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Quotes about intelligence

113 quotes from 85 people

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“It must be inconvenient to be made of flesh,” said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully; “for you must sleep, and eat and drink. However, you have brains, and it is worth a lot of bother to be able to think properly.”
L. Frank Baum1856–1919The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), Chapter VIn context
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
Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.
Jane Austen1775–1817Northanger Abbey (1817), Chapter 14In context
- Knowledge
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
I am a woman, but I’m not a fool.
And what of natural intelligence I own
Has been filled out with the remembered precepts
My father and the city-elders taught me.
Aristophanes446–386 BCLysistrata (411 BC), spoken by LysistrataIn context
- Women
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Aesop620–564 BCAesop’s Fables (6th century BC), The Kites and the Swans – The Monkey and the DolphinIn context
- Ideas