Edward de Bono Quotes

A lot of children, like I did, move away from words because of the fear - which is something you have to take out of education: the fear of worrying about what marks you'll get, detention, worrying about letting people down, your parents, teachers.

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.

I had a great deal of arrogance and a great deal of bravado, but I think the bravado was brought on by a huge insecurity.

And I don't think that success is going to destroy me at this point in my life, like I used to think.

What keeps you confident in a healthy way is knowing that everyone else around you is going to support you and teach you and you're going to learn from them. I just feel open to learning from people.

Scientists are very afraid of being proven wrong.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

I was a philosophy major as an undergraduate, and I'm just an arrogant little thing. It's hard for me to admit that I can't understand something, let alone not be in charge of it.

Most of the people of this world are coated round and round with self-esteem, and they're afraid to admit any understanding of the things which aren't good.

It is not good to settle into a set of opinions. It is a mistake to put forth effort and obtain some understanding and then stop at that…. Do not rely on following the degree of understanding that you have discovered, but simply think, "This is not enough.

The passive aggressive arguer comes armed with tricky tactics. They cannot take the risk that they might be wrong: their self-esteem is too intertwined with their opinions. It is more important to affirm their rightness, and sense of superiority, than to arrive at the truth.

I am much more interested in defending my ideas than defending my identities.

I think it's a belief that you can learn something. That's something that I really value from the upbringing I got.

I'm the first person to shamelessly admit that I don't know it all. With that said, my attitude is if such that if I don't know something I want you to enlighten and inform me so we can grown and get somewhere together - even if that means we ultimately agree to disagree.

Those who lack all idea that it is possible to be wrong can learn nothing except know-how.

A great many people do not have the right to their own opinion because they don't know what they are talking about.

One of the hardest tasks as a human being is knowing when to keep an open mind, and when not to.

All scientists know of colleagues whose minds are so well equipped with the means of refutation that no new idea has the temerity to seek admittance. Their contribution to science is accordingly very small.

The ignorant are to be found as much among the educated as among the uneducated.

People get so caught up in needing to know and having to prove themselves to be right, and I'm blown away by this.

Overconfidence comes from fear and doubt, and you boast an ego when you're feeling less than.

We learn nothing by being right.

What humans want most of all, is to be right. Even if we're being right about our own doom. If we believe there are monsters around the next corner ready to tear us apart, we would literally prefer to be right about the monsters, than to be shown to be wrong in the eyes of others and made to look foolish.

The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn-the less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything.

The real problem has to do with the inability by people to admit that a position they've held a long time might be wrong. That's all. Not that it is. Just that it might be. I don't know why it is, but we tend to fall in love with things we believe, Threaten them, and you threaten us.