Intelligent Quotes - Page 8

• Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs.

  John Stuart Mill

  Selfish, Animal, Feelings

  John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.101, Hackett Publishing

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• An intelligent man said that the world felt Napoleon as a weight, and that when he died it would give a great oof of relief. This is just as true of Byron, or of such Byrons of their days as Kipling and Hemingway: after a generation or two the world is tired of being their pedestal, shakes them of with an oof, and then - hoisting onto its back a new world-figure - feels the penetrating satisfaction of having made a mistake all its own.

  Randall Jarrell

  Mistake, Tired, Men

  "A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables" by Randall Jarrell, (pp. 116-117), 1962.

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• Absolutists frighten me. During all the endless discussions on my blog about evolution, intelligent design, God, and the afterworld, numbering altogether thousands of comments, I have never named my beliefs, although readers have freely informed me that I am an atheist, and agnostic, or at the very least a secular humanist - which I am.

  Roger Ebert

  Atheist, Design, Belief

  "Life Itself : A Memoir". Book by Roger Ebert, 2011.

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• The wisest among us is very lucky never to have met the woman, be she beautiful or ugly, intelligent or stupid, who could drive him crazy enough to be fit to be put into an asylum.

  Denis Diderot

  Beautiful, Crazy, Stupid

  "'Ceci n'est pas un conte' ('This Is No Tale')". Book by Denis Diderot, 1796.

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• I have seen mad people, and I have known some who were quite intelligent, lucid, even clear-sighted in every concern of life, except on one point. They could speak clearly, readily, profoundly on everything; till their thoughts were caught in the breakers of their delusions and went to pieces there, were dispersed and swamped in that furious and terrible sea of fogs and squalls which is called MADNESS.

  Guy de Maupassant

  Fog, Sea, People

  Guy de Maupassant (2015). “The Horla (Horror Classic): From one of the greatest French writers, widely regarded as the ‘Father of Modern Short Story’ writing, known for The Necklace, Boule de Suif, Mademoiselle Fifi, Bel-Ami, The Piece of String, A Life…”, p.13, e-artnow

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• To any intelligent being, there is no emotion more important than hope. Individually or collectively, we must hope that the future will be better than the past, that our offspring, and theirs after them, will be a bit closer to an ideal society, whatever our perception of that might be... It is at those times when we feel we are contributing to that ultimate end... we feel true elation.

  R. A. Salvatore

  Past, Perception, Important

  R.A. Salvatore (2009). “Siege of Darkness: The Legend of Drizzt”, p.15, Wizards of the Coast

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• The brave man is intelligent; he faces danger because he understands it and is prepared to meet it. The drunkard who runs, in the delirium of intoxication, into a burning house is not brave; he is only stupid. But the clear-eyed hero who makes his way, with every sense alert and every nerve strung, into the hell of flames to rescue some little child, proves his courage.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Running, Courage, Children

  Henry Van Dyke (2007). “Counsels by the Way”, p.89, Wildside Press LLC

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• Others, one suspects, are afraid that the crossing of space , and above all contact with intelligent but nonhuman races, may destroy the foundations of their religious faith . They may be right, but in any event their attitude is one which does not bear logical examination for a faith which cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Religious, Attitude, Regret

  Arthur C. Clarke (2011). “By Space Possessed”, p.13, Hachette UK

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• Tsars and slaves, the intelligent and the obtuse, publicans and pharisees all have an identical legal and moral right to honor the memory of the deceased as they see fit, without regard for anyone else's opinion and without the fear of hindering one another.

  Anton Chekhov

  Memories, Honor, Pharisees

  Anton Chekhov's letter to K.S. Barantsevich, March 30, 1888.

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• Stewart Davenport conscientiously and insightfully re-creates the world of the nineteenth-century political economists, who taught that the principles of international trade manifested, like the laws of biology and physics, the intelligent design of a Divine Creator.

  Daniel Walker Howe

  Law, Design, Political

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• The best calculation is the absence of calculation. Once you have attained a certain level of recognition, others generally figure that when you do something, it's for an intelligent reason. So it's really foolish to plot out your movements too carefully in advance. You're better off acting capriciously.

  Pablo Picasso

  Acting, Plot, Movement

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• Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: 'I'm saving food!' Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: 'I'm saving my life!'

  George Carlin

  Hair, Blue, Feel Good

  George Carlin (2015). “3 x Carlin: An Orgy of George including Brain Droppings, Napalm and Silly Putty, and When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?”, p.393, Hachette UK

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• Greg Maddux is probably the best pitcher in all of baseball along with Roger Clemens. He's much more intelligent than I am because he doesn't have a 95 or 98 mph fastball. I would tell any pitcher who wants to be successful to watch him, because he's the true definition of a pitcher.

  Randy Johnson

  Baseball, Successful, Mph

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• We have observed for thirty centuries that a large nose is a sign on the door of our face that says 'Herein dwells a man who is intelligent, prudent, courteous, affable, noble-minded and generous'. A small nose is a cork on the bottle of the opposite vices.

  Cyrano de Bergerac

  Men, Doors, Opposites

  "The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon". Book by Cyrano de Bergerac, 1657.

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• The group of stupid people collectively treats or makes an intelligent amongst them look like duffer and a fool living in a big network of enlightened minds even starts behaving sensibly in life.

  Anuj

  Stupid, People, Mind

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• A cheerful intelligent face is the end of culture, and success enough. For it indicates the purpose of Nature and wisdom attained.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Happiness, Success, Wisdom

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.656, Modern Library

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• It is a sign of our times, conspicuous to the coarsest observer, that many intelligent and religious persons withdraw themselves from the common labors and competitions of the market and the caucus, and betake themselves to a certain solitary and critical way of living, from which no solid fruit has yet appeared to justify their separation.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Religious, Competition, Solitude

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1209, Delphi Classics

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• The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative professions and practices of man. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance, an acceptance of customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Integrity, Work, Eye

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.238

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• Shakespeare carries us to such a lofty strain of intelligent activity, as to suggest a wealth which beggars his own; and we then feel that the splendid works which he has created, and which in other hours we extol as a sort of self-existent poetry, take no stronger hold of real nature than the shadow of a passing traveller on the rock. The inspiration which uttered itself in Hamlet and Lear could utter things as good from day to day, for ever.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Real, Inspiration, Rocks

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.90, Graphic Arts Books

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• ... in a capitalist society a man is expected to be an aggressive, uncompromising, factual, lusty, intelligent provider of goods,and the woman, a retiring, gracious, emotional, intuitive, attractive consumer of goods.

  Toni Cade Bambara

  Men, Emotional, Attractive

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• It is the simple truth that man does differ from the brutes in kind and not in degree; and the proof of it is here; that it sounds like a truism to say that the most primitive man drew a picture of a monkey and that it sounds like a joke to say that the most intelligent monkey drew a picture of a man. Something of division and disproportion has appeared; and it is unique. Art is the signature of man.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Art, Unique, Simple

  "The Everlasting Man". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, Part I: On the Creature Called Man, 1925.

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• Censorship is not an occupation that attracts intelligent, subtle minds. Censors can and often have been outwitted. But the game of slipping Aesopian messages past the censor is ultimately a sterile one, diverting writers from their proper task.

  J. M. Coetzee

  Past, Games, Mind

  J. M. Coetzee (1997). “Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship”, p.8, University of Chicago Press

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• I hesitate to say what the functions of the modern journalist may be, but I imagine that they do not exclude the intelligent anticipation of the facts even before they occur.

  George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston

  May, Facts, Anticipation

  1898 House of Commons, 29 Mar.

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• The difference between "machines" and "engines" is obviously this, that machines need more workmen and greater power to make them take effect, as for instance ballistae and the beams of presses. Engines, on the other hand, accomplish their purpose at the intelligent touch of a single workman...

  Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

  Hands, Differences, Needs

  "De architectura (Ten Books on Architecture)". Book by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (Book X, Chapter I, Section 3), circa 15 BC.

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• The ways of living have been rendered vastly easier by a multitude of inventions, by the increasing wealth of the country, by better and more intelligent service; and yet life is by no means easier, but indeed hard. The demands on time, whether real or imagined, have increased in a greater ratio than the supply of facilities for answering them, and as the earth provokingly continues to revolve on its axis just as rapidly as of old, the days are never long enough for all the duties which they bring.

  Anna Brackett

  Country, Real, Mean

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