19th May: Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono was born on this date in 1933, in Malta. He is the author and psychologist who coined the term lateral thinking.

1. If you never change your mind, why have one?
2. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.
3. To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.
4. An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
5. Humour is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.
6. The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas.
7. Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
8. Everyone has the right to doubt everything as often as he pleases and the duty to do it at least once.
9. It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
10. You cannot have a beautiful mind if you do not know how to listen.