“Philosophers may look out at the world from a stained-glass window, but after a while they stop looking at the world and start looking at the stained glass.”
Iraq? They just need to think it through (2007)
Context: What happened was, 2,400 years ago, the Greek Gang of Three, by whom I mean Aristotle, Plato and Socrates, started to think based on analysis, judgment and knowledge. At the same time, church people, who ran the schools and universities, wanted logic to prove the heretics wrong. As a result, design and perceptual thinking was never developed. People assumed philosophers were doing it and so they blocked anyone else from doing it. But philosophers were not. Philosophers may look out at the world from a stained-glass window, but after a while they stop looking at the world and start looking at the stained glass.
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Edward de Bono 33
Maltese physician 1933Related quotes
“A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.”
Source: Farewell, My Lovely (1940), chapter 13
As quoted in The Leader's Digest : Timeless Principles for Team and Organization (2003) by Jim Clemmer, p. 84
Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“A lie preserved in stained glass doesn't make it more true.”
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“Stop looking at the walls, look out the window.”
Podcast Series 2 Episode 1
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Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
“The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.”
Vol. I, ch. 2.
Vanity Fair (1847–1848)
Context: The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice.
Original in French: J'étais dégoûtée de la peinture. Bon nombre de collectionneurs achetaient des tableaux pour les enfermer dans des voûtes de banques. Les verrières m'ont permis de faire de l'art public.... Un jour, une femme m'a abordée dans la rue pour me parler de la station de métro Champ-de-Mars. « Qu'il fasse beau, qu'il pleuve ou qu'il neige, j'adore vos verrières du Champ-de-Mars. Ces grandes formes qui dansent me font chaud au coeur. » Cette femme n'étaient ni une collectionneuse ni une critique d'art, mais elle avait compris le sens que j'avais voulu donner à cette oeuvre.
L'esquisse d'une mémoire, 1996