Lateral Thinking Quotes

The art of creation is older than the art of killing. ~ Ed Koch

In fact he was incurably insane and hallucinated more or less continuously, but by a remarkable stroke of lateral thinking his fellow wizards had reasoned that, in that case, the whole business could be sorted out if only they could find a formula that caused him to hallucinate that he was completely sane.*
*This is a very common hallucination, shared by most people. ~ Terry Pratchett

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

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis

I am told by others that I have a lateral-thinking, broad approach to problems, sometimes to my detriment. In school, my grades always suffered because I was continually mucking about with irrelevant side issues, which I often found to be more interesting. ~ Barry Marshall

Games sometimes require lateral thinking. They sometimes require quite skilled hand-eye coordination and so on. But they're not in any sense intelligent in the way that you want your children to develop intelligence to make the mind not just supple, but actually informed. ~ Salman Rushdie

That wasn't a mistake, was 'a fully justified venture which, for reasons beyond your control, did not work ~ Edward De Bono

the need to be right at every step is absolutely essential to logical thinking, but quite unnecessary in lateral thinking. It ~ Franz Badenhorst

To promote "learning-by-being," we can encourage people to engage in unstructured and free-spirited approaches, promoting lateral thinking rather than vertical problem solving. ~ Matt Ratto

Natural resources have dropped out of the competitive equation. In fact, a lack of natural resources may even be an advantage. Because the industries we are competing for - the industries of the future - are all based on brainpower. ~ Lester Thurow

Creativity and lateral thinking have exactly the same basis as humour. ~ Edward De Bono

We would like to believe that we are not in the business of surviving but in being good, and we do not like to admit to ourselves that we are good in order to survive. ~ Dorothy Rowe

The truths Phaedrus began to pursue were lateral truths; no longer the frontal truths of science, those toward which the discipline pointed, but the kind of truth you see laterally, out of the corner of your eye. In a laboratory situation, when your whole procedure goes haywire, when everything goes wrong or is indeterminate or is so screwed up by unexpected results you can't make head or tail out of anything, you start looking laterally. That's a word he later used to describe a growth of knowledge that doesn't move forward like an arrow in flight, but expands sideways, like an arrow enlarging in flight, or like the archer, discovering that although he has hit the bull's-eye and won the prize, his head is on a pillow and the sun is coming in the window. Lateral knowledge is knowledge that's from a wholly unexpected direction, from a direction that's not even understood as a direction until the knowledge forces itself upon one. Lateral truths point to the falseness of axioms and postulates underlying one's existing system of getting at truth. ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Stupid. Stupid. Foaly, we are both imbeciles. I don't expect lateral thinking from the LEP, but from you ... "
... "What is it?" [Holly] asked, afraid of the answer, which must surely be terrible.
"Yeah," agreed Foaly, who always had time to feel insulted. "Why am I an imbecile? ~ Eoin Colfer

Other than his ex-wife and despite appearances with a series of cultivated blondes, Edward de Bono has never publicly aligned himself with a woman. 'I'm looking for a fat, cross-eyed hunchback,' he explains, stifling a giggle. 'A prosthetic hump would do.' His delight evaporates when asked about his three grandchildren. 'Am I a doting grandfather?' He pauses. 'I'm a ... something grandfather, yes.' The fact that De Bono remains unperturbed by this lack betrays an emotionally austere childhood, and his passions for play, toys, and bad jokes tell of the same deprivation. ~ Antonella Gambotto-Burke

With vertical thinking one may look for different approaches until one finds a promising one. With lateral thinking one goes on generating as many approaches as one can even after one has found a promising one. With vertical thinking one is trying to select the best approach but with lateral thinking one is generating different approaches for the sake of generating them. ~ Edward De Bono

The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. ~ Edward De Bono

The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. ~ Jacob Bronowski

Some people are aware of another sort of thinking which ... leads to those simple ideas that are obvious only after they have been thought of ... the term 'lateral thinking' has been coined to describe this orther sort of thinking; 'vertical thinking' is used to denote the conventional logical process. ~ Edward De Bono

I think when you are young, you are hoping that this person will be the right one. The one you are going to be in love with forever, but sometimes you want that so much, you create something that isn't really there. ~ Johnny Depp

The praying stopped, and Alford turned from that far near distance and walked out on to the veranda alone, thinking still of that self beyond his reach in a faraway place, as a loss, as something he had been deprived of. But how do you feel the loss of a self that you did not have to lose? How can you lose an Africa you did not know? But that was what he felt: the loss of not having had that loss to lose. ~ Earl Lovelace

Nobody thinks about technical issues anymore because cameras or camera phones take care of that automatically. On the other hand, you still have the option of controlling every technical aspect. It's the most accessible, democratic medium available in the world. ~ Martin Parr

I like what they're doing. I think they're doing a good job, and I know that a lot of people are upset by them. These are great young men and women, and they're bold, and they are saying to America, "Something's going to change." I'm very proud of them. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Without Pentecost the Christ-event - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now. ~ Henri Nouwen

you were not wrong for leaving
you were wrong for coming back
and thinking
you could have me
when it was convenient
and leave when it was not ~ Rupi Kaur

When it comes to football I think it's vital you always enjoy playing. ~ Jordan Henderson

Love is the biggest thing. I feel that if we all were truly loving to each other, I think life would be better. Even to like, a stranger. They could be going through something crazy in their day and just to show love towards that person ... ~ Leon Bridges

Some people think that if they will do certain things, they will somehow earn the favor of God, but this misses the whole point of Christianity and ironically devolves into a me-centered approach. ~ David Platt

Seriously, the Olympic badminton players were apparently trying to lose on purpose, a big story. But really, think about it, if you train day and night for four years to be in the Olympics for badminton, in a way, haven't you already lost? ~ Conan O'Brien

Let me have men about me that are fat ... Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. ~ William Shakespeare

Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change. ~ Richard Bach

Rigidity is the enemy of acting. And I think that people who stay up all night focusing on every beat they're going to do the next day always end up getting screwed. ~ Jay Baruchel

I've been working for many years and I think I've managed to work with some of the best people in the business, which has been rewarding and an apprenticeship. ~ Aaron Eckhart

I think good-looking naked ladies turn on the majority of men. ~ Steve Albini

I think the mission for the writer is to tell stories in a compelling way about the stuff that cannot be talked about, that cannot be gotten at with shallow media. ~ Jonathan Franzen

I think he will probably come round in time, I mean to renew the subject pretty often. ~ Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

if they hadn't both been pretending, but had had what is called a heart-to-heart talk, that is, simply told each other just what they were thinking and feeling, then they would just have looked into each other's eyes, and Constantine would only have said: 'You're dying, dying, dying!' – while Nicholas would simply have replied: 'I know I'm dying, but I'm afraid, afraid, afraid!' That's all they would have said if they'd been talking straight from the heart. But it was impossible to live that way, so Levin tried to do what he'd been trying to do all his life without being able to, what a great many people could do so well, as he observed, and without which life was impossible: he tried to say something different from what he thought, and he always felt it came out false, that his brother caught him out and was irritated by it. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Mr. Sand, do you think it's possible to fall in love in the space of a single day?"
He smiled. "I wouldn't know. I only fall in love at night. Never lasts beyond breakfast, though. ~ Tessa Dare

I want to compliment the fraternity and sorority organizations for taking the time to meet with us and then removing their support from the legislation that would have been so counterproductive for a goal that I think we all share - and that is making campuses safer and the successful prosecution of people who commit serious crimes. So, good on them that they backed off, and we don't have to fight them. ~ Claire McCaskill

He could ball with the crew, he could solo
But I think I like him better when he dolo ~ Nicki Minaj

In addition, Dr. Dannyboy has suggested a fifth element: positive thinking. Pointing out that their breathing, bathing, dining and screwing brought Alobar and Kudra much physical pleasure, and that an organism steeped in pleasure is an organism disposed to continue, he has said that the will to live cannot be overestimated as a stimulant to longevity. Indeed Dr. Dannyboy goes so far as to claim that ninety percent of all deaths are suicides. Persons, says Wiggs, who lack curiosity about life, who find minimal joy in existence, are all too willing, subconsciously, to cooperate with- and attract- disease, accident and violence. ~ Tom Robbins

People are frightened of death, and the central lie of all religion is that there's a cure for this and an exception we've made in your own case: an eternal life offered if you make the right propitiations and the right abjections. Well, I'm sorry. I think that it's the height of immorality to lie to people like that. That's why [religion] survives. ~ Christopher Hitchens

Menny think tha luv their husbands almost tew deth, when in fack, tha are only jealous ov them. ~ Josh Billings

Just because I was married to Aly Khan, people think I'm rich. Well, I'm not. I never got a dime from Aly or from any of my husbands. ~ Rita Hayworth

It can't be good news," Leif said. "I'd doubt you would brave the weather just to say hello."
"You opened the door before I could knock," I said. "You must know something's up."
Leif wiped the rain from his face. "I smelled you coming."
"Smelled?"
"You reek of Lavender. Do you bathe in Mother's perfume or just wash your cloak with it?" he teased.
"How mundane. I was thinking of something a little more magical. ~ Maria V. Snyder

Although my parents have never been the kind to hint around about grandchildren, I can think of no better tribute to them than giving them some ... I can't help thinking that the cycle is not complete until I can introduce them to a child of their child. And I can think of no better comfort when they are gone than to know that something of them lives on, not only in me but in my children. ~ Anne Cassidy

Living in a spiritual manner, exhibiting a joyous and mindful embrace of the manifold wonders of an earthy existence, enhances life. A person develops spirituality by spending solitary time thinking about the larger issues in life. Scripting a personal philosophy for conducting a person's life is a spiritual testament. A spiritual person seeks a system of general truths that encoded statement transforms their character. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Kids draw masterpieces - they're the best painters ever. I think the same with music. They could totally write amazing music if they just had the right tools. It's important at that age to set up something, and then maybe afterwards you can go study your violin for 500 hours a week. But at least in the beginning you know about the options. ~ Bjork

Care about understanding and before you know it, in just a few decades, you'll have a system of thinking that gives you answers whenever you ask. ~ Richard Bach

I knew Deng Xiaoping when he came out of prison. He had, after all, been imprisoned for nearly ten years by Mao. I know what China looked like before he took over, and so in my own mind, I don't think of Deng Xiaoping as an oppressor. I think of somebody who, faced with that crisis, made a very painful and decision with which I cannot agree. But I also think of him as a great reformer. ~ Henry A. Kissinger

Funny but, for me, the Bible was a hobby before it was a serious study. It was the thing I'd sneak off and do on the side, feeling rather guilty because I wasn't doing my real school homework or whatever ... and never thinking I would make it a life's work. ~ N. T. Wright

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn't. ~ A.A. Milne

If you were offered the chance to live your own life again, would you seize the opportunity? The only real philosophical answer is automatically self-contradictory: 'Only if I did not know that I was doing so.' To go through the entire experience once more would be banal and Sisyphean - even if it did build muscle - whereas to wish to be young again and to have the benefit of one's learned and acquired existence is not at all to wish for a repeat performance, or a Groundhog Day. And the mind ought to, but cannot, set some limits to wish-thinking. All right, same me but with more money, an even sturdier penis, slightly different parents, a briefer latency period ... the thing is absurd. I seriously would like to know what it was to be a woman, but like blind Tiresias would also want the option of re-metamorphosing if I wished. How terrible it is that we have so many more desires than opportunities. ~ Christopher Hitchens

If you're going to take the attitude, I don't think it will work, you will never do anything. ~ Bernie Ecclestone

I can think of nothing that Saddam Hussein can do diplomatically (to avoid war). I think that time is now over. He's had his chance, he has had many chances over the last 12 years and he has blown every one of those chances. ~ Colin Powell

If thinking men would have the courage to think for themselves, and to speak what they think, it would be found they do not differ in religious opinions as much as is supposed. ~ Thomas Jefferson

You own me, Jocelyn. You have had the claim on my heart since the first moment I saw you." After a long second he grinned, "You may have to share that claim with Olivia because she has it,
too." He kissed me soft and slow, then pressed his forehead to mine. "You are my best friend, but I want you to be more." He pulled away and looked deep into my eyes and my breath caught at
the sincerity I saw in his. "I need you to be more, because… I-I don't think I can handle another minute of not being able to touch you the way I want to touch you. And I know that I
can't handle you thinking that what I do is none of your business."

-Andrew ~ Jessica Wilde

Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is ... One of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation ... Poverty is often produced by a rejection of God's love, by man's basic and tragic tendency to close in on himself, thinking himself to be self-sufficient or merely an insignificant and ephemeral fact, a "stranger" in a random universe ... The human being develops when ... his soul comes to know itself and the truths that God has implanted deep within, when he enters into dialogue with himself and his Creator ... It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with God. ~ Pope Benedict XVI

What we think of as Halloween is really the product of media barons, city mayors, and candy-makers. You know, before the 1920s, Halloween was really a terrible, terrible night. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

I think the race went as well as it could and I drove well to finish sixth. The chassis is working better and through the corners we are more or less there; we'll move onto Europe and see if we can get further up the grid and keep improving. The weekend went pretty smooth for me until the end of the race, I don't know what happened, but the team will have a look at it. ~ Daniel Ricciardo

When I was young, we were quite strongly discouraged from listening to pop music. It was an uncomfortable thing, pop music; I think my parents felt threatened by it. They were always happy when they were listening to Mozart, so if your parents are happy, then you're happy. ~ William Orbit