Intelligence quotes
320 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside intelligence — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"In short, intelligence, considered in what seems to be its original feature, is the faculty of manufacturing artificial objects, especially tools to make tools, and of indefinitely urging the manufacture."
"It is impossible to underrate human intelligence - beginning with one's own."
"One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence."
"Almost all rich veins of original and striking speculation have been opened by systematic half-thinkers."
"The temptation shared by all forms of intelligence: cynicism."
"The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence."
"We want no dictatorship of physicists, as physicists. If our democracy is to realize its full promise, we want no dictatorship at all - of any species. What we want and need is the enlightened and active interest of all men of intelligence and goodwill in their government, and their participation in its functions."
"Who are a little wise the best fools be."
"Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every piece keeps its place and bears its mark."
"The sage has one advantage: he is immortal. If this is not his century, many others will be."
"Even babies like to grab for things just beyond their reach."
"The poem must resist the intelligence almost successfully."
"It would be a great reform in politics if perception could be made to spread as easily and as rapidly as foolishness."
"It takes a genius to whine appealingly."
"In order to acquire intellect one must need it. One loses it when it is no longer necessary."
"they believe in Christ and Longfellow, both dead"
"I like the cover," he said. "Don't Panic. It's the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody's said to me all day."
"Apparently, an undocumented side effect of dope is a gross overestimation of one's own intelligence. Dopers become convinced they've hidden their stash so well a cop won't find it. They're always wrong."
"Of course not. After all, I may be wrong."
"Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as much as possible of its environment into itself . . . When we compare the (present) human population of the globe with . . . that of former times, we see that "chemical imperialism" has been . . . the main end to which human intelligence has been devoted."
