestioningly follow some tradition for no better reason than that our own parents did), we need to be willing to stand on our own judgment and trust our own intelligence-to look at the world through our own eyes-to chart our course and think through how to achieve the future we want, to commit ourselves to continuous questioning and learning-to be, in a word, self-responsible.

Learn to use your brain power. Critical thinking is the key to creative problem solving in business.