Cleverness Quotes - Page 5

• An ounce of prudence is worth a pound of cleverness.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Pounds, Wit, Prudence

  "The Art of Worldly Wisdom". Book by Baltasar Gracián, Maxim 92, 1647.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• it must be plain also that we should not anxiously strive for riches and honors by relying on our own diligence or cleverness or by depending on the favor of men or by trusting in the notion of good luck, but that we should always expect the Lord to direct us to the lot he has provided for us.

  John Calvin

  Good Luck, Men, Honor

  John Calvin, Henry Van Andel (2004). “Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life”, p.42, Baker Books

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Fight to escape from your own cleverness. If you do, then you will find salvation and uprightness through Jesus Christ our Lord.

  John Climacus

  Faith, Jesus, Fighting

  26 Copy quote

• So I want to identify, if I can, the most important thing that we discover in life. At least, it is the most important thing that I have discovered. I will share it with you, like a precious jewel, fit for this occasion. I refer to love. Love for one another. Love for our community. Love for others everywhere in the world. Love transcends even scholarship, cleverness and university degrees. It is greater than pride and wealth. It endures when worldly vanities fade.

  Michael Kirby

  Love, Pride, Vanity

  48 Copy quote

• Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

  Charlie Chaplin

  Hate, Men, Greed

  "Fictional character: Hynkel (Dictator of Tomania / A Jewish Barber)". "The Great Dictator", www.imdb.com. October 15, 1940.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• What a curious picture it is to find man, homo sapiens, of divine origin, we are told, seriously considering going underground to escape the consequences of his own folly. With a little wisdom and foresight, surely it is not yet necessary to forsake life in the fresh air and in the warmth of the sunlight. What a paradox if our own cleverness in science should force us to live underground with the moles.

  J. William Fulbright

  Men, Air, Moles

  "Fulbright of Arkansas: The Public Positions of a Private Thinker". Book by J. William Fulbright, 1963.

  66 Copy quote

  Show source

• People never will recollect that mere learning and mere cleverness are of next to no value in life, while energy and intellectual grip, the things that are inborn and cannot be taught, are everything.

  Thomas Huxley

  People, Intellectual, Energy

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Leonard Huxley (1900). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The system itself has the mark of cleverness and ingenuity.... When you manipulate the menu system, you feel as though you are at the helm of the future.... The Xbox probably has the most raw potential for excellent games

  Jerry Holkins

  Xbox, Games, Excellent

  4 Copy quote

• A man who stops at nothing short of the law is very clever indeed!

  Honore de Balzac

  Clever, Men, Law

  4 Copy quote

• It's really easy to play harmonics, anyone can do it. It's another thing to be able to swing, to make to make a band swing, to create a groove. Harmonics ain't everything. Being able to play harmonics certainly does not make you a good bass player. Cleverness is no substitute for true awareness.

  Jaco Pastorius

  Player, Swings, Doe

  49 Copy quote

• It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute's Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn't stand was a smart-ass.

  Douglas Adams

  Smart, Science, Lynching

  Douglas Adams (2009). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”, p.57, Pan Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps. If he says perhaps he means no. And if he says no, he's the hell of a diplomat.

  Agnes Sligh Turnbull

  Mean, Diplomats, Hell

  15 Copy quote

• I have never been clever enough - or egotistical enough to spend 300 pages dipping into the sludge of my own subconscious.

  Winston Graham

  Clever, Pages, Enough

  7 Copy quote

• When the great Tao is forgotten, goodness and piety appear. When the body's intelligence declines, cleverness and knowledge step forth. When there is no peace in the family, filial piety begins. When the country falls into chaos, patriotism is born.

  Laozi

  Country, Fall, Body

  53 Copy quote

• In late modernity we grow more and more accustomed to politicians and public figures who are indebted to their appetites for their "values," to their intellectual sloth for their "principles," to their rhetorical cleverness for their "conscience," and to their regimented conformism for their "philosophy."

  Kenny Smith

  Philosophy, Intellectual, Sloth

  4 Copy quote

• The work of God can only be carried on by the power of God. The key is not $, organization, cleverness or education. No matter the society or culture, the city or town, God has never lacked the power to work through available people to glorify his name.

  Jim Cymbala

  Keys, Cities, Names

  Jim Cymbala (2010). “Fresh Wind Fresh Fire: What Happens When God's Spirit Invades the Hearts of His People”, p.109, ReadHowYouWant.com

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Cleverness becomes a public nuisance.

  Oscar Wilde

  Nuisance

  4 Copy quote

• It is the individual voice, present to itself, that needs to be heard. We need to hear the process of the musician working on himself. We don't need to hear who is more clever with synthesizers. Our cleverness has created the world we live in, which in many ways, we're sorry about.

  Keith Jarrett

  Sorry, Clever, Voice

  9 Copy quote

• I try to think as little as possible, at least while working. I look at some of my early stories and can see the machination behind them, like a gear slowly moving. For example, sticking a dead father into the story to explain a character's sadness and bad decisions, or trying to impress myself with my own cleverness.

  Mary J. Miller

  Father, Moving, Character

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A net set up to catch fish may snare a duck; a mantis hunting an insect may itself be set upon by a sparrow. Machinations are hidden within machinations; changes arise beyond changes. So how can wit and cleverness be relied upon?

  Zicheng Hong

  Hunting, Ducks, Taoism

  4 Copy quote

• I think the cleverness is inadvertent.

  Mike Birbiglia

  Thinking

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Delicacy, Deceptive

  4 Copy quote

• We judge matters so superficially that ordinary acts and words, done and spoken with some flair and some knowledge of worldly matters, often succeed better than the greatest cleverness.

  Madeleine de Souvre, marquise de Sable

  Judging, Ordinary, Done

  4 Copy quote

• Profits are not made by differential cleverness, but by differential stupidity.

  David Ricardo

  Stupidity, Made, Profit

  47 Copy quote

• I'm accused of cleverness as if it were a sin. She is merely clever, they say.

  Jennifer Stone

  Clever, Sin, Accused

  Jennifer Stone (1992). “Telegraph Avenue then”, Regent Pr

  4 Copy quote

  Show source