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Quotes about intelligence

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A fool with a heart and no brains is just as unhappy as a fool with brains and no heart.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Idiot (1869), Part I, Chapter VIIIn context
- Happiness
The more cunning a man is, the less he suspects that he will be caught in a simple thing. The more cunning a man is, the simpler the trap he must be caught in.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Crime and Punishment (1867), Part III, Chapter VIIn context
The stupider one is, the closer one is to reality. The stupider one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is brief and artless, while intelligence wriggles and hides itself. Intelligence is a knave, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Book V: Pro and Contra, Chapter IIIIn context
There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically.
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930A Study in Scarlet (1887), Part II: The Country of the Saints, Chapter VIIIn context
- Thinking
I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because they sometimes take a rest.
Alexandre Dumas1802–1870
Whoever prefers the material comforts of life over intellectual wealth is like the owner of a palace who moves into the servants’ quarters and leaves the sumptuous rooms empty.
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach1830–1916Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 53.
- Money
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
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein1879–1955
- Genius
Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else⁠—unless it is an enemy.
Albert Einstein1879–1955Essay to Leo Baeck (1953), Ideas and Opinions
- Enemies
The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
Albert Einstein1879–1955Letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position (19 March 1940).
- Courage
An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969
- Clever Jabs
How can any man, whose eyes
Are wholesome, seek to rear his children wise
Beyond men’s wont? Much helplessness in arts
Of common life, and in their townsmen’s hearts
Envy deep-set … so much their learning brings!
Come unto fools with knowledge of new things,
They deem it vanity, not knowledge.
Euripides481–407 BCMedea (431 BC), Part 1, spoken by MedeaIn context
- Envy
- Knowledge
There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind
F. Scott Fitzgerald1896–1940The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter VIIIn context
To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
Gustave Flaubert1821–1880Letters to Madame Louise Colet, 13 August 1846
- Happiness
The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.
Sigmund Freud1856–1939The Future of an Illusion (1927)