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Perception is real even when it is not reality.

Edward de Bono

To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.
EDWARD DE BONO

Feild Growth Mad Success Talent
Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.
EDWARD DE BONO

Activity Brain Human Humor
Creativity is a great motivator because it mades people interested in what they are doing.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Greatness Interest Motivational People
You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction.
EDWARD DE BONO

Direction Hard Yourself
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.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Information Mathematics Process Thinking
I think there is a danger with young people of being dependent in the sense that they don’t acquire any identity or self-image of themselves as thinkers.
EDWARD DE BONO

Dangerous Identity Image People Thinking Young
Complexity creates confusion, simplicity focus.
EDWARD DE BONO

Complex Creation Creativity Focus Simplicity
The winner is the chef who takes the same ingredients as everyone else and produces the best results.
EDWARD DE BONO

Best Chef Ingredient Result Win
This new meta-system is very much in favor of the self, but a self that is based on a proper sense of dignity, not on an inflated ego. A person who dare not admit he is wrong inflates his ego but weakens his self.
EDWARD DE BONO

Dignity Himself Proper System Weakness Wrong
America is not just a country, it’s an idea.
EDWARD DE BONO

Country Idea One Liner
The vertical thinker says: ‘I know what I am looking for.’ The lateral thinker says: ‘I am looking but I won’t know what I am looking for until I have found it.’
EDWARD DE BONO

Finding Philosophy Thinking
Maybe the social value of truth is as a destination – so long as we do not assume we have arrived there.
EDWARD DE BONO

Arrival Destination Social Truth Value
Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.
EDWARD DE BONO

Logic Mistake Thinking
Do we have the will to make poverty history?
EDWARD DE BONO

History Poverty Willing Yourself
We still seek to solve conflicts with ‘judgement’ instead of designing the way forwards.
EDWARD DE BONO

Design Judgement Seek
When the story of these times gets written, we want it to say that we did all we could, and it was more than anyone could have imagined.
EDWARD DE BONO

Imagination Story Time Writing
There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Doubt Human Resource
Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.
EDWARD DE BONO

Car Mistake Production Remove
Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.
EDWARD DE BONO

Argument Creation Reveal Truth Yourself
Some people drift along like a cork on a river, feeling that they cannot do anything except drift, moment to moment. This is an attitude of mind. Everyone can be constructive even in tiny ways.
EDWARD DE BONO

Attitude Construction Exception Moments People
Asking a question is the simplest way of focusing thinking asking the right question may be the most important part of thinking.
EDWARD DE BONO

Focus Important Question Simplicity Way
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.
EDWARD DE BONO

Fashion Human Language Progress Way
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.
EDWARD DE BONO

Chance Company Insurance Solid Wealth
If you do not design the future, someone or something else will design it for you.
EDWARD DE BONO

Design Future Yourself
Happiness is for those who don’t really need it. So I can live without happiness.
EDWARD DE BONO

Happiness Live Myself Need
They enjoy thinking. They enjoy being creative. They enjoy having ideas. Most people do not enjoy thinking at all.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Enjoyment Ideas Thinking
Creative thinking – in terms of idea creativity – is not a mystical talent. It is a skill that can be practised and nurtured.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Ideas Nurture Practice Talent Thinking

Perception is real even when it is not reality.

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Perception is real even when it is not reality.

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