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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.