Edward de Bono Quotes

One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind.

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.

Wherever there is a conscious mind, there is a point of view.

I try not to be surprised. Surprise is the public face of a mind that has been closed.

You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.

Few ever see what is not already inside their heads.

The mind tends to run along the groove of one's intention and overlook the actual expression.

We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary. It is our minds that either open or close.

We all see only that which we are trained to see.

There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief.

Don’t see the mind for more than it is, but don’t misread it for all that it can be.

To ask at what time a man has first any ideas is to ask when he begins to perceive; having ideas and perception being the same thing.

[It's] the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.

The human mind can hardly remain entirely free from bias, and decisive opinions are often formed before a thorough examination of a subject from all its aspects has been made.

Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened; then we behold them, and the time when we saw them not is like a dream.

It's very difficult when you have learned something a certain way. Not only your mind absorbs it; your eyes also are trained to see in a certain way because eyes are only as good as you've been trained to see.

Perception can be changed

There's nothing wrong with the world. What's wrong is our way of looking at it.

We can only receive what our minds are capable of accepting.

I've also learned from [Dalai Lama] that we make the world by how we choose to look at it. In any situation you can make it constructive or dismaying, depending on that powerful computer we call the mind.

What we already know frames what we see, and what we see frames what we understand.

Some things just have to be believed to be seen.

Our consciousness, our ideas, our frame of reference and our belief system determine whether we go to the river of life with a teaspoon, a cup, a bucket or a barrel.

We see only what we know.

Life can show up no other way than that way in which you perceive it.