For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

Don’t tell your problems to people: eighty percent don’t care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

Employers and business leaders need people who can think for themselves – who can take initiative and be the solution to problems.

Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.

I don’t know that my schooling was conducive to wild ideas and creativity, but it gave me discipline, drive. They taught me how to think. I really know how to think.

It’s very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

But your questions, which are unanswerable without exception, all spring from the same erroneous thinking.

Modern cynics and skeptics… see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.

Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.

Sometimes if you got a problem deep rooted in your life, it takes a little bit of time to overcome it in that area.

But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem.

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

Such a chimerical idea as telegraphing vocal sounds would indeed, to most minds, seem scarcely feasible enough to spend time in working over. I believe, however, that it is feasible and that I have got the cue to the solution of the problem.

It is very nearly impossible… to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

Issues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

Only the aspirants for president are fool enough to believe what they read in the newspapers.

We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.

I had noticed that many of these successful people, historical and contemporary, shared certain common traits. They had a way of thinking that was exceptionally fluid; they could adapt to almost any circumstance; when confronted with problems, they could look at them from novel perspectives and solve them.

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

When you begin to worry, go find something to do. Get busy being a blessing to someone; do something fruitful. Talking about your problem or sitting alone, thinking about it, does no good; it serves only to make you miserable. Above all else, remember that worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem.

Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that’s what a number of us are trying to do.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.

And so I think that the idea of America working with other countries to solve problems is good for us, and it is part of digging us out of the ‚my way or the highway‘ approach that was evident in the previous eight years.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

I do believe that in order to be a successful negotiator that as a diplomat, you have to be able to put yourself into the other person’s shoes. Unless you can understand what is motivating them, you are never going to be able to figure out how to solve a particular problem.

Normally, when someone we love is turning away from a struggle, we self-protect by also turning away. That’s definitely my first response. I think change is more likely to happen if both partners have common language and a shared lens to see problems.

Presented with the claims of nineteenth-century racist anthropology, a rational person will ask two sorts of questions: ‚What is the scientific status of the claims?‘ ‚What social or ideological needs do they serve?‘

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.

I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else’s shoes, and identify and reject false choices.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

As long as you blame someone or something else – something outside you that’s bigger than you are – as the source of your problems, the problems won’t get solved.

I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.

We’ve got to dumb America up again.

The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas.

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.

There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

I used to worry about every little thing, trying to figure out every problem. Well, I realize now how foolish that was. I was no more in control of my life than the man on the moon.

I’m always interested in what you can do with technology that people haven’t thought of doing yet.

Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.

Everything popular is wrong.

I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.