Edward de Bono Quotes

We don't look at problems logically, we look at them emotionally. We look at them through the guts. We look at them as if we're doing a high school problem, like what is beautiful, what makes me recognized among my peers. We don't go and think about things. We, as a society, don't wish to engage in rational thought.

The more important the subject and the closer it cuts to the bone of our hopes and needs, the more we are likely to err in establishing a framework for analysis.

I'm bad at rationalisation - very bad.

I wish the children could be taught early on that our thinking creates our experience.

Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.

I think that's the greatest gift one can have: point of view. You know? I've come to believe that if you have a bad memory of something, change it.

Logic will never change emotion or perception.

Reason is the servant of instinct.

No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical.

We all have mental models: the lens through which we see the world that drive our responses to everything we experience. Being aware of your mental models is key to being objective.

When we are fully conscious and aware, we actually know when we are about to overreact. When we are mindful, we have the mental space and are aware of when our moods change. When we are mindful, we are aware of when our mental models are being challenged and when expectation does not meet with reality, which can trigger an emotional response.

By the way, the point between rationality and what we would call the irrational is a very difficult point to establish. There's no specific line, as you know.

It's actually very surprising how little we think about the quality of our decision-making and how we could improve it. How absent decision-making classes are from educational curricula. How little we think about how it is we think.

People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.

To me, great advertising can make food taste better, can make your car run smoother. It can change your perception of something. Is it wrong to change your perception about something? Of course not. I'm not lying; I'm just saying, 'This one's more fun, this one's more exciting.'

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

We mostly feel fearful because we feel powerless. We feel powerless, I contend, because of a style of thinking that splits information in two poles that makes us lose all the operative information we need to solve the problem.

Untested assumptions and lazy habits of thought can be shown up, once put in a spotlight of a different hue.

Half our mistakes in life arise from feeling where we ought to think, and thinking where we ought to feel.

Emotion is a rotten base for politics.

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

The heart of change is in the emotions…. We see, we feel, we change.

If you want someone to accept new evidence, make sure to present it to them in a context that doesn’t trigger a defensive, emotional reaction.

Every time you create something new, there should be questions. And to me, that's a sign that you've actually done something that is transformative.

I don't really have a process. I just get agitated or aroused by an idea in the world, and then I want to give my rebuttal.