Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Intellectuals

It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British Scientist, Science-fiction Writer

Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher

I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it’s a very poor scheme for survival.
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American Novelist, Short Story Writer

Intellectuals can tell themselves anything, sell themselves any bill of goods, which is why they were so often patsies for the ruling classes in nineteenth-century France and England, or twentieth-century Russia and America.
Lillian Hellman (1905–84) American Dramatist, Memoirist

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.
Edward de Bono (1933–2021) Maltese-British Psychologist, Writer

If a man’s eye is on the Eternal, his intellect will grow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher

A large section of the intelligentsia seems wholly devoid of intelligence.
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet

There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.
Don Herold (1889–1966) American Humorist, Writer, Illustrator, Cartoonist

I’ve never been an intellectual but I have this look.
Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director

Clever people are always the best conversations lexicon.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet

We should take care not to make the intellect our God; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist

I hate intellectuals. They are from the top down. I am from the bottom up.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher

Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible.
Anthony Hope (1863–1933) English Novelist, Playwright

Clever people seem not to feel the natural pleasure of bewilderment, and are always answering questions when the chief relish of a life is to go on asking them.
Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925) American Encyclopedia Editor, Essayist

It’s good to be clever, but not to show it.
French Proverb

It is not the insurrections of ignorance that are dangerous, but the revolts of the intelligence.
James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic

Reason is man’s instrument for arriving at the truth, intelligence is man’s instrument for manipulating the world more successfully; the former is essentially human, the latter belongs to the animal part of man.
Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher

A sort of war of revenge on the intellect is what, for some reason, thrives in the contemporary social atmosphere.
Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic

Nothing mattered except states of mind, chiefly our own.
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist

People who are smart get into Mensa. People who are really smart look around and leave.
James Randi (1928–2020) Canadian-American Stage Magician, Scientific Skeptic

There’s always something suspect about an intellectual on the winning side.
Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader

I was street smart, but unfortunately the street was Rodeo Drive.
Carrie Fisher (1956–2016) American Actress, Author

Intelligence, in diapers, is invisible. And when it matures, out the window it flies. We have to pounce on it earlier.
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (1909–1966) Polish Aphorist, Poet

It is little that one gains by cleverness.
Unknown

The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play).
Michel Foucault (1926–84) French Philosopher, Critic, Historian

Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
Robert Wilson (b.1941) American Playwright, Director, Producer

I’ve been called many things, but never an intellectual.
Tallulah Bankhead (1902–68) American Actress

When you don’t have an education, you’ve got to use your brains.
Unknown

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