A. A. Milne on intelligence

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.

Isn’t it funny
How a bear likes honey?
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
I wonder why he does?

Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o’clock in the morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and mugs; and when Rabbit said, “Honey or condensed milk with your bread?” he was so excited that he said, “Both,” and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, “But don’t bother about the bread, please.”

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

Albert Einstein1879–1955Out of My Later Years (1950), Ch. 51 “The Goal of Human Existence” (1943)

• God
• Thinking

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

Ernest Hemingway1899–1961Marita in Ch. 11

• Happiness

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.

Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969

• Clever Jabs