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Intelligence quotes

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“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“They love their hair because they aren't smart enough to love something more interesting.” John Green, “Looking for Alaska” - 2005

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Crime and Punishment” - 1867

“Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.” Mark Twain, “The Innocents Abroad” - 1869

“I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.” Oscar Wilde, “The Remarkable Rocket” - 1888

“Men of sense, whatever you may chuse to say, do not want silly wives.” Jane Austen, “Emma” - 1815

“It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.” William Shakespeare, “The Tempest” - 1623

“I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence, and discourse grow commendable in none only but parrots.” William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice” - 1600

“That however the brains and abilities of men may differ, their stomachs are essentially the same.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “This Side of Paradise” - 1920

“That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors. She encouraged me to listen carefully to country people’s sayings.” Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” - 1969

“Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers.” H. G. Wells, “The Time Machine” - 1895

“The fact is, the Time Traveller was one of those men who are too clever to be believed: you never felt that you saw all round him; you always suspected some subtle reserve, some ingenuity in ambush, behind his lucid frankness.” H. G. Wells, “The Time Machine” - 1895

“The too-perfect security of the Upper-worlders had led them to a slow movement of degeneration, to a general dwindling in size, strength, and intelligence.” H. G. Wells, “The Time Machine” - 1895

“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 Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“Brains are the only things worth having in this world, no matter whether one is a crow or a man.” L. Frank Baum, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” - 1900

“I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. I have not got one who is a fool.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

Related topics

mind understanding stupidity strength men wisdom doubt human nature words enemies suffering honesty heart power silence pain watch change danger wife

Related authors

Oscar Wilde (3)
H. G. Wells (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (2)
Jane Austen (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Mark Twain (1)
George Orwell (1)
John Green (1)
Maya Angelou (1)
L. Frank Baum (1)
Lao Tzu (1)

Related sources

The Time Machine (3)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (2)
The Merchant of Venice (1)
The Tempest (1)
This Side of Paradise (1)
1984 (1)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1)
Tao Te Ching (1)
Looking for Alaska (1)
Crime and Punishment (1)
The Innocents Abroad (1)
Emma (1)
The Remarkable Rocket (1)