90 Quotes About Intellectuals

Americans on the average do not trust intellectuals, but they are cowed by power and stunned by celebrity.

Nhìn một cách nào đó, tri thức và trí thức đích thực ở đâu cũng vậy, - luôn hiện hữu theo mẫu tồn tại của dòng nước. Khi không may mắn được là thác lũ thét gào, thì nó vẫn cứ trôi chảy dẻo dai theo các hình dạng khác nhau băng qua mọi chướng ngại vô minh để đi về phía trước.

The late author Philip K. Dick once said that America isn't intellectual, it's anti-intellectual. Initially, I thought that was a harsh statement. But when you see intelligent people routinely branded 'nerds" and hear about the endless school shootings in the United States, it's hard not to think he had a point.

The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.

El político puede pagarle al intelectual. Pero no puede confiar en él. El intelectual acabará por disentir y para el político esta será siempre una traición. Malicioso o ingenuo, maquiavélico o utópico, el poderoso siempre creerá que tiene la razón y el que se opone a él es un traidor o, por lo menos, alguien dispensable.

The real value of intellectuals is not just the value of their intellect but the impact. The distinctive footprints they are able to leave on minds with their wit whilst they live and how such footprints give latter days minds something to ponder over long after they are gone!

X. and Z., very well educated and of radical views, married. In the evening they talked together pleasantly, then quarreled, then came to blows. In the morning both are ashamed and surprised, they think it must have been the result of some exceptional state of their nerves. Next night again a quarrel and blows. And so every night until at last they realize that they are not at all educated, but savage, just like the majority of people.

The thing intellectuals understand least is themselves.

Intellectuals are rarely successful as leaders. They are so trapped in their ideals that they cannot venture out in the real world to win and lead.