A biography for Edward de Bonohasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it.”
“The image that concerns most people is the reflection they see in other people's minds.”
“A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.”
“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.”
“It's always amazed me how little attention philosophers, psychologists, or anyone else actually has paid to humor.”
“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.”
“I must say, I don't feel very qualified to be a pop star. I feel very awkward at times in the role.”
“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”
“Logic will never change emotion or perception.”
“Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.”
“Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.”
“Teaching thinking for just five hours to unemployed youngsters increased employment 500 percent.”
“My thinking was taught to tribes in South Africa like the Zulus and Xhosas. At the time there were about 210 fights breaking out among them every month, but after they listened to my lessons, this fell to just four.”
“An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.”
“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.”
“Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.”
“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.”
“Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.”
“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.”