“To deal with future we have to deal with possibilities. Analysis will only tell us what is.”

On trade, our hypocrisy is at its most appalling. Trade reform isn’t about charity, it’s about justice, and this campaign, Trade Justice is an unstoppable idea.

Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.

To develop thinking as a skill, it should be deliberate, focused, confident, and enjoyable.

Humor is probably the most significant characteristics of the human mind. Far more significant than reason. In fact, reason is actually a very cheap commodity.

The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.

They enjoy thinking. They enjoy being creative. They enjoy having ideas. Most people do not enjoy thinking at all.

We may need to solve problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place.

The concept of logical thinking is selection and this is brought about by the processes of acceptance and rejection. Rejection is the basis of logical thinking.

To me, a faith in Jesus Christ that is not aligned with the poor it’s nothing.

A discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos.

The solid wealth of insurance companies and the success of those who organsie gambling are some indication of the profits to be derived from the efficient use of chance.

If you never change your mind, why have one?

Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

Language is the biggest barrier to human progress because language is an encyclopedia of ignorance. Old perceptions are frozen into language and force us to look at the world in an old fashioned way.

The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.

The analysis of data will not by itself produce new ideas.

Western traditions of education have emphasized knowledge analysis, description and debate. They all have a part to play, but today there is a whole vast aspect of doing that has just been left out. Operacy is what keeps society going.

Each country its cost analysis is going to be different. So what we are you seeing in Syria, for example, is different than what’s going on in Jordan. The maps are being rewritten.

The analysis of the thing is not the thing itself.

There is philosophy, which is about conceptual analysis – about the meaning of what we say – and there is all of this … all of life.

I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts.

Not even analysis, by itself, can transform you. You must still do the changing yourself.

Government, in it’s last analysis, is organized force.