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intelligence quotes

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“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
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden
“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
“Now, I am living out my life in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously, and it is only the fool who becomes anything.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground
“Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.” Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
“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
“I used to think she was quite intelligent, in my stupidity.” J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
“Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.” William Shakespeare, The Tempest
“I have long really held the opinion that the amount of noise which any one can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity, and therefore may be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.” Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation
“Take a real smart guy and he ain’t hardly ever a nice fella.” John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
“Clever is as clever does.” P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins Opens the Door
“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
“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
“Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.” George Orwell, 1984
“Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.” Jack London, The Star Rover
“Immanuel Kant argued that perpetual peace would eventually come to the world in one of two ways: by human insight or by conflicts and catastrophes of a magnitude that left humanity no other choice.” Henry Kissinger, On China
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
“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
“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
“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
“I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed.” John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
“No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.” Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
“I may die young . . . But at least I'll die smart.” John Green, Looking for Alaska
“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
“It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards” Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
“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
“The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots.” George Eliot, Middlemarch
“I don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy.” J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
“You are mysterious, I love you. You're beautiful, intelligent, and virtuous, and that's the rarest known combination.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tales of the Jazz Age
“To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband
“A woman may possess the wisdom and chastity of Minerva, and we give no heed to her, if she has a plain face.” William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
“Men of sense, whatever you may chuse to say, do not want silly wives.” Jane Austen, Emma
“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
“Human beings didn’t evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing’s the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we’d be dead, and the tigers would own the earth.” Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a...” Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
“being . . . rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.” J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
“They love their hair because they aren't smart enough to love something more interesting.” John Green, Looking for Alaska
“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
“The IQ and the life expectancy of the average American recently passed each other going in opposite directions.” George Carlin, Napalm & Silly Putty
“it is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program.” Linus Torvalds
“That however the brains and abilities of men may differ, their stomachs are essentially the same.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
“Ender didn’t like fighting. He didn’t like Peter’s kind, the strong against the weak, and he didn’t like his own kind either, the smart against the stupid.” Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
“I am a just man even to my enemy, and I will acknowledge beforehand that they are cleverer brains than I thought them.” Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White
“As far as rearing children goes, the basic idea I try to keep in mind is that a child is a person. Just because they happen to be a little shorter than you doesn't mean they are dumber than you.” Frank Zappa, The Real Frank Zappa Book
“The intelligence of the universe is social.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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women stupidity understanding wisdom beauty happiness mind suffering honesty strength men wit change knowledge heart death action words government pain

Related authors

Oscar Wilde (4)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (3)
John Green (3)
H. G. Wells (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
J. D. Salinger (2)
George Orwell (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (2)
John Steinbeck (1)
J. K. Rowling (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
Orson Scott Card (2)
George Carlin (1)
P. L. Travers (1)
Terry Pratchett (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Lao Tzu (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)
Jane Austen (1)
George Eliot (1)

Related sources

The Time Machine (3)
1984 (1)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (2)
Looking for Alaska (2)
Ender's Game (2)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
Notes from Underground (1)
Crime and Punishment (1)
Hogfather (1)
Through the Looking-Glass (1)
The Fault in Our Stars (1)
Tao Te Ching (1)
The World as Will and Representation (1)
Meditations (1)
The Tempest (1)
The Merchant of Venice (1)
A Game of Thrones (1)
This Side of Paradise (1)
The Catcher in the Rye (1)
The Real Frank Zappa Book (1)