Niccolò Machiavelli on intelligence

Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.

Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But this must happen in such a way that no one becomes aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand, to be produced immediately.

For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances as though they were realities. and are often more influenced by things that seem than by those that are.

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