Quote

Our existing thinking habits are excellent, just as the rear wheels of a motor car are excellent, but not enough.

Edward de Bono

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Edward de Bono
Age: 88 †
Born: 1933
Born: May 19
Died: 2021
Died: June 9
Philosopher
Physician
Psychologist
University Teacher
Republic of Malta
Edward Charles Francis Publius de Bono
Car
Habit
Enough
Rear
Thinking
Motor
Existing
Wheels
Habits
Excellent

More quotes by Edward de Bono

Image
America is not just a country, it's an idea.
Edward de Bono
Image
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
Edward de Bono
Image
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
Image
Teaching thinking for just five hours to unemployed youngsters increased employment 500 percent.
Edward de Bono
Image
As competition intensifies, the need for creative thinking increases. It is no longer enough to do the same thing better . . . no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems.
Edward de Bono
Image
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
Image
What the joke displays is a switch in perception. This is important in changing the way we think.
Edward de Bono
Image
A person who knows all the answers, has an opinion on everything, has a certainty backed up by rational argument, has very little possibility of further progress. Such a person is unlikely to walk away from a discussion with anything more than a reaffirmation of how right he or she has been all along.
Edward de Bono
Image
It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor, since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them.
Edward de Bono
Image
It is well known that problem avoidance is an important part of problem solving. Instead of solving the problem you go upstream and alter the system so that the problem does not occur in the first place.
Edward de Bono
Image
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
Image
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
Image
They enjoy thinking. They enjoy being creative. They enjoy having ideas. Most people do not enjoy thinking at all.
Edward de Bono
Image
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.
Edward de Bono
Image
This is not about charity, it's about justice... The war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty - I didn't say that, Colin Powell said that . . .
Edward de Bono
Image
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
Image
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.
Edward de Bono
Image
Critical thinking does seem a superior sort of thinking because it seems as though the critic is actually going beyond the scope of what is being criticized in order to criticize it. That is only rarely a true assumption because, most often, the critic will seize on some little aspect that he or she understands and tackle only that.
Edward de Bono
Image
You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper
Edward de Bono
Image
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