A handful of common sense is worth a bushel of learning.
—Common Proverb
Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done.
—Calvin Ellis Stowe (1802–86) American Biblical Scholar
There is nothing a man of good sense dreads in a wife so much as her having more sense than himself.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
Common sense always speaks too late. Common sense is the guy who tells you ought to have had your brakes relined last week before you smashed a front end this week. Common sense is the Monday morning quarterback who could have won the ball game if he had been on the team. But he never is. He’s high up in the stands with a flask on his hip. Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake in addition. But it’s always somebody else’s money he’s adding up.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
In the war for individual rights, common sense becomes the first and major casualty.
—Unknown
Knowledge, without common sense, says Lee, is “folly; without method, it is waste; without kindness, it is fanaticism; without religion, it is death.” But with common sense, it is wisdom; with method, it is power; with charity, it is beneficence; with religion, it is virtue, and life, and peace.
—Frederic William Farrar (1831–1903) English Clergyman, Writer
Common sense is the genius of humanity.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
We all have a little weakness, which is very natural but rather misleading, for supposing that this epoch must be the end of the world because it will be the end of us. How future generations will get on without us is indeed, when we come to think of it, quite a puzzle. But I suppose they will get on somehow, and may possibly venture to revise our judgments as we have revised earlier judgments
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
That rarest gift to Beauty, Common Sense!
—George Meredith (1828–1909) British Novelist, Poet, Critic
Common sense is only a modification of talent. Genius is an exaltation of it. The difference is, therefore, in degree, not nature.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The two World Wars came in part, like much modern literature and art, because men, whose nature is to tire of everything in turn, tired of common sense and civilization.
—F. L. Lucas (1894–1967) English Literary Critic, Poet, Novelist, Playwright
Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.
—An Wang (1920–90) Chinese-American Engineer, Inventor, Entrepreneur
Science is nothing but trained and organized common sense, differing from the latter only as a veteran may from a raw recruit, and its methods differ from those of common sense, only as the guardsman’s cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields his club.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
The biggest shortage of all is the shortage of common sense.
—Unknown
Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race.
—Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) Italian Philosopher, Rhetorician, Jurist
He was one of those men who possess almost every gift, except the gift of the power to use them.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
The common people of America display a quality of good common sense which is heartening to anyone who believes in the democratic process.
—George Gallup (1901–84) American Public-Opinion Pollster
What a grand thing it is to be clever and have common sense.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
My greatest strength is… common sense. I’m really a standard brand—like Campbell’s tomato soup or Baker’s chocolate.
—Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) American Actor, TV Personality
To act with common sense according to the moment, is the best wisdom I know; and the best philosophy is to do one’s duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one’s lot; bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it, whatever it is; and despise affectation.
—Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717–97) English Art Historian, Man of Letters, Politician
Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Common sense is in spite of, not as the result of education.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Common Sense is very uncommon.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Journalist, Author
Common sense and good nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
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