black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.

Edward de Bono

It’s always amazed me how little attention philosophers, psychologists, or anyone else actually has paid to humor.
EDWARD DE BONO

Amazing Attention Humor Pay
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
It’s not enough to rage against the lie.. you’ve got to replace it with the truth.
EDWARD DE BONO

Enough Lying Replacement Truth
We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving.
EDWARD DE BONO

Better Improvement Perfection Problem Solve Way
Do we have the will to make poverty history?
EDWARD DE BONO

History Poverty Willing Yourself
We need both information and thinking. Information is no substitute for thinking and thinking is no substitute for information.
EDWARD DE BONO

Information Need Substitute Thinking
You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction.
EDWARD DE BONO

Direction Hard Yourself
America is not just a country, it’s an idea.
EDWARD DE BONO

Country Idea One Liner
Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Different Establishment Order Pattern Way
The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.
EDWARD DE BONO

Arrogant Effect Sin Thinking Treat
Every valuable creative idea must always be logical in hindsight. If it were not, we would never be able to see its value.
EDWARD DE BONO

Creativity Idea Value
To develop thinking as a skill, it should be deliberate, focused, confident, and enjoyable.
EDWARD DE BONO

Confidence Development Enjoyment Skills
The analysis of data will not by itself produce new ideas.
EDWARD DE BONO

Analysis Data Ideas Production
Man owes his success to his creativity. No one doubts the need for it. It is most useful in good times and essential in bad.
EDWARD DE BONO

Bad Creativity Doubt Essential Man Need Success
Child mortality since 2000 is down by 2.65 million a year. That’s a rate of 7,256 children’s lives saved each day. It drives me nuts that most people don’t seem to know this news.
EDWARD DE BONO

Children Live News People
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
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
Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain subjective, negative, ungrateful way.
EDWARD DE BONO

Gratitude Problem Situation Time Way
Opportunity ideas do not lie around waiting to be discovered. Such ideas need to be produced.
EDWARD DE BONO

Discover Ideas Lying Need Opportunity Production
The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas.
EDWARD DE BONO

Ideas Need Right Time
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
A discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos.
EDWARD DE BONO

Attempt Complete Discussion Ego Explore Genuine Subject
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
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
Happiness is for those who don’t really need it. So I can live without happiness.
EDWARD DE BONO

Happiness Live Myself Need
We still seek to solve conflicts with ‘judgement’ instead of designing the way forwards.
EDWARD DE BONO

Design Judgement Seek
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

You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Edward de Bono Quotes