Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.

Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists.

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.

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.

Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.

People should realize we're jerks just like them.

Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.

I must say, I don't feel very qualified to be a pop star. I feel very awkward at times in the role.

Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.

If you never change your mind, why have one?

If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd.

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.

An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.

Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.

Opportunity ideas do not lie around waiting to be discovered. Such ideas need to be produced.

In a sense, words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better.

In the future, instead of striving to be right at a high cost, it will be more appropriate to be flexible and plural at a lower cost. If you cannot accurately predict the future then you must flexibly be prepared to deal with various possible futures.

One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas.

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.

We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.

Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.

Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.

Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.

A painter may be looking at the world in a way which is very different from everyone else. If he's a craftsman, he can get other people to see the world through his eyes, and so he enlarges our vision, perception, and there's great value in that.

Creative thinking - in terms of idea creativity - is not a mystical talent. It is a skill that can be practised and nurtured.

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.

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.

Logic will never change emotion or perception.

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.

Teaching thinking for just five hours to unemployed youngsters increased employment 500 percent.

There's a danger in the internet and social media. The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don't have to think, you just have to get more information - gets very dangerous.

Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea.

Complexity means distracted effort. Simplicity means focused effort.

Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.

Complexity creates confusion simplicity focus.

Creative thinking in terms of idea creativity is not a mystical talent. It is a skill that can be practised and nurtured.

Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose.

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.

The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don't have to think, you just have to get more information - gets very dangerous.

Mock the devil, and he will flee from thee.

If you can change your perception, you can change your emotion and this can lead to new ideas.

I think school is a place where thinking should be taught.

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.

One person with a belief is equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.