Intelligent Quotes

The Following are the quotes on
INTELLIGENCE:
…it doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it
doesn’t matter how smart you are– if it doesn’t agree
with experiment it’s wrong.
— R.P. Feynman, Unknown , Unknown
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of
thinking.
— Martin Fischer, Unknown , born November 10,
1879
A fool must now and then be right by chance.
— William Cowper, Conversation. Line 96., Unknown
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
— William Blake, Unknown , Unknown
A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science
into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence
University education.
— George Bernard Shaw, Unknown , 1856-1950
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Unknown , Unknown
A great many people think they are thinking when
they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
— William James, Unknown , Unknown
A great oak is only a little nut that held its ground.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
A half truth is a whole lie.
— Yiddish Proverb, Unknown , Unknown
A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of
brains.
— Dutch proverb, Unknown , Unknown
A little folly now and then is cherished by the wisest
men.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or
taste not the Pierian spring.
— Alexander Pope, Unknown , 1688-1744
A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are
volitional and are portals of discovery.
— James Joyce, Unknown , Unknown
A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled.
— Plutarch, Unknown , Unknown
A mind is a terrible thing to ugg.. I forgot.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
A modest little person with much to be modest
about.
— Winston Churchill, Unknown , Unknown
A PBS mind in an MTV world.
— Bumper Sticker, Unknown , Unknown
A person is never happy except at the price of some
ignorance.
— Anatole France, Unknown , Unknown
A person who speaks cleverly is witty; one who asks
questions is smart.
— Terry Carr, Unknown , Unknown
A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one’s own
ignorance.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
A small mind is obstinate. A great mind can lead and
be led.
— Alexander Cannon, Unknown , Unknown
A technician is a man who understands everything
about his job except its ultimate purpose and its
place in the order of the universe.
— Sir Richard Livingston, Unknown , Unknown
A wise man knows everything; a shrewd one,
everybody.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
Academic disciplines are subject to being overtaken
by attacks of “knowingness”– a state of mind and
soul that prevents shudders of awe and makes one
immune to enthusiasm.
— Richard Rorty, Chronicle of Higher Education, pg
A48, Feb. 9, 1996
Advertising may be described as the science of
arresting the human intelligence long enough to get
money from it.
— Stephen Leacock, Unknown , born December
30,1869
All logic texts are divided into two parts. In the first
part, on deductible logic, the fallacies are explained;
in the second part, on inductive logic, they are
committed.
— Morris Raphael Cohen, attributed in Meehl, P. E.
Appraising and amending theories. Psychological
Inquiry, 1, p. 110., 1990
All too often we are stuffing the heads of the young
with the products of earlier innovations rather than
teaching them to be innovative. We treat their minds
as storehouses to be filled rather than as instruments
to be used.
— Robert Finch, Secretary of HEW, Unknown , 1970
Almost all rich veins of original and striking
speculation have been opened by systematic half-
thinkers.
— John Stuart Mill, Unknown , born May 20, 1806
Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
— Lena Horne, in interview, 1985
An artist is a person who has invented an artist.
— Harold Rosenberg, Unknown , Unknown
An expert is a person who avoids small error as he
sweeps on to the grand fallacy.
— Benjamin Stolberg, Unknown , Unknown
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes
that can be made in a very narrow field.
— Niels Bohr, Unknown , Unknown
An intellectual is a person whose mind watches itself.
— Albert Camus, Unknown , Unknown
And if education is always to be conceived along the
same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of
knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the
bettering of man’s future. For what is the use of
transmitting knowledge if the individual’s total
development lags behind?
— Maria Montessori, Unknown , Unknown
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain — and
most fools do.
— Dale Carnegie, Unknown , Unknown
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a person of
some sense to know how to lie well.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
Any fool can write a bad advertisement, but it takes a
genius to keep his hands off a good one.
— David Ogilvy, Unknown , Unknown
Any idiot can face a crisis–it’s this day-to-day living
that wears you out.
— Anton Chekhov, Unknown , Unknown
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more
complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius
— and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite
direction.
— Albert Einstein, Unknown , 1879-1955
Any slower and he’d be in reverse.
— Gignac, Unknown , Unknown
Any teacher can study books, but books do not
necessarily bring wisdom, nor that human insight
essential to consummate teaching skills.
— Bliss Perry, Unknown , Unknown
Anything more dull and commonplace it wouldn’t be
easy to reproduce.
— The London Times, on Abraham Lincoln’s
Gettysburg Address, Unknown , Unknown
Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
— Voltaire, Unknown , Unknown
As long as I can remember, I’ve had amnesia.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
As soon as you understand 2 x 4 you can’t believe
there was a time when you didn’t understand it.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
As we acquire more knowledge, things do not
become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.
— Will Durant, Unknown , Unknown
Be different–if you don’t have the facts and
knowledge required, simply listen. When word gets
around that you can listen when others tend to talk,
you will be treated as a sage.
— Ed Koch, Unknown , 1996
Be prepared.
— Boy Scout Motto, Unknown , Unknown
Bear in mind that brains and learning, like muscle
and physical skill, are articles of commerce. They are
bought and sold. You can hire them by the year or by
the hour. The only thing in the world not for sale is
character.
— Justice Antonin Scalia, Unknown , Unknown
Beauty is in the details.
— German proverb, Unknown , Unknown
Because learning does not consist only of knowing
what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what
we could do and perhaps should not do.
— Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose, Unknown
Before God we are all equally wise – and equally
foolish.
— Albert Einstein, Unknown , 1879-1955
Better by far you should forget and smile, Than that
you should remember and be sad
— Christina Rossetti, “Remember,” Goblin Market,
1862
Better to understand a little than to misunderstand a
lot.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Brains are an asset, if you hide them.
— Mae West, Unknown , born August 17, 1892
By ignorance the truth is known.
— Henry Suso, The Little Book of Truth, 1300-1365
Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by
fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men
avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not
imitate the good examples of wise men.
— Plutarch, Life of Marcus Cato, Unknown
Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in
nature has a function.
— Garrison Keillor, Unknown , Unknown
Chance favors the prepared mind.
— Louis Pasteur, Unknown , Unknown
Computers are useless. They can only give you
answers.
— Pablo Picasso, Unknown , Unknown
Confusion not only reigns, it pours.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Consistency is a paste jewel that only cheap men
cherish.
— William Allen White, Unknown , Unknown
Creative minds have always been known to survive
any kind of bad training.
— Anna Freud, Unknown , Unknown
Critical thinking is to a liberal education as faith is to
religion.
— Jane Smiley, Moo. New York: Fawcett Columbine. P.
24l, 1995
Cynicism is the intellectual cripple’s substitute for
intelligence. It is the dishonest businessman’s
substitute for conscience. It is the communicator’s
substitute, whether he is advertising man or editor or
writer, for self-respect.
— Russell Lynes, Unknown , Unknown
D’oh!
— Homer Simpson, Matt Groening cartoon, Unknown
Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-
minute mile was impossible, that one would die in
the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after
collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.
— Roger Bannister, Unknown , Unknown
Doing the right thing is not the problem. Knowing
what the right thing is, that’s the challenge.
— Lyndon Johnson, Unknown , Unknown
Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions. They’re easier
to handle than dumb mistakes.
— Carolyn Coats, Things Your Mother Always Told you
but You Didn’t Want to Hear, 1994
Don’t be stupid. We have world leaders for that.
— bumper sticker, Unknown , Unknown
Don’t be too stupid to be lazy.
— West Indies proverb, Unknown , Unknown
Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your
ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down
people’s throats.
— Howard Aiken., Unknown , Unknown
Don’t know much about history. Don’t know much
biology. Don’t know science books. Don’t know about
the French I took. But I do know I love you And I do
know if you love me too, what a wonderful world this
would be. Don’t know much about geography. Don’t
know much trigonometry. Don’t know much about
algebra. Don’t know what a slide ruler is for. But I do
know one and one is two And if this one could be with
you, what a wonderful world this would be. Now I
don’t claim to be an A student. But I’m trying to be.
Maybe by being an A student, baby, You’ll give your
love to me.
— Joel Landry, song “What a Wonderful World”,
Unknown
Education is understanding relationships.
— George Washington Carver, Unknown , Unknown
Education is what remains after one has forgotten
what one has learned in school.
— Albert Einstein, Unknown , Unknown
Education is what remains when we have forgotten
all that we have been taught.
— Marquis of Halifax, Unknown , Unknown
Education makes a man a more intelligent
shoemaker, if that be his occupation, but not by
teaching him how to make shoes; it does so by the
mental exercise it gives, and the habits it impresses.
— John Stuart Mill, Unknown , Unknown
Education…has produced a vast population able to
read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
— G.M. Trevelyan, Unknown , Unknown
Education: That which discloses to the wise and
disguises from the foolish their lack of
understanding.
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911
Embedded in every technology there is a powerful
idea, sometimes two or three powerful ideas. Like
language itself, a technology predisposes us to favor
and value certain perspectives and accomplishments
and to subordinate others. Every technology has a
philosophy, which is given expression in how the
technology makes people use their minds, in how it
codifies the world, in which of our senses it amplifies,
in which of our emotional and intellectual tendencies
it disregards.
— Neil Postman, The End of Education, Unknown
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted
wise.
— Jeremiah: 28, Unknown , Unknown
Even babies like to grab for things just beyond their
reach.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
Even when all the experts agree, they may well be
mistaken.
— Bertrand (Arthur William) Russell), Unknown , born
May 18, 1872
Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an
idiot, but going faster is a maniac?
— George Carlin, Unknown , Unknown
Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of
alphabet soup?
— John Mendoza, Unknown , Unknown
Every man who rises above the common level has
received two educations: the first from his teachers;
the second, more personal and important, from
himself.
— Edward Gibbon, Unknown , Unknown
Every piece of the puzzle that doesn’t fit gets you
closer to the answer.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
Everybody gets so much information all day long that
they lose their common sense.
— Gertrude Stein, Unknown , Unknown
Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don’t
have film.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to
follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
— Erica Jong, Unknown , Unknown
Everyone is brilliant some of the time, and no one is
that way all the time.
— Kathleen Cushmes, Unknown , Unknown
Everyone is gifted. Some open the package sooner.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Everyone is wise, until he speaks.
— Irish Proverb, Unknown , Unknown
Everyone[Everybody] is ignorant only on different
subjects.
— Will Rogers, Unknown , Unknown
Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no
other.
— Benjamin Franklin, Unknown , 1706-1790
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you
recognize a mistake when you make it again.
— F. P. Jones, Unknown , Unknown
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this
time more intelligently.
— Henry Ford, Unknown , Unknown
Failures are divided into 2 classes those who thought
and never did, and those who did and never thought.
— John Charles Salak, Unknown , Unknown
Fear is what prevents the flowering of the mind.
— J. Krishnamurti, On Education., Unknown
Foolishness is infinitely more fascinating than
intelligence…. Intelligence has limits while
foolishness has none.
— Claude Chabrol, Unknown , born June 24, 1930
Fools rush in where fools have been before.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
For an actress to be a success she must have the face
of Venus, the brains of Minerva, the grace of
Terpsichore, the memory of Macaulay, the figure of
Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
— Ethel Barrymore, in George Jean nathan, (1953)
The Theatre in the Fifties, lived 1879-1959
For every student with a spark of brilliance, there are
about ten with ignition trouble.
— Milton Berle, Unknown , Unknown
For God’s sake give me the young man who has
brains enough to make a fool of himself.
— Robert Louis Stevenson, Unknown , bron November
13, 1850
For original ideas to come about, you have to let
them percolate under the level of consciousness in a
place where we have no way to make them obey our
own desires or our own direction. Their random
combinations are driven by forces we don’t know
about.
— Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Unknown , Unknown
Galinda was slow coming to terms with actual
learning. She had considered her admission into Shiz
University as a sort of testimony to her brilliance, and
believed that she would adorn the halls of learning
with her beauty and occasional clever sayings. She
supposed, glumly, that she had meant to be a sort of
living marble bust: This is Youthful Intelligence;
admire Her. Isn’t She lovely?
— Gregory Maguire, Wicked, p. 75, NY: HarperCollins
Pub., 1995
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine
percent perspiration.
— Thomas A. Edison, Unknown , Unknown
Genius is only a form of sustained patience.
— Donald Murray, Unknown , Unknown
Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the
simple.
— C.W. Ceran, Unknown , Unknown
Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
— Benjamin Franklin, Unknown , Unknown
Getting lost teaches you how to read a map.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
God is in the details.
— Mies Van Der Rohe, Unknown , Unknown
God must love stupid people, he made so many.
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
Golf appeals to the idiot in us and the child. Just how
childlike golf players become is proven by their
frequent inability to count past five.
— John Updike, Unknown , Unknown
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience
comes from bad judgment.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
Good people are good because they’ve come to
wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom
from success, you know.
— William Saroyan, Unknown , Unknown
Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed,
warm mental fog.
— Joseph Conrad, Unknown , born December 3, 1857
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss
events. Small minds discuss people.
— Eleanor Roosevelt, Unknown , Unknown
Half of being smart is knowing what you’re dumb at.
— David Gerrold, Unknown , Unknown
Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical
questions?
— Geroge E. Bradley, print media column, “Ever
Wonder?”, Unknown
He can compress the most words into the smallest
ideas of any man I ever met.
— Abraham Lincoln., Unknown , Unknown
He continued to be an infant long after he ceased to
be a prodigy.
— Robert Moses, Unknown , Unknown
He doesn’t know the meaning of the word fear. In
fact, I just saw his grades and he doesn’t know the
meaning of a lot of words.
— Bobby Bowden, Florida State footballer, on player
Reggie Herring, Unknown , Unknown
He had just enough intelligence to open his mouth
when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.
— P.G. Wodehouse, Barmy in Wonderland, Unknown
He has the lucidity which is the by-product of a
fundamentally sterile mind.
— Aneurin Bevan, on Neville Chamberlain, Unknown ,
Unknown
He is a fool who thinks by force or skill To turn the
current of a woman’s will.
— Samuel Tuke, Adventures of Five Hours. Act v. Sc.
3., —- -1673
He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness
in others.
— Samuel Johnson, Unknown , Unknown
He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but
don’t let that fool you — he really is an idiot.
— Groucho Marx, Unknown , 1895-1977
He must have been an incredibly good shot.
— Noel Coward, On being told that someone had
blown his brains out., Unknown , Unknown
He was not so much brain as earwax
— William Shakespear’s character, Thersites, Troilus
and Cressida, Unknown
He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do
nothing understands nothing. He who understands
nothing is worthless. But he who understands also
loves, notices, sees….The more knowledge is inherent
in a thing, the greater the love.
— Paracelsus, Unknown , Unknown
He who laughs last thinks slowest!
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
His ignorance covers the world like a blanket, and
ther’s scarcely a hole in it anywhere.
— Mark Twain, Unknown , Unknown
How Important Are You? More than you think. A
rooster minus a hen equals no baby chicks. Kellogg
minus a farmer equals no corn flakes. If the nail
factory closes what good is the hammer factory?
Paderewski’s genius wouldn’t have amounted to
much if the piano tuner hadn’t shown up. A cracker
maker will do better if there’s a cheesemaker. The
most skillful surgeon needs the ambulance driver
who delivers the patient. Just as Rodgers needed
Hammerstein you need someone and someone needs
you.
— From Wall Street Journal, Unknown , Unknown
I am never afraid of what I know.
— Anna Sewell, Black Beauty, 1877
I can’t understand why people are frightened of new
ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.
— John Cage, Unknown , Unknown
I do not believe that every person, in every walk of
life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would
be perfection. But I do believe that what I was able to
attain came to be because we put behind us (no
matter how slowly) the dogmas of the past: to
discover the truth of today; and perhaps the
greatness of tomorrow.
— Jackie Robinson, “This I believe” National Public
Radio series, c1951
I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong,
or the successes and the failures, those who make it
or those who don’t. I divide the world into learners
and non-learners.
— Benjamin Barber, Unknown , Unknown
I happen to feel that the degree of a person’s
intelligence is directly reflected by the number of
conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on the
same topic.
— Lisa Alther, Unknown , Unknown
I have always been amoung those who believe that
the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest
safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do
is to encourage him to advertise the fact by
speaking.
— Woodrow Wilson, Unknown , Unknown
I have always believed the thesis that one’s politics
and the character of one’s intellectual work are
inseparable.
— Whitfield Diffie., Unknown , Unknown
I have great faith in fools–self-confidence my friends
call it.
— Edgar Allan Poe, Unknown , Unknown
I have never found in a long experience of politics
that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.
— Harold Macmillan, Unknown , Unknown
I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
I know a lot of people think I’m dumb. Well, at least I
ain’t no educated fool.
— Leon Spinks, LA Times, 19 78, June 28
I must learn to love the fool in me—the one who feels
too much, talks too much, takes too many chances,
wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control,
loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and
breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects
me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful
tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of
human aliveness, humility and dignity but for my
fool.
— Dr Theodore I Rubin, Love Me, Love My Fool, McKay,
1976
I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form
of an object be what it may, –light, shade,
perspective will always make it beautiful.
— John Constable, Unknown , Unknown
I prefer the wicked rather than the foolish. The
wicked sometimes rest.
— Alexandre Dumas, Unknown , Unknown
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine
times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I
am right.
— Albert Einstein, Unknown , Unknown
I think the world is run by C students.
— Al McGuire, Unknown , Unknown
I took an IQ test and the results were negative.
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said ‘I
don’t know.’
— Mark Twain, Unknown , November 30, 1835
I watched “Titanic” when I got back home from the
hospital, and cried. I knew then that my IQ had been
damaged.
— Stephen King, Unknown , Unknown
I went to school with a kid who was so smart, the
only time he got an answer wrong, they had to go
back and change the question.
— Gene Perret, Unknown , Unknown
I wish I knew as much about anything today as I
knew about everything when I was twenty.
— Bill Ayers, Unknown , Unknown
I wish there was some way to turn down the stupidity
on tv. There’s a knob called ‘brightness,’ but that
doesn’t work.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
I wonder whether if I had had an education I should
have been more or less a fool than I am.
— Alice James, The Diary of Alice James, Unknown
I’m not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I should
have been more specific.
— Lilly Tomlin, Unknown , Unknown
Ideas without precedent are generally looked upon
with disfavor and men are shocked if their
conceptions of an orderly world challenged.
— J. Harlen Bretz., Unknown , Unknown
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man
who has so much as to be out of danger?
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
If at first you don’t succeed, you have two choices –
try again or read the instructions.
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
If children grew up according to early indications, we
should have nothing but geniuses.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Unknown , born
August 28, 1749
If I could read a book, I’d definitely read one of yours.
— Paris Hilton, when introduced to author Joan
Collins, Unknown
If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants
were standing on my shoulders.
— Hal Abelson, Unknown , Unknown
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was
standing on the shoulders of giants.
— Isaac Newton, Unknown , Unknown
If people only knew how hard I work to gain my
mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
— Michelangelo Buonnarroti, Unknown , Unknown
If the brain were simple enough for us to understand
it, we would be too simple to understand it.
— Ken Hill, Unknown , Unknown
If the horse you’re drawing looks more like a dog,
make it a dog.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
If the minds of women were enlightened and
improved, the domestic work would be more
frequently refreshed by intelligent conversation, a
means of edification now deplorably neglected, for
want of that cultivation which these intellectual
advantages would confer.
— Sarah M. Grimke, Letters on the Equality of the
Sexes and the Condition of Woman, 1838
If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can
create the consoling illusion that it has been
mastered.
— Stanley Kubrick, Unknown , born July 26, 1928
If you keep missing, get closer to the basket.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
If you think education is expensive–try ignorance.
— Derek Bok, Unknown , Unknown
If you want to zoom down the expert slope tomorrow,
you have to fall down the bunny slope today.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
Ignorance is salvageable but stupid is forever.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Ignorance never settles a question.
— Fortune Cookie, Unknown , Unknown
Imagination is more powerful even than knowledge.
— Albert Einstein, Unknown , Unknown
Immortal gods! how much does one man excel
another! What a difference there is between a wise
person and a fool!
— Terence, Act ii. Sc. 2, 1. (232.), Unknown
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.
— Oscar Wilde, Unknown , Unknown
In California you lose a point off your IQ every year.
— Truman Capote, 1924-1984, born September 30,
1924
In computer science, we stand on each other’s feet.
— Brian K. Reid, Unknown , Unknown
In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.
— Napolean Bonaparte, Unknown , Unknown
In reality, serendipity accounts for 1 percent of the
blessings we receive in life, work, and love. The other
99 percent is due to our efforts.
— Peter McWilliams, Unknown , Unknown
In seeking knowledge, the first step is silence, the
second listening, the third remembering, the fourth
practicing, and the fifth–teaching others
— Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Unknown , Unknown
In the first place God made idiots; this was for
practice; then he made school boards.
— Mark Twain, Unknown , Unknown
In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit
side-by-side with the giants on whose shoulders we
stand.
— Gerald Holton, Unknown , Unknown
Inside every C+ student is a B- student trying to get
out.
— Art Peterson, Unknown , Unknown
Intelligence is what you use when you don’t know
what to do.
— Jean Piaget, Unknown , 1896-1980
Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.
— Susan Sontag, Evergreen Review, December 1964.
It is bad luck to be superstitious.
— Andrew W. Mathis, Unknown , Unknown
It is better to know nothing than to learn nothing.
— Hebrew Proverb, Unknown , Unknown
It is better to know some of the questions than all the
answers.
— J. Thurber, Unknown , Unknown
It is better, of course, to know useless things than to
know nothing.
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Unknown , Unknown
It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the
former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while
the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to
search for it.
— Johann von Goethe, Unknown , Unknown
It is in fact a part of the function of education to help
us escape — not from our own time, for we are bound
by that — but from the intellectual and emotional
limitations of our own time.
— T. S. Eliot, Unknown , 1888-1965
It is not certain that everything is uncertain.
— Blaise Pascal, Unknown , born June 19, 1623
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing
is to use it well.
— Descartes, Unknown , Unknown
It is not necessary to understand things in order to
argue about them.
— Caron deBeaumarchais, Unknown , Unknown
It is not the IQ but the I Will that is most important in
education.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider
that the limit of our power of perception is also the
limit of all there is to perceive.
— C.W. Leadbeater, Unknown , Unknown
It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.
— Oscar Wilde, Unknown , Unknown
It isn’t what you know but the simple things you
don’t overlook.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
It takes a genius to whine appealingly.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, Unknown , Unknown
It’s a fact that if you stay in California you lose one
point of IQ for every year.
— Truman Capote, Unknown , Unknown
It’s choice–not chance–that determines your destiny.
— Jean Nidetch, Unknown , Unknown
It’s not enough to be able to spell “magnificence” in
your bedroom. You have to be able to spell it at the
microphone during the spelling bee.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
Junior was being chided for his low grades. Little
Robert, who lived a few doors away, was held up as
an example. “Robert doesn’t get C’s and D’s does
he?” asked his father. “No,” Junior admitted, “but
he’s different. He has very bright parents.”
— Jacob M. Braude, Unknown , Unknown
Know thyself.
— Thales, Unknown , Unknown
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not
enough; we must do.
— Johann Wolfgan von Goethe, Unknown , Unknown
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Unknown , Unknown
Knowledge is power–especially if you know about the
right people.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
Knowledge is power.
— Hobbs or Sir Francis Bacon, Unknown , Unknown
Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error
also.
— C.G. Jung, Unknown , Unknown
Language grows out of life, out of its needs and
experiences…Language and knowledge are
indissolubly connected; they are interdependent.
Good work in language presupposes and depends on
a real knowledge of things.
— Anne Sullivan, Unknown , Unknown
Learning makes the wise wiser and the fool more
foolish.
— John Ray, Unknown , Unknown
Lecturers should remember that the capacity of the
mind to absorb is limited to what the seat can
endure.
— Evan Esar, Unknown , Unknown
Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
— Publius Syrus, Maxim 914, Unknown
Let schoolmasters puzzle the brain, With grammar,
and nonsense, and learning, Good Liquor, I stoutly
maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.
— Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Unknown
Let such teach others who themselves excel, And
censure freely who have written well.
— Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Unknown
Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest
of us could not succeed.
— Mark Twain, Unknown , 1835-1910
Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote
intelligence among the people as the best means of
preserving our liberties.
— James Monroe, First Inaugural Address, 4 March
1817
Light travels faster than sound–isn’t that why some
people appear bright until you hear them speak?
— Steven Wright, Unknown , Unknown
Little things affect little minds.
— Benjamin Disraeli, Unknown , Unknown
Logic is like the sword: those who appeal to it shall
perish by it.
— Samuel Butler, Unknown , Unknown
Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence.
— Joseph Wood Krutch, Unknown , born November
25, 1893
Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict
accordance with the limitations and incapacities of
the human understanding.
— Ambrose Bierce, Unknown , born June 24, 1842
Longevity is the revenge of talent upon genius.
— Cyril Connolly, Unknown , born September 10,
1903
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
— H.L. Mencken, Unknown , born September 12, 1880
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, whilst
all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the
water having a good time. But conversely the
dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent
than man for precisely the same reasons.
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy, Unknown
Men seldom make passes At girls who wear glasses.
— Dorothy Parker, 1893-1967, “News Item” (1926) in
Not So Deep as a Well (1937), Unknown
Mind like a steel trap – rusty and illegal in most
states.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding
arguments for going on believing as we already do.
— James Harvey Robinson, Unknown , Unknown
My heart is singing for joy this morning. A miracle
has happened! The light of understanding has shone
upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are
changed.
— Anne Sullivan, Unknown , Unknown
My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the
young and inflame their intellects.
— Robert Maynard Hutchins, Unknown , Unknown
My success was not based so much on any great
intelligence but on great common sense.
— Helen Gurley Brown, Unknown , b. 1922
Never attribute to malice what can be adequately
explained by stupidity.
— Nick Diamos, Unknown , Unknown
No man but a blockhead, ever wrote, except for
money.
— Samuel Johnson, Unknown , Unknown
No matter what side of an argument you’re on, you
always find some people on your side that you wish
were on the other side.
— Jascha Heifetz., Unknown , Unknown
No one can arrive from being talented alone. God
gives talent, work transforms talent into genius.
— Anna Pavlova, Unknown , Unknown
No one can make you feel inferior without your
consent.
— Eleanor Roosevelt, This is My Story, 1937
Not only is there an art in knowing a thing, but also a
certain art in teaching it: “Nam non solum scire
aliquid artis est, sed quaedam ars etiam docendi.”
— Cicero, DeLegibus, Unknown
Nothing in this world can take the place of
persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common
than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not;
unrewarded genius is quite common. Education
alone will not; the world is full of educated failures.
Persistence and Determination alone are the all-
powerful elements.
— Adapted by ? From a quote by Calvin Coolidge,
Unknown , Unknown
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
Nothing is foolproof to a talented fool.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not
having any opinion at all.
— G. C. Lichtenberg, Unknown , Unknown
Nothing spoils a good party like a genius.
— Elsa Maxwell, `, 1883-1963
On Artificial Intelligence: The real problem is not
whether machines think but whether men do.
— B.F. Skinner, Unknown , Unknown
On those who overanalyze his music: When you tear
the wings off a butterfly, it is no longer a butterfly
— Claude Debussy, Unknown , Unknown
One must know oneself. If this does not serve to
discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and
there is nothing better.
— Blaise Pascal, Unknown , Unknown
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
— Rita Mae Brown, Unknown , Unknown
One of the things that Ivar knew about Mrs. Walker
was that she would only tell him what she knew if he
asked the right question, so he spent a portion of his
time meditating over what he might ask Mrs. Walker
and how he might phrase the question.
— Jane Smiley, Moo. New York: Fawcett Columbine. P.
20., 1995
Only the thinking man lives his life, the thoughtless
man’s life passes him by.
— Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Aphorism, 1905
Only when the heart loves can the intellect do great
work.
— N.D. Hillis, Unknown , Unknown
Ordinary people know little of the time and effort it
takes to learn to read. I have been 80 years at it, and
have not reached my goal.
— Johann von Goethe, Unknown , Unknown
Original thinking migrates each day in search of
nourishment.
— Maya Angelou, Unknown , Unknown
Our great democracies still tend to think that a
stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever
man, and our politicians take advantage of this
prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than
nature has made them.
— Bertrand Russell, Unknown , born 1872
Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
— Bumper Sticker, Unknown , Unknown
People are what you make them. A scornful look
turns into a complete fool a man of average
intelligence. A contemptuous indifference turns into
an enemy a woman who, well treated, might have
been an angel.
— André Maurois, News summaries, 1950, January 30
People don’t care how much you know until they
know how much you care.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
People don’t care how much you know until they
know how much you care.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
People sometimes accuse me of knowing a lot…This
is a bit like telling a person who has a few grains of
sand clinging to him that he owns much sand. When
you consider the vast amount of sand there is in the
world such a person is, to all intents and purposes,
sandless. We are all sandless. We are all ignorant.
There are beaches and deserts and dunes of
knowledge whose existence we have never even
guessed at, let alone visited.
— Stephen Fry, Preface for “The Book of General
Ignorance” by Lloyd & Mitchinson, 2006
Philosophical habits of mind do not come quicker
through fiber optics. Clear thinking is not aided by
better dot resolution. Understanding ourselves and
feeling for others does not come with a software
upgrade.
— Linda Ray Pratt, Unknown , Unknown
Please provide the date of your death.
— from an IRS letter, Unknown , Unknown
Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they
get into a position of power, corrupt power.
— George Bernard Shaw, Unknown , Unknown
Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite
exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually
the slaves of some defunct economist.
— John Maynard Keynes, Unknown , born June 5,
1883
Practice random acts of intelligence & senseless acts
of self-control.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Remember half the people you know are below
average.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Remember, any jackass can kick over the barn, but it
takes a carpenter to build one.
— Tip O’Neil quoting Sam Rayburn, former Speaker of
the House, Unknown , Unknown
Rules and models destroy genius and art
— William Hazlitt, “On Taste”, 1778-1830
Said the Wizard of Oz to the scarecrow, “I can’t give
you brains but I can give you a diploma.”
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
Science, engineering, technology. All worthless
unless they make you feel something.
— BMW ad, Brill’s Content, p. 16, 1998, November
Scientists are the easiest to fool. They think in
straight, predictable, directable, and therefore
misdirectable, lines. The only world they know is the
one where everything has a logical explanation and
things are what they appear to be.
— James P. Hogan, Code of the Lifemaker, Unknown
Simplicity of character is the natural result of
profound thought.
— Fortune Cookie, Unknown , Unknown
Since new developments are the products of a
creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and
encourage that type of mind in every way possible.
— George Washington Carver, Unknown , Unknown
Since we are all likely to go astray the reasonable
thing is to learn from those who can teach.
— Sophocles, Unknown , Unknown
Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know
nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our
own ignorance.
— Will Durant, Unknown , Unknown
Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I
was so smart my teacher was in my class for five
years.
— Gracie Allen, Unknown , Unknown
Some students drink at the fountain of knowledge.
Others just gargle.
— E. C. McKenzie, Unknown , Unknown
Sometimes it’s smart to be scared.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must
mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the
tree of life.
— Lord Byron, Unknown , Unknown
Srebrenica’s not simply another reminder of man’s
inhumanity to man, but how intelligent people can
always come up with intelligent reasons to do
nothing.
— Scott Simon on the 1990 massacre of 8,000 over
the course of 2 days that was watched by world
governments via satellite and radio, commentary,
National Public Radio Weekend Edition, June 16,
2005
State a moral case to a plowman and a professor. The
former will decide it well and often better than the
latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial
rules.
— Thomas Jefferson, Unknown , Unknown
Stoop and you’ll be stepped on; stand tall and you’ll
be shot at.
— Carlos Urbizo, Unknown , Unknown
Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.
— Fortune Cookie, Unknown , Unknown
Stupid, stupider, stupidest, how stupid can it be? But
when I really thought about it, the stupid one was
me!
— unknown, Unknown , Unknown
Systems die; instincts remain.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Unknown , Unknown
Teach him to think for himself? Oh, my God, teach
him rather to think like other people!
— Mary Shelley, in Matthew Arnold (1888) Essays in
Criticism Second Series, 1797-1851
Teaching is the highest form of understanding.
— Aristotle, Unknown , Unknown
That is what learning is. You suddenly understand
something you’ve understood all your life, but in a
new way.
— Doris Lessing, Unknown , Unknown
The admission fee was a viper’s tongue and a half-
concealed stiletto. It was a sort of intellectual
slaughterhouse. [With reference to the Algonquin
“Round Table”]
— Groucho Marx., Unknown , Unknown
The American people are a very generous people and
will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible,
exception of stupidity.
— Will Rogers, Unknown , Unknown
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to
overlook.
— William James, Unknown , Unknown
The average kindergartner has seen more than 5,000
hours of TV–more time than it takes to earn a
bachelor’s degree.
— Shook, M. & Shook, R., The Book of Odds, 1991
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their
right names.
— Chinese Proverb, Unknown , Unknown
The best learners… often make the worst teachers.
They are, in a very real sense, perceptually
challenged. They cannot imagine what it must be like
to struggle to learn something that comes so
naturally to them.
— Stephen Brookfield, Unknown , Unknown
The boy had just learned to plough with the family
mule. He was in the field yelling out orders and
trying to show his new skill. Finally his father
stopped him and said, “How long have you been
plowing?” “At least a couple of days,” the young boy
replied. “And how long has the mule been plowing?”
the father asked. “At least fifteen years,” the boy
replied. “Don’t you think you would be wise just to
follow the mule.”
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
The chief danger in life is that you may take too
many precautions.
— Alfred Adler, Unknown , Unknown
The college graduate is presented with a sheepskin
to cover his intellectual nakedness.
— Robert M. Hutchins, Unknown , Unknown
The color of truth is gray.
— Andre’ Gide, Unknown , Unknown
The computer is a moron.
— Peter Drucker, Unknown , Unknown
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for
curiosity.
— Ellen Parr, Unknown , Unknown
The difference between intelligence and education is
this: intelligence will make you a good living.
— Charles F. Kettering, Unknown , born August 29,
1876
The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does
not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses.
They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton,
they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also
laughed at Bozo the Clown.
— Carl Sagan., Unknown , Unknown
The fellow that agrees with everything you say is
either a fool or he is getting ready to skin you.
— Kin Hubbard, Unknown , Unknown
The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his
orders from one who does.
— Herbert (Victor) Prochnow, Sr., Unknown , born May
18, 1897
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man
knows himself to be a fool.
— William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Unknown
The free school is the promoter of that intelligence
which is to preserve us as a nation. If we were to
have another contest in the near future, of our
national existence, I predict that the dividing line will
not be Mason’s or Dixon’s, but between patriotism
and intelligence on one side, and superstition,
ambition and ignorance on the other.
— Ulysses S. Grant, Unknown , Unknown
The function of genius is not to give new answers,
but pose new questions which time and mediocrity
can resolve.
— Anonymous, Unknown , Unknown
The function of wisdom is discriminating between
good and evil
— Cicero, Unknown , Unknown
The geek shall inherit the earth.
— E-mail humor, Proverbs for the Millennium or
Axioms for the Internet Age, Unknown
The graduate with a Science degree asks, “Why does
it work?” The graduate with an Engineering degree
asks, “How does it work?” The graduate with an
Accounting degree asks, “How much will it cost?” The
graduate with a Liberal Arts degree asks, “Do you
want fries with that?”
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools
are right sometimes.
— Winston Churchill, Sir, Unknown , 1874-1965
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in
the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Unknown , Unknown
The heart is as important as the head in learning
— K. Patricia Cross, Motivation: Er…Will That Be on
the Test?, The Cross Papers, Number 5,, 2001,
February
The heart is wiser than the intellect.
— Fortune Cookie, Unknown , Unknown
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
— Albert Einstein, Unknown , Unknown
The intelligent man finds almost everything
ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
— Goethe, Unknown , 1749-1832
The man who doesn’t read has no advantage over the
man who can’t read.
— Mark Twain, Unknown , Unknown
The mind does not take its complexion from the
skin….
— Frederick Douglass, 1849, Unknown
The most powerful factors in the world are clear ideas
in the minds of energetic men of good will.
— J. Arthur Thomson, Unknown , Unknown
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using
two words when one will do.
— Thomas Jefferson, Unknown , Unknown
The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 9
out of 10 doctors agree that 1 out of 10 doctors is an
idiot.
— Jay Leno, Unknown , Unknown
The one exclusive sign of a thorough knowledge is
the power of teaching.
— Aristotle, Unknown , Unknown
The only fence against the world is a thorough
knowledge of it.
— John Locke, Unknown , 1693
The only genius with an IQ of 60.
— Gore Vidal, on Andy Warhol, Unknown , Unknown
The philosophy of one century is the common sense
of the next.
— Fortune Cookie, Unknown , Unknown
The power of generalizing ideas, of drawing
comprehensive conclusions from individual
observations, is the only acquirement, for an
immortal being, that really deserves the name of
knowledge.
— Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of
Women, 1792
The principal difference between a cat and a lie is
that a cat has only nine lives.
— Mark Twain, Unknown , Unknown
The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives
everything except genius.
— Oscar Wilde, Unknown , Unknown
The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds,
unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we
continue to live.
— Mortimer Adler, Unknown , Unknown
The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate
“apparently ordinary” people to unusual effort. The
tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in
making winners out of ordinary people.
— Pat Cross, Unknown , Unknown
The teacher can always tell when you did your
homework on the bus.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at
all, is inevitably that which must also make you
lonely.
— Lorraine Hansberry, Unknown , Unknown
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking
with the majority. The second-rate mind is only
happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-
rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
— A. A. Milne, Unknown , Unknown
The trouble with a lot of artists today is that they
have too much technique and equipment. They don’t
know what to do with it all. If you cut down on it, you
can work more strongly within narrower limits.
— Alexander Calder, Unknown , Unknown
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are
cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
— Bertrand Russell, Unknown , Unknown
The two most common elements in the universe are
hydrogen and stupidity.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and
throw the bad ones away.
— Linus Pauling, Unknown , Unknown
The whole world of thought lay unexplored before
me, — a world of which I had already caught large and
tempting glimpses…
— Lucy Larcom, A New England Girlhood, 1889
The word ‘genius’ isn’t applicable in football. A
genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.
— Joe Theisman, Unknown , Unknown
The world needs specialists and highly trained people
with advanced degrees, no question about it. But the
world also needs diversity and versatility. It needs
people who know as much about our value system as
they do about our solar system.
— Roger B. Smith, Unknown , 1982
The worst kind of poverty is ignorance.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count &
those who can’t.
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
There are no limits to the power of the human mind
to construct new meaning from experience.
— Novak and Gowin, Unknown , 1984
There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects,
and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact
collectors, who have no aim beyond their facts, are
one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason,
generalize, using the labors of the fact collectors as
well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine,
predict – their best illumination comes from above,
through the skylight.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Unknown , Unknown
There are only two things that are infinite: the
universe and stupidity, and I’m not sure about the
former.
— Albert Einstein, Unknown , Unknown
There is no problem, however trivial, that by strict
application of accepted methods of pedagogy cannot
be rendered completely incapable of solution.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
There must be such a thing as a child with average
ability, but you can’t find a parent who will admit
that it is his child.
— Thomas Bailey, Unknown , Unknown
There’s an idea going about that the human race
basically understands how the universe works. Not
you and me, obviously, but scientists perhaps, or
experts. Regrettably, this is not the case. In the
words of Thomas Edison, the man who didn’t invent
the lightbulb, “We don’t know a millionth of one
percent about anything.”
— John Lloyd, Introduction to “The Book of General
Ignorance”, 2006
They don’t tell you this in school, Everybody plays
the fool.
— Smokey Robinson, song, Unknown
They never open their mouths without subtracting
from the sum of human knowledge.
— Thomas Reed, Speaker of the House, on
congressmen, Unknown , Unknown
They never open their mouths without subtracting
from the sum of human knowledge.
— Thomas Brackett Reed, Unknown , Unknown
They show you how detergents take out
bloodstains… I think if you’ve got a T-shirt with a
bloodstain all over it, maybe your laundry isn’t your
biggest problem.
— Jerry Seinfeld, Unknown , Unknown
They’ll remember you if you’re the best reader in
class–or if you throw up at lunch.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself.
— Fortune Cookie, Unknown , Unknown
This must be an era when the soul catches up with
the brain, when soul directs science, when motives
master machines, when how men feel becomes as
important as what men know.
— Rev. Louis Hadley Evans, Unknown , 1952
This world belongs to the man who is wise enough to
change his mind in the presence of facts.
— Roy L. Smith, Unknown , Unknown
Those who are too smart to engage in politics are
punished by being governed by those who are
dumber.
— Plato, Unknown , Unknown
Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who
cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.
— Lord Byron, Unknown , Unknown
Those whom the gods would destroy they first call
“promising.”
— Jan Carew, Unknown , Unknown
Tis better to be thought a fool, then to open your
mouth and remove all doubt.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last
product of civilization.
— Arnold Toynbee, Unknown , Unknown
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step
to knowledge.
— Benjamin Disraeli, Unknown , Unknown
To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three
requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is
lacking, all is lost.
— Gustave Flaubert, Unknown , Unknown
To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to
educate a menace to society.
— Theodore Roosevelt, Unknown , Unknown
To generalize is to be an idiot.
— William Blake, Unknown , Unknown
To know whom to strike is competence; to know how
to strike is skill; to know where and when to strike is
art; to know why to strike is victory.
— Roby James, Commencement, p. 172,, Unknown
To see what is in front of one’s nose requires
constant struggle.
— George Orwell, Unknown , Unknown
To teachers, students are the end products, — all else
is a means. Hence there is but one interpretation of
high standards in teaching: standards are highest
where the maximum number of students– slow
learners and fast learners alike– develop to their
maximal capacity.
— Joseph Seidlin, Unknown , Unknown
True genius can be identified by the fact that its
expression changes the world into something it has
never been before.
— David Gerrold, Unknown , Unknown
Truth fears no questions.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
We are all either fools or undiscovered geniuses.
— Bonnie Lin, Unknown , Unknown
We distinguish the excellent man from the common
man by saying that the former is the one who makes
great demands upon himself, and the latter who
makes no demands on himself.
— Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Unknown , Unknown
We don’t blame the student who can’t see the
chalkboard; why then do we blame the student who
can’t see the point?
— Nicola Simmons, Unknown , Unknown
We have enough Youth, how about a fountain of
Smart?
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
We must abandon the prevalent belief in the superior
wisdom of the ignorant.
— Daniel Boorstin, Unknown , Unknown
We ought to hear at least one little song every day,
read a good poem, see a first-rate painting, and if
possible speak a few sensible words.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Unknown ,
(1749-1832)
Well, the years start coming and they don’t stop
coming. ?Bet you the rules and I hit the ground
running Didn’t make sense not to live for fun. Your
brain gets smart but your head gets dumb.
— Greg Camp of the music group Smash Mouth,
song, ‘All Star’, 1999
What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have
a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.
— Dan Quayle, Unknown , Unknown
What gets measured, gets managed.
— Unknown , Unknown , Unknown
What is important to a relationship is a harmony of
emotional roles and not too great a disparity in the
general level of intelligence.
— Mirra Komarovsky, Unknown , Unknown
What lies before us and what lies beyond us is tiny
compared to what lies within us.
— Henry David Thoreau, Unknown , Unknown
What the world needs is more geniuses with
humility, there are so few of us left.
— Oscar Levant, Unknown , born December 27, 1906
What we do not call education is more precious than
which we call so.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Unknown , Unknown
What we must decide is perhaps how we are
valuable, rather than how valuable we are.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, Unknown , Unknown
Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability
comes true for us.
— Susan L. Taylor, Unknown , Unknown
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that
I am old, I admire kind people.
— Abraham Joshua Heschel, Unknown , 1907-1972
When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a
microscopically thin line between being brilliantly
creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on
earth. So what the hell, leap.
— Cynthia Heimel, “Lower Manhattan Survival
Tactics” in Village Voice, Unknown
When times are calm, reflect. When times are
difficult, be brave.
— Korean Proverb, Unknown , Unknown
When we have done our best, we should wait the
result in peace.
— J. Lubbock, Unknown , Unknown
When you go to the mind reader, do you get half
price?
— David Letterman, Unknown , Unknown
When your IQ rises to 28, sell.
— Professor Irwin Corey to a heckler, Unknown ,
Unknown
Who are a little wise the best fools be.
— Dr. John Donne, The Triple Fool., Unknown
Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I’m
halfway through my fishburger and I realize, Oh my
God….I could be eating a slow learner.
— Lynda Montgomery, Unknown , Unknown
Why, Sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must
have taken him a great deal of pains to become what
we now see him Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is
not in Nature.
— Dr. Samuel Johnson, on Thomas Sheridan, English
critic and poet., Unknown , Unknown
Wisdom is oft times nearer when we stoop than when
we soar.
— William Wordsworth, Unknown , Unknown
Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.
— Benjamin Franklin, Unknown , Unknown
Wit consists in seeing the resemblance between
things that differ, and the difference between things
which are alike.
— Madame de Stael, De L’allemagne, 1813
Wit is educated insolence.
— Aristotle, Rhetoric II, 384-322 B.C.
Worrying about seat time is worrying about the
wrong end of the student.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
You can ask a question and look stupid, or not ask a
question and be stupid.
— Unknown, Unknown , Unknown
You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog
will give you this look that says, “My God, you’re
right! I never would’ve thought of that!”
— Dave Barry, Unknown , Unknown
You’ll have a lot more respect for a bird after you try
making a nest.
— Cynthia Copeland Lewis, Really important stuff my
kids have taught me, 1994
You’re smart when you know the answer. You’re wise
when you know you do not.
— Greg Henry Quinn, 365 Meditations for Teachers,
November 1, Unknown
You’ve got to remember that common sense is not
factored into the intelligence quotient.
— Greg Gabriel, Altadena Search & Rescue leader,
Newsweek, after saving 24 Caltech students trapped
on Mount Wilson in tutus, capes, etc as part of
hazing., Feb 13, 2006
Your kid may be an honors student, but you’re still an
idiot.
— Bumper Sticker, Unknown , Unknown
…I had been fed, in my youth, a lot of old wives’ tales about the way men would instantly forsake a beautiful woman to flock around a brilliant one. It is
but fair to say that, after getting out in the world, I
had never seen this happen.
— Dorothy Parker, 1893-1967, Constant Reader, 1970
…Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The manwho thinks he knows something does not yet know
as he ought to know.
— 1 Corinthians 8:1-2, Unknown , Unknown
‘Tis education forms the common mind; Just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.