Top 28 Intelligence Quotes of All Time

A short, finished list rather than an endless feed: 28 of the best intelligence quotes ever written, picked out of the full intelligence archive on QuoteForever. You will find Bertrand Russell, Dalai Lama, Niccolo Machiavelli and Abigail Adams among them.

Read the list top to bottom, or use it as a starting point - every author name links to everything else they said, and every quote has its own page you can share or turn into an image.

1

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

2

I usually say the aim of life is to be happy. Our existence is based on hope. Our life is rooted in the opportunity to be happy, not necessarily wealthy, but happy within our own minds. If we only indulge in sensory pleasure, we'll be little different from animals. In fact, we have this marvellous brain and intelligence; we must learn to use it.

3

A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one's own ignorance.

4

I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.

5

Genius always finds itself a century too early.

6

Our intellect is not intended to be an end in itself, but only a means to the very mind of God.

7

The greatest intelligence is precisely the one that suffers the most from its own limitations.

8

The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is 1 to a number with 40,000 noughts after it (1040,000).... It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence.

9

As human beings we are all the same. We have this marvelous intelligence, which sometimes creates problems for us, but when influenced by warm-heartedness can be very constructive. In this context we need to appreciate the value of having moral principles.

10

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

11

Reason means truth and those who are not governed by it take the chance that someday the sunken fact will rip the bottom out of their boat.

12

When your IQ rises to 28, sell.

13

It is easy to be wise on behalf of others than to be so for ourselves.

14

Love is light, warmth and comfort. Understanding is just light.

15

Obscenities... I think a lot of dumb people do it because they can't think of what they want to say and they're frustrated. A lot of smart people do it to pretend they aren't very smart - want to be just one of the boys.

16

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them.

17

What is important to a relationship is a harmony of emotional roles and not too great a disparity in the general level of intelligence.

18

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

19

Genius is initiative on fire.

20

We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.

21

I'm grateful to intelligent people. That doesn't mean educated. That doesn't mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call 'mother wit' means intelligence that you had in your mother's womb. That's what you rely on. You know what's right to do.

22

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

23

Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.

24

One thought fills immensity.

25

I believe alien life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is less so. Some say it has yet to appear on planet Earth.

26

The woman who thinks she is intelligent demands equal rights with men. A woman who is intelligent does not.

27

When a thought takes one's breath away, a grammar lesson seems an impertinence.

28

Ignorance is no excuse, it's the real thing.

More Intelligence quotes

This is the short list. The full intelligence quotes collection holds every quote on the subject in the archive, and the picture quotes are ready to share as images.

Share This Page