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d87db97 As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking. stereotypes men feminism self-determination women empowerment intelligence dignity social-norms misogyny hypocrisy double-standards gender thought Virginia Woolf
c85f23a Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence- whether much that is glorious- whether all that is profound- does not spring from disease of thought- from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. sanity intelligence insanity Edgar Allan Poe
98fd684 I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day. intelligence Douglas Adams
cde669d All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking. intelligence reflection thinking walking Friedrich Nietzsche
58f4334 I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being--forgive me--rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger. intelligence self-recognition mistakes J.K. Rowling
a4e9d06 Nothing whets the intelligence more than a passionate suspicion, nothing develops all the faculties of an immature mind more than a trail running away into the dark. intelligence puzzle trail mystery Stefan Zweig
6ad3a96 It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. death intelligence scholars thinkers execution Albert Camus
b2896e6 The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it. people intelligence mob-rule mobs Terry Pratchett
d172f25 Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how. stupidity intelligence sense Jane Austen
67aeaf4 I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will. science optimism intelligence pessimism will Antonio Gramsci
cacb1a7 I don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy. intelligence J.D. Salinger
5c334b2 "Ms. Wormwood: Calvin, can you tell us what Lewis and Clark did? Calvin: No, but I can recite the secret superhero origin of each member of Captain Napalm's Thermonuclear League of Liberty. humor intelligence hobbes Bill Watterson
b224fae "Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation- the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true." hopelessness intelligence ambivalent implausible inner-conflict opposing-views impossible hopeless F. Scott Fitzgerald
7c7daa4 A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep. illusion intelligence self-deception ignorance Saul Bellow
2e69861 The first men to be created and formed were called the Sorcerer of Fatal Laughter, the Sorcerer of Night, Unkempt, and the Black Sorcerer ... They were endowed with intelligence, they succeeded in knowing all that there is in the world. When they looked, instantly they saw all that is around them, and they contemplated in turn the arc of heaven and the round face of the earth ... [Then the Creator said]: 'They know all ... what shall we do with them now? Let their sight reach only to that which is near; let them see only a little of the face of the earth!... Are they not by nature simple creatures of our making? Must they also be gods? earth heaven intelligence sight creation-myth gods knowledge Anonymous
4a33fab My favourite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence. [ : Chapter 19] intelligence intellectuals Arthur C. Clarke
4d36fb7 Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change. science intelligence H.G. Wells
53156e4 Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition. reason intelligence disdain opposition discussion compliments rationality Jane Austen
ead8deb Ninety-nine percent of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later, and they conclude that the entire one hundred percent is bullshit, which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people's minds. christianity intelligence church Neal Stephenson
9c876fd One of the major difficulties Trillian experienced in her relationship with Zaphod was learning to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn't be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide the fact that he actually didn't understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid. He was renowned for being amazingly clever and quite clearly was so--but not all the time, which obviously worried him, hence, the act. He preferred people to be puzzled rather than contemptuous. stupidity intelligence trillian zaphod-beeblebrox hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy Douglas Adams
035cb9d Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any goal. I'm so smart I can negate any dream. dreams education intelligence choke lethargy palahniuk sloth Chuck Palahniuk
6ad0291 "Any intelligent person knows that life is a beautiful thing and that the purpose of life is to be happy," said my father as he watched the three beauties. "But it seems only idiots are ever happy. How can we explain this?" happiness intelligence life idiots Orhan Pamuk
da39a3e nature quailty freedom goodness choice beauty inspiration science darkness motivational hope intelligence life inspirational marie-lu intimate american-dream dedication watchmen meaning-of-life order hardship pure harmony evil Terry Pratchett
106e4b8 You put too much stock in human intelligence, it doesn't annihilate human nature. intelligence Philip Roth
5af6e15 I disapprove of matrimony as a matter of principle.... Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself! (Amelia Peabody) marriage women humor intelligence intelligent matrimony husbands Elizabeth Peters
5ac7146 The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly. wealth youth intelligence inspirational dorian-gray good-looks oscar-wilde stupid-people curse brains gods power Oscar Wilde
b941368 I wonder if anyone but me realizes what goes on in that head back of your deceptively sweet face. intelligence intellect Margaret Mitchell
ba247be "Nell," the Constable continued, indicating through his tone of voice that the lesson was concluding, "the difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people--and this is true whether or not they are well-educated--is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations--in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward." intelligence Neal Stephenson
e04f3fd It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have a huge variety of needs and dangers. change strength intelligence H.G. Wells
6552089 We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life's continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are. science intelligence life stewardship Stephen Jay Gould
039008b What I learned on my own I still remember reading discovery learning education intelligence schooling thinking thought Nassim Nicholas Taleb
94d01a4 I couldn't claim that I was smarter than sixty-five other guys--but the average of sixty-five other guys, certainly! humor intelligence statistics mathematics Richard P. Feynman
f55a7de She has man's brain--a brain that a man should have were he much gifted--and woman's heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me when He made that so good combination. mankind man woman mind women god heart intelligence combination gifted giftedness purpose brains Bram Stoker
66dd6a1 Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness. humor intelligence wisdom autism wisdom-vs-nerdiness sense-of-humor nerds nerd wit Nassim Nicholas Taleb
03e9239 There's a stark difference between the words 'prodigy' and 'genius.' Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do. intelligence prodigies John Green
77472a9 Do you see how an act is not, as young men think, like a rock that one picks up and throws, and it hits or misses, and that's the end of it. When that rock is lifted, the earth is lighter; the hand that bears it heavier. When it is thrown, the circuits of the stars respond, and where it strikes or falls, the universe is changed. On every act the balance of the whole depends. The winds and seas, the powers of water and earth and light, all that these do, and all that the beasts and green things do, is well done, and rightly done. All these act within the Equilibrium. From the hurricane and the great whale's sounding to the fall of a dry leaf and the gnat's flight, all they do is done within the balance of the whole. But we, insofar as we have power over the world and over one another, we must to do what the leaf and the whale and the wind do of their own nature. We must learn to keep the balance. Having intelligence, we must not act in ignorance. Having choice, we must not act without responsibility. responsibility intelligence equilibrium Ursula K. Le Guin
419f814 But I've learned that intelligence alone doesn't mean a damned thing. Here in your university, intelligence, education, knowledge, have all become great idols. But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligent and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn...Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love...Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis. intelligence flowers-for-algernon Daniel Keyes
32a1560 [Chess] is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time. stupidity intelligence George Bernard Shaw
921d364 Colon thought Carrot was simple. Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was. Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid. humour stupidity intelligence Terry Pratchett
c9dca05 "I expect that you must receive top marks at school, young lady." Madeleine smiled as she stirred her tea. "There are always rewards for those who state the obvious frequently and with conviction." intelligence obvious school Scott Westerfeld
4e98ed3 "Enough about my beauty," Buttercup said. "Everybody always talks about how beautiful I am. I've got a mind, Westley. Talk about that." women humor intelligence minds wit William Goldman
58720eb Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire. A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him. intelligence holmes sherlock thriller fool Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
0d84296 "I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as though he had not heard her. "We have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us. This supreme intelligence longs to be known. It calls out to us. It draws us close to its mystery, and grants us these remarkable minds, in order that we try to reach for it. It wants us to find it. It wants union with us, more than anything." universe religion science god intelligence Elizabeth Gilbert
9ba9d32 Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. intelligence dogma Robert Anton Wilson
0bb92fb The moon is the reflection of your heart and moonlight is the twinkle of your love. education happiness heart hope intelligence life love moon philosophy truth twinkle wisdom inspirational reflection knowledge moonlight Debasish Mridha
0d36fa9 Kindness is strength. Good-nature is often mistaken for virtue, and good health sometimes passes for genius. Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, every one should be serene, slow-pulsed, and calm. Intelligence is not the foundation of arrogance. Insolence is not logic. Epithets are the arguments of malice. virtue kindness strength intelligence epithets good-nature serene insolence malice arrogance genius logic Robert Green Ingersoll
7654975 And this shows that sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth. stupidity intelligence truth Mark Haddon
773d270 He walked straight out of college into the waiting arms of the Navy. They gave him an intelligence test. The first question on the math part had to do with boats on a river: Port Smith is 100 miles upstream of Port Jones. The river flows at 5 miles per hour. The boat goes through water at 10 miles per hour. How long does it take to go from Port Smith to Port Jones? How long to come back? Lawrence immediately saw that it was a trick question. You would have to be some kind of idiot to make the facile assumption that the current would add or subtract 5 miles per hour to or from the speed of the boat. Clearly, 5 miles per hour was nothing more than the average speed. The current would be faster in the middle of the river and slower at the banks. More complicated variations could be expected at bends in the river. Basically it was a question of hydrodynamics, which could be tackled using certain well-known systems of differential equations. Lawrence dove into the problem, rapidly (or so he thought) covering both sides of ten sheets of paper with calculations. Along the way, he realized that one of his assumptions, in combination with the simplified Navier Stokes equations, had led him into an exploration of a particularly interesting family of partial differential equations. Before he knew it, he had proved a new theorem. If that didn't prove his intelligence, what would? Then the time bell rang and the papers were collected. Lawrence managed to hang onto his scratch paper. He took it back to his dorm, typed it up, and mailed it to one of the more approachable math professors at Princeton, who promptly arranged for it to be published in a Parisian mathematics journal. Lawrence received two free, freshly printed copies of the journal a few months later, in San Diego, California, during mail call on board a large ship called the U.S.S. Nevada. The ship had a band, and the Navy had given Lawrence the job of playing the glockenspiel in it, because their testing procedures had proven that he was not intelligent enough to do anything else. intelligence navy math Neal Stephenson
07628cd Ah! how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathers it up like water, but like water it runs between his fingers, and yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools call out, 'See, he is a wise man!' Is it not so? mankind futility stupidity humanity learning intelligence wisdom foolishness knowledge H. Rider Haggard
3cce926 A knavish speech sleeps in a fool's ear. humor intelligence wisdom ignorance William Shakespeare
7f57df9 I don't think science is hard to teach because humans aren't ready for it, or because it arose only through a fluke, or because, by and large, we don't have the brainpower to grapple with it. Instead, the enormous zest for science that I see in first-graders and the lesson from the remnant hunter-gatherers both speak eloquently: A proclivity for science is embedded deeply within us, in all times, places, and cultures. It has been the means for our survival. It is our birthright. When, through indifference, inattention, incompetence, or fear of skepticism, we discourage children from science, we are disenfranchising them, taking from them the tools needed to manage their future. human science intelligence Carl Sagan
82d613a In the days when hyenas of hate suckle the babes of men, and jackals of hypocrisy pimp their mothers' broken hearts, may children not look to demons of ignorance for hope. hatred prejudice humanity politics leadership intelligence coexisting-together coexistência election-year-politics political-commentary political-corruption gun-laws gun-violence presidential-election world-suicide-prevention-day hate-crimes coexistence extremism megalomania human-rights-day national-history-day nonviolent-conflict-resolution police-reform police-shootings bigotry terrorism xenophobia hypocrisy ignorance Aberjhani
9f51708 This is peculiarly an age in which each of us may, if he do but search diligently, find the literature suited to his mental powers. literature reading intelligence brain-power mental-power simplemindedness P.G. Wodehouse
f7aac2e It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything. meaning intelligence maurice-sendak children Maurice Sendak
cb23e00 "An intelligent person, looking out of his eyes and hearkening in his ears, with a smile on his face all the time, will get more true education than many another in a life of heroic vigils"." intelligence smile Robert Louis Stevenson
b7baf78 I suspect the I.Q., SAT, and school grades are tests designed by nerds so they can get high scores in order to call each other intelligent...Smart and wise people who score low on IQ tests, or patently intellectually defective ones, like the former U.S. president George W. Bush, who score high on them (130), are testing the test and not the reverse. intelligence wisdom iq wisdom-vs-nerds nerdiness nerds nerd Nassim Nicholas Taleb
a20a417 Some molecules - ammonia, carbon dioxide, water - show up everywhere in the universe, whether life is present or not. But others pop up especially in the presence of life itself. Among the biomarkers in Earth's atmosphere are ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons from aerosol sprays, vapor from mineral solvents, escaped coolants from refrigerators and air conditioners, and smog from the burning of fossil fuels. No other way to read that list: sure signs of the absence of intelligence. intelligence life Neil deGrasse Tyson
1755d7c He was a volatile mixture of confidence and vulnerability. He could deliver extended monologues on professional matters, then promptly stop in his tracks to peer inquisitively into his guest's eyes for signs of boredom or mockery, being intelligent enough to be unable fully to believe in his own claims to significance. He might, in a past life, have been a particularly canny and sharp-tongued royal advisor. intelligence significance professionalism vulnerability Alain de Botton
c147647 "The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one?' 'Of course. Who said it?' 'I don't know.' 'He was probably a coward,' she said. "He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them." -- bravery perseverance stupidity intelligence coward cowardice Ernest Hemingway
e78658c He was marked out by his relentless ability to find fault with others' mediocrity--suggesting that a certain type of intelligence may be at heart nothing more or less than a superior capacity for dissatisfaction. intelligence fault-finding mediocrity Alain de Botton
a347cbf [P]eople need to use their intelligence to evaluate what they find to be true and untrue in the Bible. This is how we need to live life generally. Everything we hear and see we need to evaluate--whether the inspiring writings of the Bible or the inspiring writings of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, or George Eliot, of Ghandi, Desmond Tutu, or the Dalai Lama. literature religion intelligence life Bart D. Ehrman
63bf5fc The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man's intelligence. intelligence Oscar Wilde
8fd61b2 The internet is where some people go to show their true intelligence; others, their hidden stupidity. freedom stupidity intelligence consequence closet cyberspace cyberspace-internet libel prejudices information social-networking online beliefs slander extrovert introvert propaganda media gossip internet technology Criss Jami
1a429c9 If a person is intelligent, then of course he is either an agnostic or an atheist. Just as he is a physical coward. They are automatic definitions of high intelligence. intelligence coward atheist John Fowles
873cafc "I went away and cried to the Master of the Universe, "What have you done to me? A mind like this I need for a son? A heart I need for a son, a soul I need for a son, compassion I want from my son, righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer and carry pain, that I want from my son, not a mind without a soul!" compassion intelligence hasidic-judaism judaism parenting Chaim Potok
eb199b4 "New Rule: Just because a country elects a smart president doesn't make it a smart country. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked on CNN if I thought Sarah Palin could get elected president, and I said I hope not, but I wouldn't put anything past this stupid country. Well, the station was flooded with emails, and the twits hit the fan. And you could tell that these people were mad, because they wrote entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS!!! Worst of all, Bill O'Reilly refuted my contention that this is a stupid country by calling me a pinhead, which (a) proves my point, and (b) is really funny coming from a doody-face like him. Now, before I go about demonstration how, sadly, easy it is to prove the dumbness that's dragging us down, let me just say that ignorance has life-and-death consequences. On the eve of the Iraq War, seventy percent of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Six years later, thirty-four percent still do. Or look at the health-care debate: At a recent town hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare," which is kind of like driving cross-country to protest highways. This country is like a college chick after two Long Island iced teas: We can be talked into anything, like wars, and we can be talked of anything, like health care. We should forget the town halls, and replace them with study halls. Listen to some of these stats: A majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. Twenty-four percent could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don't know what's in . Two-thirds don't know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the kid knew about cricket. Not here. Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators, and more than half can't name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only three got their wife's name right on the first try. People bitch and moan about taxes and spending, but they have no idea what their government spends money on. The average voter thinks foreign aid consumes more twenty-four percent of our budget. It's actually less than one percent. A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen ad a third of Democrats believe that George Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, which is an absurd sentence, because it contains the words "Bush" and "knowledge." Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll say eighteen percent of us think the sun revolves around the earth. No, they're not stupid. They're interplanetary mavericks. And I haven't even brought up religion. But here's one fun fact I'll leave you with: Did you know only about half of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? That's right, half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New Testament and cannot figure out which came first. I rest my case." religion humor education intelligence healthcare-reform immature medicare war-in-iraq essays war-on-terror ignorance Bill Maher
9da8278 I am successful because of my brains and my guts, put together, and I don't need some fancy-ass degree from a bunch of sweater-vest-wearing pricks who haven't gotten laid since Bush Senior was president... Do you know who studies sociology? People who would rather observe life than live it. intelligence guts brains sociology Erin McCarthy
7b7de19 We're not hunter-gatherers anymore. We're all living like patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital. What keeps us alive isn't bravery, or athleticism, or any of those other skills that were valuable in a caveman society. It's our ability to master complex technological skills. It is our ability to be nerds. We need to breed nerds. bravery future humanity intelligence brainiac breed caveman gatherer hunter-gatherer intensive-care patients athleticism hunter complexity geeks society genius brains nerds hospital mastery technology Neal Stephenson
6931d81 Imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee's. To such a species, our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead of learning their ABCs on Sesame Street, would learn multivariable calculus on Boolean Boulevard. Our most complex theorems, our deepest philosophies, the cherished works of our most creative artists, would be projects their schoolkids bring home for Mom and Dad to display on the refrigerator door. intelligence dna difference Neil deGrasse Tyson
614cc63 Modern intelligence won't accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority. intelligence G.K. Chesterton
6a07491 What other species now require of us is our attention. Otherwise, we are entering a narrative of disappearing intelligences. intelligence disappearance narrative language Terry Tempest Williams
468efa8 Abstraction can provide stumbling blocks for people of strange intelligence. intelligence Gustave Flaubert
7c6b993 Only those who are capable of silliness can be called truly intelligent. intelligence Christopher Isherwood
4f5203d Everybody who flashed the signs of loyalty he took to be loyal. Everybody who flashed the signs of intelligence he took to be intelligent. And so he had failed to see into his daughter, failed to see into his wife, failed to see into his one and only mistress--probably had never even begun to see into himself intelligence social-intelligence know-thyself loyalty Philip Roth
d0c98e8 But what we have here is not a nice girl, as generally understood. For one thing, she's not beautiful. There's a certain set to the jaw and arch to the nose that might, with a following wind and in the right light, be called handsome by a good-natured liar. Also, there's a certain glint in her eye generally possessed by those people who have found that they are more intelligent than most people around them but who haven't yet learned that one of the most intelligent things they can do is prevent said people ever finding this out. intelligence terry pratchett
5bd3441 Hive Queen: They never know anything. They don't have enough years in their little lives to come to an understanding of anything at all. And yet they think they understand. From earliest childhood, they delude themselves into thinking they comprehend the world, while all that's really going on is that they've got some primitive assumptions and prejudices. As they get older they learn a more elevated vocabulary in which to express their mindless pseudo- knowledge and bully other people into accepting their prejudices as if they were truth, but it all amounts to the same thing. Individually, human beings are all dolts. Pequenino: While collectively... Hive Queen: Collectively, they're a collection of dolts. But in all their scurrying around and pretending to be wise, throwing out idiotic half-understood theories about this and that, one or two of them will come up with some idea that is just a little bit closer to the truth than what was already known. And in a sort of fumbling trial and error, about half the time the truth actually rises to the top and becomes accepted by people who still don't understand it, who simply adopt it as a new prejudice to be trusted blindly until the next dolt accidentally comes up with an improvement.> Pequenino: So you're saying that no one is ever individually intelligent, and groups are even stupider than individuals-- and yet by keeping so many fools engaged in pretending to be intelligent, they still come up with some of the same results that an intelligent species would come up with. Hive Queen: Exactly. discovery stupidity humanity pequeninos intelligence Orson Scott Card
552e45f We, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those year in the Home of the Students. It was not that the learning was too hard for us. It was that the learning was too easy. This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked at us. individuality intelligence objectivism schooling teachers students Ayn Rand
b30643e In any given situation there will always be more dumb people than smart people. We ain't many! funny intelligence wisdom mindfulness truthfulness sincere Ken Kesey
e7df765 My genius is not so frail a thing that it cowers from the dirty fingers of newspapernen. intelligence press media Diane Setterfield
3440b09 I've always been amused by the contention that brain work is harder than manual labor. I've never known a man to leave a desk for a muck-stick if he could avoid it. intelligence labor-activism manual-labor labor John Steinbeck
842fa16 The trouble with modern education is you never know how ignorant people are. education intelligence Evelyn Waugh
4d8ce06 <...> I've never believed there is any animal more dangerous than a human being. I never will. It's the intelligence. It's the mind that makes it so. mind human-being intelligence Maggie Shayne
ad7788f With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be. You always dread the unfamiliar. Surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally 'bright,' did most of the reciting and answering while the others sat like so many leaden idols, hating him. And wasn't it this bright boy you selected and tortured after hours? Of course it was. We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves again. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? Me? mind equality free books imagination education happiness intelligence conform breach burning examiners fliers grabbers imaginative-creators jumpers knowers moutains racers runners snatchers swimmers tinkerers bright intellectual critics target image dread judgment unfamiliar judge constitution rights cowardice bullying weapons different creativity torture school Ray Bradbury
238760a and yet a child's utter innocence is but its blank ignorance, and the innocence more or less wanes as intelligence waxes. intelligence herman-melville sailor innocence Herman Melville
37bd38d I will bestir myself,' was her resolution, 'and try to be wise if I cannot be good. intelligence wisdom resolution Charlotte Brontë
ee67754 Give men your ear, but not your heart. Show respect for those in power, but don't follow them blindly. Judge with logic and reason, but comment not. intelligence wisdom inspirational garrow inheritance quotes-on-life eragon Christopher Paolini
fe1b286 Is it possible that the Pentateuch could not have been written by uninspired men? that the assistance of God was necessary to produce these books? Is it possible that ascertained the mechanical principles of 'Virtual Velocity,' the laws of falling bodies and of all motion; that ascertained the true position of the earth and accounted for all celestial phenomena; that discovered his three laws--discoveries of such importance that the 8th of May, 1618, may be called the birth-day of modern science; that gave to the world the Method of Fluxions, the Theory of Universal Gravitation, and the Decomposition of Light; that , , , and , almost completed the science of mathematics; that all the discoveries in optics, hydrostatics, pneumatics and chemistry, the experiments, discoveries, and inventions of , , and , of , and and of all the pioneers of progress--that all this was accomplished by uninspired men, while the writer of the Pentateuch was directed and inspired by an infinite God? Is it possible that the codes of China, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome were made by man, and that the laws recorded in the Pentateuch were alone given by God? Is it possible that and , , and , and , and all the poets of the world, and all their wondrous tragedies and songs are but the work of men, while no intelligence except the infinite God could be the author of the Pentateuch? Is it possible that of all the books that crowd the libraries of the world, the books of science, fiction, history and song, that all save only one, have been produced by man? Is it possible that of all these, the bible only is the work of God? discoveries progress tragedy libraries poets shakespeare india light writer fiction books inspiration bible science songs intelligence alessandro-volta benjamin-franklin beranger bonaventura-cavalieri bonaventura-francesco-cavalieri burns cavalieri chemistry china copernicus descartes euclid experiments franklin fulton galileo galileo-galilei galvani gottfried-leibniz gottfried-von-leibniz gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz gottfried-wilhelm-von-leibniz greece hydrostatics inventions isaac-newton james-watt johann-von-goethe johannes-kepler kepler laws-of-motion leibniz luigi-aloisio-galvani luigi-galvani math mathematics morse newton nicolaus-copernicus optics pentateuch pierre-jean-de-béranger pioneers pneumatics rene-descartes richard-trevithick robert-burns robert-fulton rome samuel-finley-breese-morse samuel-morse schiller the-bible theory-of-gravity theory-of-universal-gravitation trevethick volta watt Æschylus johann-wolfgang-von-goethe goethe egypt william-shakespeare Robert G. Ingersoll
5224366 He believes that if talent is demanded of a literary publisher or a writer, it must also be demanded of a reader. Because we mustn't deceive ourselves: on the journey of reading we often travel through difficult terrains that demand a capacity for intelligent emotion, a desire to understand the other, and to approach a language distinct from the one of our daily tyrannies... Writers fail readers, but it also happens the other way around and readers fail writers when all they ask of them is confirmation that the world is how they see it. words literature reading intelligence talent Enrique Vila-Matas
534d743 I am Emma Woodhouse. I feel for her, of her and in her. I have a different sort of snobbism, but I understand her snobbism. Her priggishness. I admire it. I know she does wrong things, she tries to organize other people's lives, she can't see Mr Knightley is a man in a million. She's temporarily silly, yet all the time one knows she's basically intelligent. Creative, determined to set the highest standards. A real human being. jane-austen intelligence mr-knightley snobbery John Fowles
9b4b880 It's always taken a lot out of me, being smart. intelligence smarts Eudora Welty
76d82b5 The abstract intelligence produces a fatigue that's the worst of all fatigues. It doesn't weigh on us like bodily fatigue, nor disconcert like the fatigue of emotional experience. It's the weight of our consciousness of the world, a shortness of breath in our soul. intelligence pessoa the-book-of-disquiet Fernando Pessoa
20c5915 The problem is, people only think for themselves if you tell them to. intelligence Terry Pratchett
66736f6 There were not words enough in the English language, nor in any language, to make his attitude and conduct intelligible to them. loneliness intelligence isolation Jack London
45ffc4a I think that at that time none of us quite believed in the Time Machine. The fact is, the Time Traveler was one of those men who are too clever to be believed: you never felt that you saw all round him; you always suspected some subtle reserve, some ingenuity in ambush, behind his lucid frankness. Had Filby shown the model and explained the matter in the Time Traveller's words, we should have shown him far less skepticism. For we should have perceived his motives; a pork butcher could understand Filby. intelligence disbelief H.G. Wells
cddca6f I am beautiful for a brainy woman, brainy for a beautiful woman, but objectively speaking, neither beautiful nor brainy. intelligence Rebecca Goldstein
ffb3f5d "But it is not time constraints alone that produce such fragmented and discontinuous language. When a television show is in process, it is very nearly impermissible to say, "Let me think about that" or "I don't know" or "What do you mean when you say...?" or "From what sources does your information come?" This type of discourse not only slows down the tempo of the show but creates the impression of uncertainty or lack of finish. It tends to reveal people in the , which is as disconcerting and boring on television as it is on a Las Vegas stage. Thinking does not play well on television, a fact that television directors discovered long ago. There is not much to in it. It is, in a phrase, not a performing art. But television demands a performing art." television intelligence public-discourse thinking Neil Postman
f966937 "I always feel when I meet people that I am lower than all, and that they all take me for a buffoon; so I say let me play the buffoon, for you are, every one of you, stupider and lower than I." He longed to revenge himself on every one for his own unseemliness. He suddenly recalled how he had once in the past been asked, "Why do you hate so and so, so much?" And he had answered them, with his shameless impudence, "I'll tell you. He has done me no harm. But I played him a dirty trick, and ever since I have hated him." hatred intelligence ego Fyodor Dostoyevsky
31467b6 "Once, in his first term, Cartwright had been bold enough to ask him why he was clever, what exercises he did to keep his brain fit. Healey had laughed. "It's memory, Cartwright, old dear. Memory, the mother of the Muses... at least that's what thingummy said." "Who?" "You know, what's his name, Greek poet chap. Wrote the Theogony... what he called? Begins with an 'H'." "Homer?" "No, dear. Not Homer, the other one. No, it's gone. Anyway. Memory, that's the key." intelligence memory Stephen Fry
1d23351 He's got to have the ability, and it seems to be fairly rare, to see things as they are and at the same time as they might have been. What we mean is the eye of an artist. leadership intelligence vision Jack Finney
4e73586 Already, I seemed to feel my intellect deteriorating, my heart petrifying, my soul contracting; and I trembled lest my very moral perceptions should become deadened, my distinctions of right and wrong confounded, and all my better faculties be sunk, at last, beneath the baneful influence of such a mode of life. The gross vapors of earth were gathering around me, and closing in upon my inward heaven; and thus it was that Mr. Weston rose at length upon me, appearing like the morning star in my horizon, to save me from the fear of utter darkness; and I rejoiced that I now had a subject for contemplation that was above me, not beneath. friendship intelligence love relief Anne Brontë
d77aed4 [O]ur percept is an elaborate computer model in the brain, constructed on the basis of information coming from [the environment], but transformed in the head into a form in which that information can be used. Wavelength differences in the light out there become coded as 'colour' differences in the computer model in the head. Shape and other attributes are encoded in the same kind of way, encoded into a form that is convenient to handle. The sensation of seeing is, for us, very different from the sensation of hearing, but this cannot be directly due to the physical differences between light and sound. Both light and sound are, after all, translated by the respective sense organs into the same kind of nerve impulses. It is impossible to tell, from the physical attributes of a nerve impulse, whether it is conveying information about light, about sound or about smell. The reason the sensation of seeing is so different from the sensation of hearing and the sensation of smelling is that the brain finds it convenient to use different kinds of internal model of the visual world, the world of sound and the world of smell. It is because we internally use our visual information and our sound information in different ways and for different purposes that the sensations of seeing and hearing are so different. It is not directly because of the physical differences between light and sound. intelligence qualia evolutionary-psychology consciousness Richard Dawkins
498f418 In your Primer you have a resource that will make you highly educated, but it will never make you intelligent. That comes from life. Your life up to this point has given you all the experience you need to be intelligent, but you have to think about those experiences. If you don't think about them, you'll be psychologically unwell. If you do think about them, you will become not merely educated but intelligent. intelligence wisdom knowledge Neal Stephenson
4960fcc Sad but true: individual intelligence probably peaked in the Upper Paleolithic, and we have been self-domesticated creatures ever since intelligence Kim Stanley Robinson
8822dd0 [T]he form that an animal's subjective experience takes will be a property of the internal computer model. That model will be designed, in evolution, for its suitability for useful internal representation, irrespective of the physical stimuli that come to it from outside. Bats and we need the same kind of internal model for representing the position of objects in three-dimensional space. The fact that bats construct their internal model with the aid of echoes, while we construct ours with the aid of light, is irrelevant. intelligence qualia evolutionary-psychology consciousness Richard Dawkins
b7dc18e What, anyway, was he to say? That intelligence could surpass and excel the blind force of evolution, with its emphasis on mutation, struggle and death? That conscious cooperation was more efficient than feral competition? intelligence feral Iain M. Banks
4e1b18a An intelligence completely dissociated from the physical, or at least an impression of it, was a strange, curiously limited and almost perverse thing, and the precise form that your physicality took had a profound, in some ways defining influence on your personality. personality spiritual intelligence physical Iain M. Banks
f1710e2 This had not endeared him to exobiologists such as Dr Perera, who took exactly the opposite view. To them, the only purpose of the Universe was the production of intelligence, and they were apt to talk sneeringly about purely astronomical phenomena, 'Mere dead matter' was one of their favourite phrases. universe intelligence biology exobiology matter dead Arthur C. Clarke
d03524f I think she's too ignorant to be a witch. humour witches intelligence witch ignorance Muriel Spark
d5bc649 "The line-by-line, sequential, continuous form of the printed page slowly began to lose its resonance as a metaphor of how knowledge was to be acquired and how the world was to be understood. "Knowing" the facts took on a new meaning, for it did not imply that one understood implications, background, or connections. Telegraphic discourse permitted no time for historical perspectives and gave no priority to the qualitative. To the telegraph, intelligence meant knowing lots of things, not knowing them." telegraphy intelligence public-discourse typography knowledge Neil Postman
09d591d There the old Eskimo hunters she had known in her childhood thought the riches of life were intelligence, fearlessness, and love. A man with these gifts was rich and was a great spirit who was admired in the same way that the gussaks admired a man with money and goods. intelligence life love riches Jean Craighead George
a419ee0 A culture capable of imagining complexly is a humble culture. It acts, when it has to act, as late in the game as possibl, and as cautiously, because it knows its girth and the tight confines of the china shop it's blundering into. And it knows that no matter how well prepared it is -- no matter how ruthlessly it has held its projections up to intelligent scrutiny -- the place it is headed for is going to very different from the place it imagined. The shortfall between the imagined and the real, multiplied by the violence of one's intent, equals the evil one will do. morality intelligence saunders complexity ethics george humility George Saunders
42c577d A computer cannot manufacture new information. That's the difference between our brain and a computer. intelligence information ideas Chris Prentiss
062527b Schools are made for the average. The holes are all round, and whatever shape the pegs are they must wedge in somehow. One hasn't time to bother about anything but the average. learning intelligence schools W. Somerset Maugham
e953c31 Ashe, Kiever, Peters; that was a progression in quality, in authority, which to Leamas was axiomatic of the hierarchy of an intelligence network. It was also, he suspected, a progression in ideology. Ashe, the mercenary, Kiever the fellow traveler, and now Peters, for whom the end and the means were identical. intelligence spy ideology John le Carré
1514520 If there is a lesson here it has to do with humility. For all our vaunted intelligence and complexity, we are not the sole authors of our destinies or of anything else. You may exercise diligently, eat a medically fashionable diet, and still die of a sting from an irritated bee. You may be a slim, toned paragon of wellness, and still a macrophage within your body may decide to throw in its lot with an incipient tumor. intelligence destinies humility Barbara Ehrenreich
b8c86a6 In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, print put forward a definition of intelligence that gave priority to the objective, rational use of the mind and at the same time encouraged forms of public discourse with serious, logically ordered content. It is no accident that the Age of Reason was coexistent with that growth of a print culture, first in Europe and then in America. intelligence print public-discourse rational-thought Neil Postman
d120831 Long ago the signalling had become no more than a meaningless ritual, now maintained by an animal which had forgotten to learn and a robot which had never known to forget. intelligence life Arthur C. Clarke
938039c Take note, Anderson. Size and martial ability do not need to come with a correlating decrease in intelligence. intelligence brawn-over-brains chandler gabriel stereotype Kelley Armstrong
c7726fe Nao havera grandes probabilidades de nos salvarmos, se nao salvarmos a inteligencia. -ate ao dia em que ja nao farao falta os intelectuais, porque todos o serao. intelligence José Saramago
2ec4909 She did not need a library; she was a library. learning intelligence genius Elizabeth Gilbert
a2d40b1 Now we've a real intellectual impasse. Our reason, which is supposed to make things more intelligible, seems to be making them less intelligible, and when reason thus defeats its own purpose something has to be changed in the structure of our reason itself. reason intelligence philosophy rationale reasoning thinking logic Robert M. Pirsig
8a13d5b Spy planes, drone aircraft, satellites with cameras that can see from three hundred miles what you can see from a hundred feet. They see and they hear. Like ancient monks, you know, who recorded knowledge, wrote it painstakingly down. These systems collect and process. All the secret knowledge of the world. intelligence reconnaissance police-state observation surveillance technology Don DeLillo
5bafc8c My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. intelligence Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
4383104 "It is often very useful for others to think you less intelligent than you are," Benedict said, his tone amused. "It works particularly well against those who aren't as intelligent as you in the first place." intelligence sneaky Jim Butcher
f89ddc9 "I care not whether a man is Good or Evil; all that I care Is whether he is a Wise man or a Fool. Go! put off Holiness, good stupidity religion intelligence philosophy wisdom holiness fool William Blake
e163e34 Beauty is more a danger than intelligence or wit. One becomes a living mirror for the inadequacies of others. jealousy intelligence inadequacies wit Gordon Dahlquist
a979c40 It was his hatred and his intelligence that he cherished, the one feeding the other. intelligence James Baldwin
07e70ee Intelligent and cultivated people of either sex will never limit themselves to communing with their own households. Men and women equally, when they have the range of interests that real cultivation gives, need the stimulus of different points of view, the refreshment of new ideas as well as of new faces. The long hypocrisy which Puritan England handed on to America concerning the danger of frank and free social relations between men and women has done more than anything else to retard real civilisation in America. intelligence gender-roles Edith Wharton
839e178 "I take my favorite and most promising lads to the theater," said [Sherlock] Holmes. "I'd say that if they were born into better circumstances many would have grown up to be MP's, but in truth most are too smart and too honest for Parliament." honesty intelligence parliament class-struggle politicians Dan Simmons
be97c00 Turner had never met a kid like Elwood before. was the word he returned to, even though the Tallahassee boy looked soft, conducted himself like a goody-goody, and had an irritating tendency to preach. Wore eyeglasses you wanted to grind underfoot like a butterfly. He talked like a white college boy, read books when he didn't have to, and mined them for uranium to power his own personal A-bomb. Still--sturdy. reading books intelligence softness sturdiness nerds Colson Whitehead
0665c6e "With the decline of the United States as the world's leader, I find it important to look around our globe for intelligent people who have the depth of understanding that could perhaps chart a way to the future. One such person is Bernard-Henri Levy a French philosopher who was born in Beni Saf, French Algeria on November 5, 1948. . The Boston Globe has said that he is "perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today." Although his published work and political activism has fueled controversies, he invokes thought provoking insight into today's controversial world and national views. As a young man and Zionist he was a war correspondent for "Combat" newspaper for the French Underground. Following the war Bernard attended Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris and in 1968; he graduated with a degree in philosophy from the famous Ecole Normale Superieure. This was followed by him traveling to India where he joined the International Brigade to aid Bangladeshi freedom fighters. inspirational-life intelligence phlosophy words-to-inspire-you musings quotes-on-life Captain Hank Bracker "Salty & Saucy Maine"
0666e4f To develop your intuition, you need to respect it as a natural intelligence. inspirational-quotes intelligence intuition-quotes laurie-nadel laurie-nadel-quotes quote-about-life quote-of-the-day quote-of-the-week quotes-twitter wayne-dyer intuition power-of-thoughts Laurie Nadel
6fff781 "We decided to go back to basics and put the frighteners on some snouts." "Really?" "We adopted a proactive intelligence-gathering policy utilising appropriate stakeholders in the community and pre-established covert human intelligence sources. "And nobody can put a frightener on a covert human quite like Lesley can." intelligence jargon police-procedure Ben Aaronovitch
28b096c ... inteligenta lui nu era destul de mare pentru a ajunge pina la Arta, nici destul de burgheza pentru a viza numai profitul, in asa chip incit, fara sa multumeasca pe nimeni, se ruina./ ...son intelligence n'etait pas assez haute pour atteindre jusqu'a l'Art, ni assez bourgeoise non plus pour viser exclusivement au profit, si bien que, sans contenter personne, il se ruinait. ((c)BeQ) intelligence Gustave Flaubert
9d85e1d "Well," Harry said, "look at it this way: Suppose you were an intelligent bacterium floating in space, and you came upon one of our communication satellites, in orbit around the Earth. You would think, What a strange, alien object this is, let's explore it. Suppose you opened it up and crawled inside. You would find it very interesting in there, with lots of huge things to puzzle over. But eventually you might climb into one of the fuel cells, and the hydrogen would kill you. misapprehension life-lessons intelligence philosophy Michael Crichton
54b9f69 Mesa, adorno de marfil, arcoiris, cebolla, peinado, molusco, Sabbat, violencia, cuticula, melodrama, cuneta, miel, panuelo... Nada la conmovia. (...) Nada conseguia ser mas de lo que era en realidad. Eran solo cosas, prisioneras de su propia esencia. universe intelligence things Jonathan Safran Foer
44d5ee5 Cultural criticism always attacks the mass media. I don't think that makes sense. We should look more closely at the work of deformation that starts deeper down, especially because it involves so much demoralization. Something gets destroyed there that should not be destroyed under any circumstances - THE AWARENESS THAT KNOWLEDGE IS BORN OUT OF EUPHORIA AND THAT INTELLIGENCE IS A RELATIONSHIP OF THE HAPPY CONSCIOUSNESS WITH ITSELF. And that intelligence partly consists in the ability to find our own ways of overcoming the boredom that develops in an under-used brain. Across society as a whole, the most disturbing symptom is that people are no longer ambitious enough to plumb the limits of understanding within themselves. INTELLIGENCE IS THE LAST UTOPIAN POTENTIAL. THE ONLY TERRA INCOGNITA HUMANKIND STILL OWNS ARE THE GALAXIES OF THE BRAIN, THE MILKY WAYS OF INTELLIGENCE. And there is hardly any any convincing space travel in them. Incidentally, this internal astronautics is the only alternative to a consumerist perspective. It is the only thing that could explain to people in the future that their intelligence space is so immense that they can experiment with themselves for millennia without becoming exhausted. The really good news is that there is something breathtakingly great that is called intelligence and is uncharted. ARE YOU WILLING TO VOLUNTEER ? intelligence internal-astronautics consciousness Peter Sloterdijk
d20ac3f "The mysterious Enoch Root meets 8-year-old Benjamin Franklin, Boston, 1713: "Do I look like a schoolmaster to you?" "No, but you talk like one." "You know something of schoolmasters, do you?" "Yes, sir," the boy says, faltering a bit as he sees the jaws of the trap swinging toward his leg. "Yet here it is the middle of Monday--" "The place was empty 'cause of the Hanging. I didn't want to stay and--" "And what?" "Get more ahead of the others than I was already." "If you are ahead, the correct thing is to get used to it--not to make yourself into an imbecile. Come, you belong in school." intelligence colonial-america educataion massachusetts-bay-colony gifted school Neal Stephenson
5bd777d "So not only was this curious bracelet [found at the Denisova cave] unequivocally the work of anatomically human beings--the Denisovans-- but also it testified to their mastery of advanced manufacturing techniques in the Upper Paleolithic, many millennia ahead of the earliest use of these techniques in the Neolithic by our own supposedly "advanced" species, . Also made crystal clear was the realization that the Denisovans must have possessed the same kinds of artistic sensibility and self-awareness that we habitually associate only with our own kind--for there can be no doubt that very real, conscious, aware, and unmistakably beings had interacted with this bracelet at every stage of its conception, design, and manufacture, all the way through to its end use." self-awareness intelligence denisovans paleolithic neolithic mastery Graham Hancock
397964a Either Ault was a lot harder than my junior high had been, or I was getting dumber- I suspected both. If I wasn't literally getting dumber, I knew at least that I'd lost the glow that surrounds you when the teachers think you're one of the smart, responsible ones, that glow that shines brighter every time you raise your hand in class to say the perfect thing, or you run out of room in a blue book during an exam and have to ask for a second one. struggle intelligence classes college academics dumb school Curtis Sittenfeld
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