Edward de Bono Quotes

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!

Smart people are a dime a dozen. What matters is the ability to think different... to think out of the box.

The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.

Thinking differently is my strength.

I'm good at thinking outside the box, so much that you realise it's not a box to begin with.

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.

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

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

You know, interesting minds usually do hold more than one idea at a time.

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.

The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.

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

We can't get any new thinking because we can't get any new thinkers.

I don't think in a box. I think in a sphere.

The best students are ones that are willing to take intellectual risks and challenge conventional thinking.

I know how to think outside of the box and be creative.

Successful people engage that creative part of their minds and ask, "Well, I wonder how else I can look at this problem? I wonder how else I could deal with this decision? I wonder what other possibilities I have there?"

Never accept the proposition that just because a solution satisfies a problem, that it must be the only solution.

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

With vertical thinking one may look for different approaches until one finds a promising one. With lateral thinking one goes on generating as many approaches as one can even after one has found a promising one. With vertical thinking one is trying to select the best approach but with lateral thinking one is generating different approaches for the sake of generating them.

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.

The critical mind is the creative mind.

To be fertile in hypotheses is the first perquisite of creativity and to be willing to throw them away the moment experience contradicts them is the next.