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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

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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
Lateral
Vertical
Thinker
Says
Looking
Found

More quotes by Edward de Bono

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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
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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
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The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future
Edward de Bono
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Only the human brain can deliberately change perceptions, change patterns, invent concepts and tolerate ambiguity.
Edward de Bono
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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
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The winner is the chef who takes the same ingredients as everyone else and produces the best results.
Edward de Bono
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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
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Our existing thinking habits are excellent, just as the rear wheels of a motor car are excellent, but not enough.
Edward de Bono
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A good design is not a democratic consensus.
Edward de Bono
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If you do not design the future, someone or something else will design it for you.
Edward de Bono
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A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because, looked at through the myth, all evidence supports the myth.
Edward de Bono
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The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it.
Edward de Bono
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You can't dig a different hole by digging the same one deeper.
Edward de Bono
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An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
Edward de Bono
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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
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I'm tired of dreaming. I'm into doing at the moment. It's, like, let's only have goals that we can go after.
Edward de Bono
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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
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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
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Simplicity before understanding is simplistic simplicity after understanding is simple.
Edward de Bono
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I do a great deal of work with young children, and if you give a child a problem, he may come up with a highly original solution, because he doesn't have the established route to it.
Edward de Bono