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Quotes about intelligence

113 quotes from 85 people

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In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
- Politics
What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
William Blake1757–1827Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)
To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit — General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess.
William Blake1757–1827Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses, pp. xvii–xcviii (c. 1798–1809)
- Knowledge
An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way.
Charles Bukowski1920–1994Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
- Art
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
Albert Camus1913–1960Notebooks (1942–1951)
- Thinking
Clever men are good, but they are not the best.
Thomas Carlyle1795–1881Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855), Goethe.
- Character
We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is often very hard to find his vulnerable part.
Giacomo Casanova1725–1798Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
Your intelligence often bears the same relation to your heart as the library of a château does to its owner.
Nicolas Chamfort1740–1794Maximes et Pensées, #84
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
Winston Churchill1874–1965
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
Carl von Clausewitz1780–1831On War (1832), Book 1, Ch. 1
All humans are stupid, but the smarter ones at least have a handle on their own ignorance.
John Cleeseborn 1939In conversation with Matthew Syed. Matthew Syed, “When dogma beats data, reason is lost”, The Sunday Times (27 September 2020), p. 21
Government resting upon the will and universal suffrage of the people has no anchorage except in the people’s intelligence.
Grover Cleveland1837–1908At the celebration of the sesquicentennial of Princeton College (October 22, 1896).
- Democracy
If you are not very clever, you should be conciliatory.
Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881Endymion (1880), Ch. 85.
- Advice
Granted I am a babbler, a harmless vexatious babbler, like all of us. But what is to be done if the direct and sole vocation of every intelligent man is babble, that is, the intentional pouring of water through a sieve?
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Notes from Underground (1864), Part 1, Chapter 5 (tr. Constance Garnett, 1918)In context
- Talking
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Crime and Punishment (1867), Part III, Chapter VIn context
- Emotion