Edward de Bono Quotes

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.

It's always good to take an orthogonal view of something. It develops ideas.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

I often try to think about, What sounds like a bad idea, but if you find the right plan of attack, it's actually a really good idea? I spend a lot of time really trying to systematically tackle problems from different angles.

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.

Take advantage of the ambiguity in the world. Look at something and think what else it might be.

We can't change anything until we get some fresh ideas, until we begin to see things differently.

I have some ideas on how to fix that. They're not very good ideas, but at least they're ideas!

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

Letting your mind play is the best way to solve problems.

When trying to innovate, most people stop after 10-15 possibilities, failing to recognize that their first ideas are usually the most obvious ones.

I just like having creative solutions to tricky situations.

I apply the term 'creativity' broadly... it's problem solving. We are all faced with problems, and we have to address them and think of something new, and that's where creativity comes in.

I can't solve a puzzle for the life of me - my brain doesn't work that way. But I can take a very simple idea and extrapolate from it and spend time with it and pull things out of it.

If coming up with ten ideas sounds too hard, then come up with twenty.

Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them.

If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away.

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.

I learned three important things in college-to use a library, to memorize quickly and visually, to drop asleep at any time given a horizontal surface and fifteen minutes. What I could not learn was to think creatively on schedule.

If you have several ideas that all seem pretty good, work on the one that you think about, when you're not trying to think about work.

If everyone has to think outside the box, maybe it is the box that needs fixing.

Sometimes even hearing a bad idea is a great way to get to a good idea.

If you want to think new thoughts that are different, then do what creative people do - get the problem reasonably clear and then refuse to look at any answers until you've thought the problem through carefully how you would do it, how you could slightly change the problem to be the correct one.

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.