There is nothing so stupid as the educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
It is, after all, the responsibility of the expert to operate the familiar and that of the leader to transcend it.
—Henry Kissinger (1923–2023) American Diplomat, Academician
Expert: One who limits himself to his chosen mode of ignorance.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Professional men, they have no cares; whatever happens, they get theirs.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
A specialist is a person who fears the other subjects.
—Martin H. Fischer
Experts often possess more data than judgment.
—Colin Powell (1937–2021) American Military Leader
All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
An expert is someone who knows a lot about the past.
—Tom Hopkins (b.1944) American Sales Coach
A specialist is someone who does everything else worse.
—Ruggiero Ricci (1918–2012) American Violinist
A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it.
—Alistair Cooke (1908–2004) British-American Journalist, Broadcaster
Consultants are people who borrow your watch and tell you what time it is, and then walk off with the watch.
—Robert C. Townsend (1920–98) American Businessman
There is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
What is an expert? Someone who is twenty miles from home.
—U.S. Proverb
What a delightful thing is the conversation of specialists! One understands absolutely nothing and it’s charming.
—Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French Painter, Sculptor
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
We do not need to be shoemakers to know if our shoes fit, and just as little have we any need to be professionals to acquire knowledge of matters of universal interest.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German Philosopher
It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no views worth hearing on things in general. The farmer philosophizes in terms of crops, soils, markets, and implements, the mechanic generalizes his experiences of wood and iron, the seaman reaches similar conclusions by his own special road; and if the scholar keeps pace with these it must be by an equally virile productivity.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
This world is run by people who know how to do things. They know how things work. They are equipped. Up there, there’s a layer of people who run everything. But we—we’re just peasants. We don’t understand what’s going on, and we can’t do anything.
—Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British Novelist, Poet
We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.
—Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) British Head of State
An ordinary man away from home giving advice.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Through all the employments of life each neighbor abuses his brother; whore and rogue they call husband and wife: All professions be-rogue one another.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
Good counselors lack no clients.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Only by strict specialization can the scientific worker become fully conscious, for once and perhaps never again in his lifetime, that he has achieved something that will endure. A really definitive and good accomplishment is today always a specialized act.
—Max Weber (1864–1920) German Sociologist
I hold every man a debtor to his profession.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who claims authority as a member of an elite which knows the law in some field or other, is an object of distrust and resentment.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
The more the world is specialized the more it will be run by generalists.
—Marcel Masse (b.1940) Canadian Politician, Bureaucrat
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