Edward de Bono Quotes

People are too prone to think that the actual is the limit of possibility. They believe that all that has been done is all that can be done.

The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.

Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change.

How does anybody ever think of anything?

For every person who can imagine a possibility there are tens of thousands who are stuck in the greased grooves of history.

I think imaginative exercises can have a profound impact on the future - what you can imagine can sometimes turn into something you can figure out how to build.

The best way to get people to think outside the box is not to create the box in the first place.

You can never discard too many bad ideas.

Imagination is the power of the mind over the possibilities of things.

Thinking is progress. Non-thinking is stagnation of the individual, organisation and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge with action, converts adversity into prosperity.

Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again.

The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table.

Nothing is impossible. With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination.

To think, analyze and invent, he [Pierre Menard] also wrote me, “are not anomalous acts, but the normal respiration of the intelligence. To glorify the occasional fulfillment of this function, to treasure ancient thoughts of others, to remember with incredulous amazement that the doctor universal is thought, is to confess our languor or barbarism. Every man should be capable of all ideas, and I believe that in the future he will be." (Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote, 1939)

Problems are challenges to creative minds. Without problems, there would be little reason to think at all.

Solve problems, make art, think deeply.

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.

Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it's the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves.

Learning gives creativity Creativity leads to thinking Thinking provides knowledge Knowledge makes you great.

At school, new ideas are thrust at you every day. Out in the world, you’ll have to find the inner motivation to search for new ideas on your own. With any luck at all, you’ll never need to take an idea and squeeze a punchline out of it, but as bright, creative people, you’ll be called upon to generate ideas and solutions all your lives. Letting your mind play is the best way to solve problems.

I always thought problem solving was greatly overrated - and that the most important thing was problem creation.

It isn't all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.

Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.

I was playing when I invented the aqualung. I think play is the most serious thing in the world.

Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.