Divergent Thinking Quotes

Our society's almost doctrinal emphasis upon deductive reasoning, convergent thinking and selective retention perversely excludes divergent thinking, approximation and, importantly, guessing. If we are truly to understand the adolescent mind and develop effective ways to minimize the effects of risk-taking behaviour, we really need to understand these processes and engage with them. There is no logic involved with drug-taking and gambling. Adults can learn, too; understanding these mechanisms will also allow us to encourage creativity and value the spontaneity so characteristic of the adolescent mind. ~ Tony Little

Divergent thinking is almost always seen as a gift rather than an acquired and developed skill. But this is far from the truth: divergent thinking is a distinct form of higher-order thinking that can be taught to all ages of students. ~ Dan Rothstein

Guilford concluded that creative individuals were also far more likely to exhibit "divergent" rather than "convergent" thinking:

In tests of convergent thinking there is almost always one conclusion or answer that is regarded as unique, and thinking is to be channeled or controlled in the direction of that answer....In divergent thinking, on the other hand, there is much searching about or going off in various directions. This is most obviously seen when there is no unique conclusion. Divergent thinking...is characterized...as being less goal-bound. There is freedom to go off in different directions....Rejecting the old solution and striking out in some direction is necessary, and the resourceful organism will more probably succeed. ~ Kay Redfield Jamison

Divergent thinking is that one starts thinking from one point and expands from there to generate more ideas. ~ Pearl Zhu

When you put off a task, you buy yourself time to engage in divergent thinking rather than foreclosing on one particular idea ... ~ Adam Grant

Divergent thinking is when we come up with multiple, unexpected solutions to problems. Divergent thinking is spontaneous and free-flowing. Convergent thinking, by contrast, is more linear and entails a narrowing, rather than an expanding, of your options. Convergent thinkers are trying to find the one correct answer to a question. Divergent thinkers reframe the question. The ~ Eric Weiner

Om meditation makes the mind spacious. It gives the freedom for focus and divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the center of human creativity. ~ Amit Ray

I jerked to a stop at the door to my room. "What's wrong with my boots?" I said, thinking they were the only thing that I was going to keep on. Ah ... the only thing from this outfit, not the only thing total. ~ Kim Harrison

You're forgetting ... we never get in trouble in that class. Remember I gave Mr. Hendry that lap dance last year. I'm thinking he's expecting one this year as well. - Carol ~ Matthew Leeth

This whole sort of 'war on women' sort of thing, I'm scratching my head because if there was a war on women, I think they won. ~ Rand Paul

Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking. ~ Nina Simone

I think within a year or so, perhaps, if 9/11 had not happened, in Afghanistan would have been a very broad-based general uprising against the Taliban. ~ Ahmed Rashid

When years from now people look back on today, they will think the same thing they already do but with more reasons for it. ~ Eugene Mirman

We must lose what we think we know so that we can come to see what we least expect. ~ Christopher Kimball

I always think of "Popeye" and "Barney Google" as quintessential comic strips in that old rollicky, slapstick way we've sort of lost. ~ Bill Watterson

We don't spend our days thinking about Microsoft or trying to get revenge on Microsoft. That's a really negative and backward way, and that's not how I want to live. ~ Mitchell Baker

If I like it, if I think the character is going to be fun, if I think the story is good and if it appeals to me, then I want to do it. ~ Dwayne Johnson

I always try to do something different. I don't think I've made the same record over and over. ~ Norah Jones

I think I can see people wanting to hear more music-music now as opposed to all hip-hop. You know, which I have nothing against hip-hop. I think some of it is really good. But on the other hand, some of the real great artists are just being lost because they're not getting the airplay or anything to make them inspired to record again. ~ Nickolas Ashford

We found some scientists think that there are basically three emotions. Others went up to 27. Others had 16. Some were in the middle. So we were kind of left with no definitive answer to our basic question - how many are there? ~ Pete Docter

IF ONE COULD RUN WITHOUT GETTING tired, I don't think one would often want to do anything else. ~ C.S. Lewis

I do think that all economies need a sense of fiscal discipline especially over the midterm and if you are in the middle of a debt crisis you can't borrow your way out of a debt crisis. That's logically impossible. ~ Stephen Harper

I don't think of myself as a lion. You might as well, though, I have a mighty roar. ~ Jubal Early

The gap between what one knows and what one thinks one knows may be higher in the ranks of the elite. The result is supposedly-clever government interventions, introduced with excessive confidence, leading to disastrous results. ~ Arnold Kling

Our challenge is more of ignorance than stupidity. Having informed decisions most of us will make reasonable decisions. ~ Ted Agon

Whatever you focus on during meditation, you psychically travel to and touch. In meditation, when you think of somebody, you actually go into their aura. That is the issue. Keep your meditation pristine, unalloyed. ~ Frederick Lenz

I think serious research tends to be associated with higher academic quality, more prestige, more resources, and even, heaven help us, better teaching, to a greater extent than you might think. Folks who don't have an active intellectual life become, though the long years of just teaching, less intellectually alive and exciting. ~ Nicholas Lemann

There's no way to escape the fact that we've grown up in a violent culture, we just can't get away from it, it's part of our heritage. I think part of it is that we've always felt somewhat helpless in the face of this vast continent. Helplessness is answered in many ways, but one of them is violence. ~ Sam Shepard

There is nothing like writing to force you to think and get your thoughts straight. ~ Warren Buffett

This can't be legal," she whispered.
He raised his head. "Why not?"
"It feels too good."
He chuckled. She heard the sound, felt the soft exhalation of cool air on her bare, damp breasts, but she couldn't see anything. Not him, not herself. It was strange, but in a good way. The darkness gave her courage.
"Take your clothes off," she said, knowing that she would never have managed the words in the light.
"Yes, ma'am."
There was rustling, then nothing, then the distinctive sound of a zipper being pulled down.
Her heart thundered in her chest. She tried to imagine him naked. What would he look like? Thinking about him naked made her imagine him standing in front of her--erect. And thinking about that made her think about him pushing inside of her. Filling her. Making her--
"Condom," she gasped.
A movement stopped.
"What?"
Phoebe felt the earth open up in preparation of swallowing her. How could she have not mentioned this before?
"I'm not on anything right now," she whispered. "Birth control. I'm not on the Pill." She gestured helplessly.
"Shit, fuck, damn."
Disappointment tied her in knots. "I was really only interested in that middle part," she joked.
There was a second of silence, followed by a low chuckle. "You're never predictable, Phoebe. I'll give you that. Cross your fingers."
"What?"
"Cross your fingers. I might have a condom in my shaving kit. ~ Susan Mallery

LSD is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be. ~ Albert Hofmann

If we remain wedded to the way education is currently provided we cannot imagine other ways. We need some imagination, some fantasy, some new ways of thinking - some magic in fact. ~ Hedley Beare

Like so many plain cups on the shelves. You can reach for them, use them without thinking. Most of them don't matter. Sometimes you lose your grip on one of them and it falls and smashes to piece, and you shrug and say to yourself, what a pity. Then you reach for the cup that you use every day, one that you love and use so often that as you stretch out your hand it is already making the shape that fits its curve. You are certain that yesterday it was in its proper place, but now there is nothing. Just air. You have lost something that was so familiar, so much a part of your life that you were not even looking for it. Just expecting it to be there, as always. ~ Rosie Thomas

Zoe, I--Oh, God!" he shouted, clutching his chest and stumbling back.

"What?" she asked, looking around anxiously as she clutched a large brown muffin against her chest.

With a shaky hand, he pointed at the offending item that she dared bring into his house. "What the hell is that?"

She looked down and frowned. "My muffin?"

"How could you?" he demanded hoarsely as he shook his head in disgust.

"What the hell are you freaking out about?" she demanded, looking around again.

"That shirt!" he said, pointing wildly towards the Red Sox shirt that she dared to wear in his presence. "What the hell were you thinking? ~ R.L. Mathewson

Your questions refer to words; so I have to talk about words. You say:;: The point isn't the word, but its meaning, and you think of the meaning as a thing of the same kind as the word, though also different from the word. Here the word, there the meaning. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

I was so astonished that I could think of nothing to say, but wondered irrelevantly if I was to be caught with a teapot in my hand on every dramatic occasion. ~ Barbara Pym

Sundance felt like a natural fit. I love coming here, and I do think that this festival suits my films rather than most of the festivals I've been to. I'm not going to Cannes, you know. ~ Taika Waititi

Eleanor went to her room where she was free to think and be wretched. ~ Jane Austen

You can go on like this for a very long time, and no one will notice. You keep thinking you're going to hit some sort of bottom, but I'm here to tell you: There is no bottom. ~ Dan Chaon

I think that when you're 5'4 and 150 pounds and you love to chat and you have a blog about shopping, trying to maintain a tiny bit of mystery where you possibly can is not a bad thing. ~ Mindy Kaling

Because I'm not thinking about the fiber content in stain resistant carpet." My eyes remained stubbornly shut.
"What does that mean?"
"It means ... " I lifted my lids and found him surveying me with simple curiosity. I swallowed a new thickness in my throat, knowing that I needed to tell him the truth. "It means my brain finds you more interesting than all the really interesting trivial facts I could be contemplating or researching at present."
His answering smile was leisurely, measured; "I think that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. ~ Penny Reid

The longer I live the more I think of the quality of fortitude ... men who fall, pick themselves up and stumble on, fall again, and are trying to get back up when they die. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

I don't think I was bullied. If I was bullied, I fought back or turned the other cheek. I have been put in a box, I guess: "Oh you're blonde, you can't play brunette." And I'm always like: "You know what? I'm going to prove you wrong, I'm going to make my hair brown." ~ Laura Bell Bundy