118 Intelligence Quotes

In a world that constantly demands intellect and wisdom, few things are as enriching as the distilled insights of great minds. Whether you're seeking motivation to boost your cognitive prowess, inspiration for personal growth, or simply some thought-provoking perspectives, quotes on intelligence can serve as powerful catalysts. Here, we present a carefully curated collection of the top 118 intelligence quotes that encompass the essence of intellectual brilliance, creativity, and the ceaseless pursuit of knowledge. Prepare to be enlightened and inspired as you delve into the musings of philosophers, scientists, authors, and other luminaries who have shaped the way we understand intelligence.

1. “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” - Søren Kierkegaard

2. “Beauty fades, dumb is forever.” - Judge Judy Sheindlin

3. “Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.” - Bertrand Russell

4. “These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.” - Abigail Adams

5. “The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.” - Carl Gustav Jung

6. “Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art. ” - Susan Sontag

7. “Ms. Wormwood: Calvin, can you tell us what Lewis and Clark did? Calvin: No, but I can recite the secret superhero origin of each member of Captain Napalm's Thermonuclear League of Liberty. Ms. Wormwood: See me after class, Calvin. Calvin: [retrospectively] I'm not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.” - Bill Watterson

8. “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. “Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.” - Susan Sontag

10. “What should I do—how should I act now, this very day . . . What she would resolve to do that day did not yet seem quite clear, but something that she could achieve stirred her as with an approaching murmur which would soon gather distinctness.” - George Eliot (Middlemarch)

11. “Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.” - Martin Luther

12. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

13. “The habits of a vigorous mind are born in contending with difficulties.” - Abigail Adams

14. “Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.” - H.G. Wells

15. “A woman may possess the wisdom and chastity of Minerva, and we give no heed to her, if she has a plain face. What folly will not a pair of bright eyes make pardonable? What dullness may not red lips are sweet accents render pleasant? And so, with their usual sense of justice, ladies argue that because a woman is handsome, therefore she is a fool. O ladies, ladies! there are some of you who are neither handsome nor wise. ” - William Makepeace Thackeray

16. “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

17. “Nell," the Constable continued, indicating through his tone of voice that the lesson was concluding, "the difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people—and this is true whether or not they are well-educated—is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations—in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward.” - Neal Stephenson

18. “A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool.” - Molière

19. “Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” - H.L. Mencken

20. “Always be smarter than the people who hire you.” - Lena Horne

21. “...intelligence nowadays is all about application: it is the ability 'to take in a complex system and learn its rules on the fly'. For young people, this ability is second nature. Any fool knows that, if you need a new and unfamiliar VCR programmed in a hurry, you commandeer any small passing child to do it.” - Lynne Truss

22. “Intelligence minus purpose equals stupidity.” - Toba Beta

23. “An intelligent person, looking out of his eyes and hearkening in his ears, with a smile on his face all the time, will get more true education than many another in a life of heroic vigils".” - Robert Louis Stevenson

24. “He's one fry short of a Happy Meal.” - Rush Limbaugh

25. “Why are you not smarter? It's only the rich who can't afford to be smart. They're compromised. They got locked years ago into privilege. They have to protect their belongings. No one is meaner than the rich. Trust me. But they have to follow the rules of their shitty civilised world. They declare war, they have honour, and they can't leave. But you two. We three. We're free.” - Michael Ondaatje

26. “A dozen more questions occurred to me. Not to mention twenty-two possible solutions to each one, sixteen resulting hypotheses and counter-theorems, eight abstract speculations, a quadrilateral equation, two axioms, and a limerick. That's raw intelligence for you.” - Jonathan Stroud

27. “I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am.” - Cormac McCarthy

28. “Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.” - John Kenneth Galbraith

29. “She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance - a misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well−informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.” - Jane Austen

30. “It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have a huge variety of needs and dangers.” - H.G. Wells

31. “The great proliferation of museums in the nineteenth century was a product of the marriage of the exhibition as a way of awakening intelligent interest in the visitor with the growth of collections that was associated with empire and middle-class affluence. Attendance at museums was as much associated with moral improvement as with explanation of the human or natural world.” - Richard Fortey

32. “I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.” - Douglas Adams

33. “Beauty is a sign of intelligence.” - Andy Warhol

34. “This mindless tolerance, which places observable scientific facts, subject to proof, on the same level as unprovable supernatural fantasy, has played a major role in the resurgence of both anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism.” - Susan Jacoby

35. “Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any goal. I'm so smart I can negate any dream.” - Chuck Palahniuk

36. “I don't think science is hard to teach because humans aren't ready for it, or because it arose only through a fluke, or because, by and large, we don't have the brainpower to grapple with it. Instead, the enormous zest for science that I see in first-graders and the lesson from the remnant hunter-gatherers both speak eloquently: A proclivity for science is embedded deeply within us, in all times, places, and cultures. It has been the means for our survival. It is our birthright. When, through indifference, inattention, incompetence, or fear of skepticism, we discourage children from science, we are disenfranchising them, taking from them the tools needed to manage their future.” - Carl Sagan

37. “I don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy.” - J.D. Salinger

38. “In pursuit of happiness, smart people often end up dumbing down themselves.” - Erol Ozan

39. “It is impossible to imagine existence void of any intelligence.” - Kedar Joshi

40. “Intelligence is power; it is the flame behind the spark of intrigue” - Tobsha Learner

41. “We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and as the cause of the state that is to follow. An intelligence knowing all the forces acting in nature at a given instant, as well as the momentary positions of all things in the universe, would be able to comprehend in one single formula the motions of the largest bodies as well as the lightest atoms in the world, provided that its intellect were sufficiently powerful to subject all data to analysis; to it nothing would be uncertain, the future as well as the past would be present to its eyes. The perfection that the human mind has been able to give to astronomy affords but a feeble outline of such an intelligence.” - Pierre Simon de Laplace

42. “Deep” to me connotes intellectual rigor, not fashionable obscurity or the unnecessarily academic.” - Alex Payne

43. “A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.” - Bertrand Russell

44. “What'll Geoffrey do when you pull off your First, my child?" demanded Miss Haydock."Well, Eve -- it will be awkward if I do that. Poor lamb! I shall have to make him believe I only did it by looking fragile and pathetic at the viva.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

45. “Education is no substitute for intelligence.” - Frank Herbert

46. “Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph. In other words it is necessary that he should have the mentality appropriate to a state of war. It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist.” - George Orwell

47. “Kindness is strength. Good-nature is often mistaken for virtue, and good health sometimes passes for genius. Anger blows out the lamp of the mind. In the examination of a great and important question, every one should be serene, slow-pulsed, and calm. Intelligence is not the foundation of arrogance. Insolence is not logic. Epithets are the arguments of malice.” - Robert Green Ingersoll

48. “If we look straight and deep into a chimpanzee's eyes, an intelligent self-assured personality looks back at us. If they are animals, what must we be?” - Frans de Waal

49. “The aspirations of democracy are based on the notion of an informed citizenry, capable of making wise decisions. The choices we are asked to make become increasingly complex. They require the longer-term thinking and greater tolerance for ambiguity that science fosters. The new economy is predicated on a continuous pipeline of scientific and technological innovation. It can not exist without workers and consumers who are mathematically and scientifically literate. ” - Ann Druyan

50. “Pedir perdón es humillante y no arregla nada. La solución no es pedir perdón, sino evitar los estallidos que hacen obligatorias las excusas” - Mario Benedetti

51. “I think a man's "wordplay" can be so fucking sexy!!! I love a good mind fuck!!” - Junnita Jackson

52. “Ser optimista o pesimista es cuestion de temperamento, no de razones.” - Bertrand Russell

53. “Theology, philosophy, metaphysics, and quantum physics are merely ways for God to have his smart people believe in him” - Jeremy Aldana

54. “Great minds with great ideas usually share in the midst of their persecution” - Jeremy Aldana

55. “I am successful because of my brains and my guts, put together, and I don't need some fancy-ass degree from a bunch of sweater-vest-wearing pricks who haven't gotten laid since Bush Senior was president... Do you know who studies sociology? People who would rather observe life than live it.” - Erin McCarthy

56. “Everybody who flashed the signs of loyalty he took to be loyal. Everybody who flashed the signs of intelligence he took to be intelligent. And so he had failed to see into his daughter, failed to see into his wife, failed to see into his one and only mistress—probably had never even begun to see into himself” - Philip Roth

57. “He turned to Miss Minerva. "I'm relying on you, at any rate. You've got a good mind. Anybody can see that.""Thank you," she said."As good as a man's," he added."Oh, now you've spoiled it!” - Earl Derr Biggers

58. “Tα κομπιούτερ περιέχουν τόσο νοημοσύνη, όσο τα στερεοφωνικά συγκροτήματα περιέχουν μουσικά όργανα.” - Penzias arno

59. “An intelligent man is one who acknowledges his intelligence as that of those who surround him.” - Ilyas Kassam

60. “I think that at that time none of us quite believed in the Time Machine. The fact is, the Time Traveler was one of those men who are too clever to be believed: you never felt that you saw all round him; you always suspected some subtle reserve, some ingenuity in ambush, behind his lucid frankness. Had Filby shown the model and explained the matter in the Time Traveller's words, we should have shown him far less skepticism. For we should have perceived his motives; a pork butcher could understand Filby.” - H.G. Wells

61. “It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.” - George R.R. Martin

62. “Wisdom is nothing more than the marriage of intelligence and compassion.And, as with all good unions, it takes much experience and time to reach its widest potential.Have you introduced your intellect to your compassion yet? Be careful; lately, intellect has taken to eating in front of the TV and compassion has taken in too many cats.” - Vera Nazarian

63. “Watson represents merely a step in the development of smart machines. Its answering prowess, so formidable on a winter afternoon in 2011, will no doubt seem quaint in a surprisingly short time.” - Stephen Baker

64. “I like solitude. It is when you truly hear and speak your natural, unadulterated mind, and out comes your most stupid self as well as your most intelligent self. It is when you realize who you are and the extents of the good and the evils which you are capable of.” - Criss Jami

65. “Truth, says instrumentalism, is what works out, that which does what you expect it to do. The judgment is true when you can "bank" on it and not be disappointed. If, when you predict, or when you follow the lead of your idea or plan, it brings you to the ends sought for in the beginning, your judgment is true. It does not consist in agreement of ideas, or the agreement of ideas with an outside reality; neither is it an eternal something which always is, but it is a name given to ways of thinking which get the thinker where he started. As a railroad ticket is a "true" one when it lands the passenger at the station he sought, so is an idea "true," not when it agrees with something outside, but when it gets the thinker successfully to the end of his intellectual journey. Truth, reality, ideas and judgments are not things that stand out eternally "there," whether in the skies above or in the earth beneath; but they are names used to characterize certain vital stages in a process which is ever going on, the process of creation, of evolution. In that process we may speak of reality, this being valuable for our purposes; again, we may speak of truth; later, of ideas; and still again, of judgments; but because we talk about them we should not delude ourselves into thinking we can handle them as something eternally existing as we handle a specimen under the glass. Such a conception of truth and reality, the instrumentalist believes, is in harmony with the general nature of progress. He fails to see how progress, genuine creation, can occur on any other theory on theories of finality, fixity, and authority; but he believes that the idea of creation which we have sketched here gives man a vote in the affairs of the universe, renders him a citizen of the world to aid in the creation of valuable objects in the nature of institutions and principles, encourages him to attempt things "unattempted yet in prose or rhyme," inspires him to the creation of "more stately mansions," and to the forsaking of his "low vaulted past." He believes that the days of authority are over, whether in religion, in rulership, in science, or in philosophy; and he offers this dynamic universe as a challenge to the volition and intelligence of man, a universe to be won or lost at man’s option, a universe not to fall down before and worship as the slave before his master, the subject before his king, the scientist before his principle, the philosopher before his system, but a universe to be controlled, directed, and recreated by man’s intelligence.” - Holly Estil Cunningham

66. “[P]eople need to use their intelligence to evaluate what they find to be true and untrue in the Bible. This is how we need to live life generally. Everything we hear and see we need to evaluate—whether the inspiring writings of the Bible or the inspiring writings of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, or George Eliot, of Ghandi, Desmond Tutu, or the Dalai Lama.” - Bart D. Ehrman

67. “A person that has more intelligence than education always makes his own grade!” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

68. “Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.” - Samuel Johnson

69. “The purpose of having the orphans study all these diverse fields was not for them to just become geniuses, but to become polymaths – meaning they would be geniuses in a wide variety of fields.” - James Morcan, Lance Morcan

70. “In the conditions of modern life the rule is absolute, the race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed.” - Alfred North Whitehead

71. “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.” - Johannes Kepler

72. “There is a time for faith, Bishop, and a time for action. It would be a foolish man who stood on a battlefield and faced an army with a Bible in his hands. We are here to do the bidding of our Lord Almighty, but it is through deeds, as well as piety, that we serve Him.” - Robyn Young

73. “Passion often makes a madman of the cleverest man, and renders the greatest fools clever.” - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

74. “Why, that dog is practically a Phi Beta Kappa. She can sit up and beg, and she can give her paw -- I don't say she will but she can.” - Dorothy Parker

75. “Show Holmes a drop of water and he would deduce the existence of the Atlantic. Show it to me and I would look for a tap. That was the difference between us.” - Anthony Horowitz

76. “Enough about my beauty," Buttercup said. "Everybody always talks about how beautiful I am. I've got a mind, Westley. Talk about that.” - William Goldman

77. “I will use my mind, not just my regular brain lobes.” - Peter Bognanni

78. “Muscle is good, but craft is better” - Wace

79. “Technically, you don't pay me.And technically, most of what I do is "think."I...rrr. ummm.And when you get right down to it, I'm better at it than you are.-Ennesby & Captain Tagon” - Howard Tayler

80. “Let no one misunderstand our idea; we do not confound what are called 'political opinions' with that grand aspiration after progress with that sublime patriotic, democratic, and human faith, which, in our days, should be the very foundation of all generous intelligence.” - Victor Hugo

81. “He had been educated in no habits of application and concentration. The system which had addressed him in exactly the same manner as it had addressed hundreds of other boys, all varying in character and capacity, had enabled him to dash through his tasks, always with fair credit and often with distinction, but in a fitful, dazzling way that had confirmed his reliance on those very qualities in himself which it had been most desirable to direct and train. They were good qualities, without which no high place can be meritoriously won, but like fire and water, though excellent servants, they were very bad masters. If they had been under Richard’s direction, they would have been his friends; but Richard being under their direction, they became his enemies.” - Charles Dickens

82. “It is a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a brain must have something in it.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

83. “He wastes his time over his writing, trying to accomplish what geniuses and rare men with college educations sometimes accomplish.” - Jack London

84. “A ști anumite lucruri pe de rost îți conferă capacitatea unei înțelegeri superioare.” - Jean-Claude Carrière

85. “The intelligent desire self-control; children want candy.” - Rumi

86. “No matter how smart you might appear to be later with your set of diplomas on their fine white parchment, the mistakes you made before the real lessons sunk in never fade. No matter how high you hang those official documents with their official seals and signatures, how shinning and polished the frame, your reflection in the glass will never let you forget how stupid you felt when you didn't know any better.” - Tupelo Hassman

87. “All my instincts are one way, and all the facts are the other, and I much fear that British juries have not yet attained that pitch of intelligence when they will give the preference to my theories over Lestrade's facts.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

88. “Before we work on artificial intelligence, why don't we do something about natural stupidity?” - Steve Polyak

89. “My mind is like a Zoo with no cages... Watch where you step” - Stanley Victor Paskavich

90. “Intelligence is naked without wisdom. Wisdom dresses interestingly with intelligence.” - Santosh Kalwar

91. “I will not dumb myself down to make someone else more comfortable with their ignorance.” - Kelli Jae Baeli

92. “Intelligence alone is not nearly enough when it comes to acting wisely.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

93. “Not stupid. Overly trusting, maybe, but that reflects on his lack of trustworthiness, not on your intelligence.” - Tammara Webber

94. “But I've learned that intelligence alone doesn't mean a damned thing. Here in your university, intelligence, education, knowledge, have all become great idols. But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligent and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn...Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love...Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis.” - Daniel Keyes

95. “In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.” - Robert G. Ingersoll

96. “One of the eternal verities of human life is that if you make the same choices as other people, they will think you are intelligent.” - George Hammond

97. “If a person is intelligent, then of course he is either an agnostic or an atheist. Just as he is a physical coward. They are automatic definitions of high intelligence.” - John Fowles

98. “People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.” - Helen Keller

99. “Some were made with skill and intelligenceSome with passion and charmBut they, they were raw, and strived to remain so…” - Pearl Pandya

100. “Pride is yet again in the way of our mind’s ability to accept that we may not be the most intelligent and advanced people in the universe or on Earth since it was formed along with the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.” - Mario Stinger

101. “I think it is the duty of all human beings, as intelligent and communicative beings, to learn all the ideas thought up before ours and use them as a means to think up new ones.” - Jonathan Culver

102. “For God to prove himself on demand, physically, would be a grave disappointment, and the strongest Christians should be considerably grateful that he chooses not to do so. The skeptic endlessly demands proof, yet God refuses to insult the true intelligence of man, the '6th sense', the chief quality, the acumen which distinguishes man from the rest of creation, faith.” - Criss Jami

103. “You had hoped that smarter creatures would be wiser ones.” - Peter Watts

104. “I am Emma Woodhouse. I feel for her, of her and in her. I have a different sort of snobbism, but I understand her snobbism. Her priggishness. I admire it. I know she does wrong things, she tries to organize other people's lives, she can't see Mr Knightley is a man in a million. She's temporarily silly, yet all the time one knows she's basically intelligent. Creative, determined to set the highest standards. A real human being.” - John Fowles

105. “Intelligent life on other planets? I'm not even sure there is on earth!” - Albert Einstein

106. “Imagination is but another name for super intelligence.” - Edgar Rice Burroughs

107. “Intelligence and common sense, what makes a person a real genius.” - Wazim Shaw

108. “Respect for the dignity of others includes treating them as rational creatures capable of being persuadad by rational argument, even in the face of frequent evidence to the contrary.” - Richard John Neuhaus

109. “[T]he more clamour we make about 'the women's point of view', the more we rub it into people that the women's point of view is different, and frankly I do not think it is -- at least in my job. The line I always want to take is, that there is the 'point of view' of the reasonably enlightened human brain, and that this is the aspect of the matter which I am best fitted to uphold.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

110. “Progress without the reasoned freedom to think and act is regression to slavery.” - Richard John Neuhaus

111. “Intelligence isn’t just about how many levels of math courses you’ve taken, how fast you can solve an algorithm, or how many vocabulary words you know that are over 6 characters. It’s about being able to approach a new problem, recognize its important components, and solve it—then take that knowledge gained and put it towards solving the next, more complex problem. It’s about innovation and imagination, and about being able to put that to use to make the world a better place. This is the kind of intelligence that is valuable, and this is the type of intelligence we should be striving for and encouraging.” - Andrea Kuszewsk

112. “Hive Queen: They never know anything. They don't have enough years in their little lives to come to an understanding of anything at all. And yet they think they understand. From earliest childhood, they delude themselves into thinking they comprehend the world, while all that's really going on is that they've got some primitive assumptions and prejudices. As they get older they learn a more elevated vocabulary in which to express their mindless pseudo- knowledge and bully other people into accepting their prejudices as if they were truth, but it all amounts to the same thing. Individually, human beings are all dolts.Pequenino: While collectively...Hive Queen: Collectively, they're a collection of dolts. But in all their scurrying around and pretending to be wise, throwing out idiotic half-understood theories about this and that, one or two of them will come up with some idea that is just a little bit closer to the truth than what was already known. And in a sort of fumbling trial and error, about half the time the truth actually rises to the top and becomes accepted by people who still don't understand it, who simply adopt it as a new prejudice to be trusted blindly until the next dolt accidentally comes up with an improvement.>Pequenino: So you're saying that no one is ever individually intelligent, and groups are even stupider than individuals-- and yet by keeping so many fools engaged in pretending to be intelligent, they still come up with some of the same results that an intelligent species would come up with.Hive Queen: Exactly.” - Orson Scott Card

113. “The fool generalizes the particular; the nerd particularizes the general; some do both; and the wise does neither” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

114. “What I learned on my own I still remember” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

115. “She will try to find the nice way to exercise intelligence. But intelligence is not ladylike. Intelligence is full of excesses. Rigorous intelligene abhors sentimentality, and women must be sentimental to value the dreadful silliness of the men around them. Morbid intelligence abhors the cheery sunlight of positive thinking and eternal sweetness; and women must be sunlight and cheery and sweet, or the woman could not bribe her way with smiles through a day. Wild intelligence abhors any narrow world; and the world of women must stay narrow, or the woman is an outlaw. No woman could be Nietzsche or Rimbaud without ending up in a whorehouse or lobotomized. Any vital intelligence has passionate questions, aggressive answers; but women cannot be explorers; there can be no Lewis or Clark of the female mind.” - Andrea Dworkin

116. “An egoist is always intelligent, never wise.” - Raheel Farooq

117. “You can't make the right decision, but you can always make the dicision right.” - Thomas Murdock

118. “and yet a child’s utter innocence is but its blank ignorance, and the innocence more or less wanes as intelligence waxes.” - Herman Melville