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My thinking was taught to tribes in South Africa like the Zulus and Xhosas. At the time there were about 210 fights breaking out among them every month, but after they listened to my lessons, this fell to just four.

Edward de Bono

Creativity and lateral thinking have exactly the same basis as humour.
EDWARD DE BONO

Basis Creativity 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
Thinking is the ultimate human resource. Yet we can never be satisfied with our most important skill. No matter how good we become, we should always want to be better.
EDWARD DE BONO

Better Goodness Human Resource Thinking Ultimate
I’m a very loyal and unreliable friend.
EDWARD DE BONO

Friendship Loyalty Myself
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 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.
EDWARD DE BONO

Acceptance Concept Logic Rejection Selection Thinking
To me, a faith in Jesus Christ that is not aligned with the poor it’s nothing.
EDWARD DE BONO

Faith God Poor
Studies have shown that 90% of error in thinking is due to error in perception. If you can change your perception, you can change your emotion and this can lead to new ideas.
EDWARD DE BONO

Change Error Ideas Leadership Mistake Perception Study
Do we have the will to make poverty history?
EDWARD DE BONO

History Poverty Willing Yourself
You can’t dig a different hole by digging the same one deeper.
EDWARD DE BONO

Different Hole Oneself
If you do not design the future, someone or something else will design it for you.
EDWARD DE BONO

Design Future Yourself
I think school is a place where thinking should be taught.
EDWARD DE BONO

Education School Teaching Thinking
You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people’s hearts, and that’s hard enough.
EDWARD DE BONO

Enough Hard Heart Hold People Religion Rule Tradition
Happiness is for those who don’t really need it. So I can live without happiness.
EDWARD DE BONO

Happiness Live Myself Need
We may need to solve problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place.
EDWARD DE BONO

Place Problem Remove Solve
Everyone has the right to doubt everything as often as he pleases and the duty to do it at least once. No way of looking at things is too sacred to be reconsidered. No way of doing things is beyond improvement.
EDWARD DE BONO

Beyond Doubt Improvement Right Sacred Way
The image that concerns most people is the reflection they see in other people’s minds.
EDWARD DE BONO

Image Mindset People Reflection
You can analyse the past, but you have to design the future.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Design Future Past Yourself
The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Focus Powerful Process Simplicity Source
We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.
EDWARD DE BONO

Break Creativity Experience Freedom Need Order Temporary
To deal with future we have to deal with possibilities. Analysis will only tell us what is.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Deal Future Possible
Most people are put off science because maths is the gateway and they can’t handle it. What we should be teaching is operational maths because, in general, the maths we need to carry out science is pretty straightforward.
EDWARD DE BONO

Operational People Science Teaching
Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Believe Business Data Executive Ideas Mindset Perspective Science Wrong
Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.
EDWARD DE BONO

Argument Creation Reveal Truth Yourself
To develop thinking as a skill, it should be deliberate, focused, confident, and enjoyable.
EDWARD DE BONO

Confidence Development Enjoyment Skills
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
The system will always be defended by those countless people who have enough intellect to defend but not quite enough to innovate.
EDWARD DE BONO

Count Defend Enough Innovation People System

My thinking was taught to tribes in South Africa like the Zulus and Xhosas. At the time there were about 210 fights breaking out among them every month, but after they listened to my lessons, this fell to just four.

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My thinking was taught to tribes in South Africa like the Zulus and Xhosas. At the time there were about 210 fights breaking out among them every month, but after they listened to my lessons, this fell to just four.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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