Intelligence quotes

Common sense is not so common.
Voltaire

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.
Thomas Edison

Beauty is a gift, just like good health or intelligence. The only thing is not to be proud of being beautiful. Because you didn’t do anything – it was given to you.
– Monica Bellucci

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.
– Carl von Clausewitz

I don’t think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.
John F. Kennedy

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
– Jonathan Swift

For the execution of the voyage to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps.
Christopher Columbus

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.
– Georg C. Lichtenberg

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Henry Ford

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.
Alan Alda

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
Carl Sagan

Leveraging community intelligence and making connections is a key component to being a growth hacker.
– Ryan Holiday

Just as you should never confuse the law with common justice, intelligence should not be confused with common sense. Some of the brightest people in the world have no idea how to cross the road.
– Terry Wogan

I don’t think there’s anything unique about human intelligence.
Bill Gates

If you have the guts to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum.
– Holly Near

My dad used to say, ‘Just because you dress up in a coat and tie, it doesn’t influence your intelligence.’
Tiger Woods

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.
George Orwell

Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.
– Liane Cordes

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
Stephen Hawking

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
– Saul Bellow

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
Aristotle

The media has zero integrity, zero intelligence, and no hard work. You’re the opposition party. Not the Democratic Party. You’re the opposition party. The media’s the opposition party.
– Stephen Bannon

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
Socrates

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
Salvador Dali

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein

A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.
– Roy H. Williams

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
– Plutarch

Evil is a source of moral intelligence in the sense that we need to learn from our shadow, from our dark side, in order to be good.
– John Bradshaw

Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.
Carl Jung

Stupidity is infinitely more fascinating that intelligence. Intelligence has its limits while stupidity has none.
– Claude Chabrol

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
Michael Jordan

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.
Ernest Hemingway

Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence.
Edgar Allan Poe

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
Albert Einstein

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.
– Niccolo Machiavelli

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
A. A. Milne

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.
– Bill Watterson

The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.
Sigmund Freud

Genius creates, and taste preserves. Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly.
Alexander Pope

I’ve learned that intelligence alone doesn’t mean a damn thing. It only leads to violence and pain.
– Daniel Keyes

Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation.
– James Allen

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
James Madison

One thought fills immensity.
William Blake

In the long term, artificial intelligence and automation are going to be taking over so much of what gives humans a feeling of purpose.
– Matt Bellamy

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
– Arthur Schopenhauer

Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.
– Roger Ebert

We should all feel confident in our intelligence. By the way, intelligence to me isn’t just being book-smart or having a college degree; it’s trusting your gut instincts, being intuitive, thinking outside the box, and sometimes just realizing that things need to change and being smart enough to change it.
– Tabatha Coffey

I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would be an affront to your intelligence.
George Bernard Shaw

Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years.
– Gracie Allen