quotations about intelligence
Crazy people are considered mad by the rest of the society only because their intelligence isn't understood.
WEIHUI ZHOU
attributed, Living in the Shadows
Belief is the death of intelligence.
ROBERT ANTON WILSON
Cosmic Trigger
Being smart is halfway to success. When I am smart plus well behaved plus self-controlled plus honest plus hardworking plus responsible, wow, there are no limits on who I can be and on what I can become.
KEEN J. BABBAGE
Extreme Learning
Intelligence is the art of good guesswork.
H.B. BARLOW
The Oxford Companion to the Mind
Keen intelligence is two-edged, It may be used constructively or destructively like a knife, either to cut the boil of ignorance, or to decapitate one's self.
YUKTESWAR GIRI
Autobiography of a Yogi
Nothing whets the intelligence more than a passionate suspicion, nothing develops all the faculties of an immature mind more than a trail running away into the dark.
STEFAN ZWEIG
The Burning Secret and Other Stories
God multiplies intelligence, which communicates itself, like fire, ad infinitum; light a thousand torches at one touch, the flame remains always the same.
JOUBERT
attributed, Day's Collacon
Because smart is about taking what you know and applying it to the world. And anyone is capable of doing that.
ISA GARCIA
Found: Letters on Life, Love, and God
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
KURT VONNEGUT
Harrison Bergeron
It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
Crime and Punishment
You don't realize that you're intelligent until it gets you into trouble.
JAMES BALDWIN
interview with Julius Lester, New York Times, May 27, 1984
The young man whose stock of knowledge is small, by talking when he should listen may miss of that intelligence which might be of great use to him.
L. C. JUDSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it.
TERRY PRATCHETT
Jingo
The more stupid one is, the closer one is to reality. The more stupid one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is brief and artless, while intelligence squirms and hides itself. Intelligence is unprincipled, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
The Brothers Karamazov
The burden of intelligence: you can always imagine all those wonderful places where you can never belong.
ROBERT REED
Marrow
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
Ultimately, it would certainly be desirable to have an algorithm for the selection of an intelligence, such that any trained researcher could determine whether a candidate's intelligence met the appropriate criteria. At present, however, it must be admitted that the selection (or rejection) of a candidate's intelligence is reminiscent more of an artistic judgment than of a scientific assessment.
HOWARD GARDENER
Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
There are maybe two or three thousand people in the world as smart as us, little sister. Most of them are making a living somewhere. Teaching, the poor bastards, or doing research. Precious few of them are actually in positions of power.
ORSON SCOTT CARD
Ender's Game
To create that development of the general mind which constitutes intelligence, we must teach men, not merely the thoughts of others, but how to think themselves, and by what means thinking shall be taught.
E. D. MANSFIELD
attributed, Day's Collacon
Stupid was a prison they never let you out of, no time off for good behavior, you were in for life.
STEPHEN KING (as Richard Bachman)
Blaze