Larry Ellison Quotes

The only way to get ahead is to find errors in conventional wisdom.

We have been doing things that are contrary; the things that people tell us won't work from the beginning. In fact, the only way to get ahead is to find errors in conventional wisdom.

Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.

To me, unconventional thinking is approaching a problem and asking, 'Why not? Why can't something be done?' If someone can't give me a good reason why you can't do something, I find a way to do it.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

If you look at the scientists who really make a difference, they think boldly. They're not afraid to question what they see.

I don't think we ought to base our policy on what the conventional wisdom is.... The conventional wisdom usually is wrong.

The people who do make big discoveries are the ones who somehow manage to free themselves from conventional ways of thinking and to see the subject from a new perspective.

You don’t make progress in science by finding things that are right. You make progress by finding things that are wrong. You won’t win the Nobel Prize by showing Einstein was right. You win the prize by showing that he was wrong.

The essence of scientific genius is to question what the rest of us take for granted.

The ultimate competitive advantage is being cognitive.

I reject most conventional wisdom.

The people that were most interesting were always questioning the status quo.

I'm someone who likes to question things that are put in front of me, I like to think I'm someone who asks 'why sir?' not a 'yes sir.'

Is it too much to expect from the schools that they train their students not only to interpret but to criticize; that is, to discriminate what is sound from error and falsehood, to suspend judgement if they are not convinced, or to judge with reason if they agree or disagree?

The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question.

I try to encourage people to think for themselves, to question standard assumptions... Don't take assumptions for granted. Begin by taking a skeptical attitude toward anything that is conventional wisdom. Make it justify itself. It usually can't. Be willing to ask questions about what is taken for granted. Try to think things through for yourself.

Learn to use your brain power. Critical thinking is the key to creative problem solving in business.

Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. It's how we're used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way.

We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs.

A Vulgar Mechanick can practice what he has been taught or seen done, but if he is in an error he knows not how to find it out and correct it, and if you put him out of his road he is at a stand. Whereas he that is able to reason nimbly and judiciously about figure, force, and motion, is never at rest till he gets over every rub. (from a letter dated 25 May, 1694)

Complacency with our traditional judgement based thinking methods is not enough. Our existing thinking habits are excellent just as the rear wheel of a motor car is excellent but not enough. We need to put far more emphasis on creative and design thinking. Judgement and analysis are not enough.

Be the first to not do what nobody has ever thought of not doing before.

Those questions - when you think about a thought, when you're believing a thought or concept and you question it - you realize that it changes things. Every cell in your body is awake with inquiry.

Sometimes people think you’re smart if you question the status quo, if nothing else.