3,849 Quotes About Intelligence

I was too smart and that made people uncomfortable--most folks where we've lived our whole lives don't trust too much intelligence in a woman. There is also the problem of my eyes--they don't hide anything. If I don't care for a person, my eyes make it plain. I don't care for most. Folks are generally comfortable with the small lies they tell each other. They don't know what to do with someone like me, who mostly doesn't bother with small lies.

the future belongs to those societies that treat new ideas as delicate, fragile and immensely valuable pathways to the future.

Significant change might require those who are now high in the hierarchy to move downward many steps. This seems to them undesirable and is resisted.

Rationality attracts conscientious humans, whereas mysticism attracts fools.

In the intelligence community, a rumor was almost as good as a confirmation.

Intelligence without wisdom is nothing more than stupidity that looks smart.

If only stupid people could have the mere intelligence to shut up while discussing serious matter, the world would go along so much better !

When all is said and done, the invention of writing must be reckoned not only as a brilliant innovation but as a surpassing good for humanity. And assuming that we survive long enough to use their inventions wisely, I believe the same will be said of the modern Thoths and Prometheuses who are today devisingcomputers and programs at the edge of machine intelligence.

Natural selection has served as a kind of intellectual sieve, producing brains and intelligences increasingly competent to deal with the laws of nature.