Problem Solving Quotes - Page 9

• The first step is always to succeed in becoming surprised - to notice that there is something funny going on.

  David Gelernter

  Funny, Creativity, Firsts

  David Gelernter (2010). “The Muse in the Machine: Computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought”, p.96, Simon and Schuster

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• Mistakes are at the very base of human thought, embedded there, feeding the structure like root nodules. If we were not provided with the knack for being wrong, we could never get anything useful done. We think our way along by choosing between right and wrong alternatives, and the wrong choices have to be made as often as the right ones. We get along in life this way.

  Lewis Thomas

  Life, Mistake, Creativity

  Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

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• I admire John Boehner greatly. He's a great public servant. I think people are going to miss him in the long run because he's a person that is focused on solving problems.

  Jeb Bush

  Running, Thinking, Long

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• Somewhere deep down we know that in the final analysis, we do decide things and that even our decisions to let someone else decide are really our decisions, however pusillanimous.

  Harvey Cox

  Decision, Finals, Analysis

  "On Not Leaving It to the Snake". Book by Harvey Cox, 1967.

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• Economists who have studied the relationship between education and economic growth confirm what common sense suggests: The number of college degrees is not nearly as important as how well students develop cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving ability.

  Derek Bok

  College, Thinking, Skills

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• Solving problems is a practical skill like, let us say, swimming. We acquire any practical skill by imitation and practice. Trying to swim, you imitate what other people do with their hands and feet to keep their heads above water, and, finally, you learn to swim by practicing swimming. Trying to solve problems, you have to observe and to imitate what other people do when solving problems, and, finally, you learn to do problems by doing them.

  George Polya

  Education, Math, Swimming

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• That's important to remember: it's not just a collection of great individuals but a group of people who enjoy playing in the sandbox, thoroughly enjoying collaborative problem solving.

  Warren G. Bennis

  People, Important, Groups

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• For me, creativity includes problem-solving. That's the broad definition of it.

  Edwin Catmull

  Creativity, Definitions, Problem

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• If a married couple with children has fifteen minutes of uninterrupted, non-logistical, non-problem-solving talk every day, I would put them in the top 5% of all married couples. It's an extraordinary achievement.

  William J Doherty

  Children, Couple, Achievement

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• Far more interesting than problem solving is problem creation.

  Chuck Close

  Photography, Interesting, Photographer

  "Chuck Close with Phong Bui". Interview with Phong Bui, brooklynrail.org. June 7, 2008.

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• He that leaveth nothing to chance will do few things ill, but he will do very few things.

  Sir George Savile, 8th Baronet

  Creativity, Decision, Chance

  "Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections". Book by George Savile, 1750.

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• Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them.

  Paul Lockhart

  Math, Kind, Problem

  "A Mathematician's Lament". genius.com. January 1, 2002.

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• Confidence in the human capacity for problem solving, for invention, for innovation.

  George Takei

  Innovation, Problem, Invention

  Source: progressive.org

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• What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving.

  Jeane Kirkpatrick

  Effort, Political, Problem

  "Cal Thomas: Mr. Trump, please pick John Bolton for State" by Cal Thomas, www.foxnews.com. December 1, 2016.

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• Attention, learning, and problem solving depend in part on the ability to plan and sequence actions and ideas. The Interactive Metronome(R) helps individuals systematically exercise and often improve basic motor planning and sequencing capacities.

  Stanley Greenspan

  Exercise, Ideas, Attention

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• Money is preferable to politics. It is the difference between being free to be anybody you want and to vote for anybody you want. And money is more effective than politics both in solving problems and in providing individual independence. To rid ourselves of all the trouble in the world, we need to make money. And to make money, we need to be free.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Differences, Independence, Being Free

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty”, p.339, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

  Epictetus

  Positive, Encouraging, Uplifting

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• Philosophy is problem-solving. There's a philosophical problem, and then you try to solve it by approaching it from different angles and seeing what way works. That's what comedy is: you have a topic and you try to just hit it as many different ways as you can.

  Kumail Nanjiani

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Trying

  Interview with Jane Marie, believermag.com. January 1, 2015.

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• Play for young children is not recreation activity, It is not leisure-time activity nor escape activity. Play is thinking time for young children. It is language time. Problem-solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organization-of-ideas time, when the young child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met.

  James L Hymes

  Children, Memories, Thinking

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• When the mind is un-agitated, when the mind is calm, that mind is most conducive to creative problem solving.

  Chade-Meng Tan

  Creative, Mind, Calm

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

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• When I was secretary of state, I had to be responsible for getting a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia through the Senate. We needed, I think, 13 Republican votes to get to 67. I started working in the summer making just endless phone calls, meetings, bringing experts to talk to Republicans, and then we finally got it done at the end of the year 2010. So I'm excited to roll up my sleeves and get into the business of solving problems and making progress together.

  Hillary Clinton

  Summer, Thinking, Phones

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• Twenty-eight years in business and you understand the importance of problem solving and the importance of efficiency, because if you don't become efficient, you don't run a business well, and you are out of business. And I think some of those principles could be applied to leadership in Washington.

  Steve Daines

  Running, Thinking, Eight

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• There's lots of problem solving in any marriage, but when you have this collective goal that is a human being, it's an inspiring rally point.

  Ty Burrell

  Goal, Problem, Collectives

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Human nature must not be altered in order to have a problem-free world. Man is not just a problem-solving being, as behaviorists would wish us to believe, but a problem-recognizing and -accepting being.

  Allan Bloom

  Believe, Men, Order

  "The Closing of the American Mind". Book by Allan Bloom, p. 229, 1987.

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• We are most probably here for local information-gathering and local-Universe problem-solving in support of the integrity of eternally regenerative Universe.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Integrity, Support, Gathering

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