Quotes About Intelligence

And then he thought: Is this how idiots rationalize their stupidity to themselves?

What else should you be? Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing's the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and the tigers would own the earth.

I'm not stupid! In Bean's experience, that was a sentence never uttered except to prove its own inaccuracy.

Ender didn't like fighting. He didn't like Peter's kind, the strong against the weak, and he didn't like his own kind either, the smart against the stupid.

Only stupid men trying to seem smart need to be with dumb women. Only weak men trying to look strong are attracted to compliant women.

That was interesting, to find that it wasn't hunger that caused children to become bullies on the street. The bulliness was already in the child, and whatever the stakes were, they would find a way to act as they needed to act. … Intelligence and education, which all these children had, apparently didn't make any important difference in human nature.

It's easy to manipulate your children when they're absolutely sure you're stupid.

In a way she actually preferred Peter to other people because of this. He always acted out of intelligent self-interest.

Mom, said Peter, nobody thinks you're a lackwit, if that's what you're worried about. Lackwit? In what musty drawer of some dead English professor's dust-covered desk did you find that word? I assure you that never in my worst nightmares did I ever suppose that I was a lackwit.

it was all your genes that made us geniuses, mom. said peter. we sure didn't get any from dad. i heard that. father said, not looking up from the news that was being displayed on the table while he ate it would've been wasted if you hadn't

Every time, I've won because I could understand the way my enemy though. From what they did. I could tell what they though I was doing, how they wanted the battle to take shape. And I played off of that. I'm very good at that. Understanding how other people think. - Ender Wiggin

Do not be disingenuous with me, Colonel Graff. Americans are quite apt at playing stupid when they choose to, but I am not to be deceived.

If one has to say, in an argument, I am intelligent! I do know things! then one might as well stop arguing.

What about this? A colony of nothing but Battle School grads. If they bred true, they'd be the smartest military minds in the galaxy. Then they'd come home and take over Earth. OK, not that.

We don't use the word 'intelligence' with software. We regard that as a naive idea. We say that it's 'complex.' Which means that we don't always understand what it's doing.

It's intelligence that makes you unhappy.

Rigg, said Father, you're so smart and so dumb at the same time that it almost takes my breath awway

There are maybe two or three thousand people in the world as smart as us, little sister. Most of them are making a living somewhere. Teaching, the poor bastards, or doing research. Precious few of them are actually in positions of power." "I guess we're the lucky few." "Funny as a one-legged rabbit, Val." "Of which there are no doubt several in these woods." "Hopping in neat little circles.

He knew he could always be smart later, if that turned out to be a better strategy. But once you admitted to being smart, there was no going back.

The computer is also not famous for having mercy.

One of Ender's toonmates shook his head. "You dumb as a thumb.

You believe that the kind of story you want to tell might be best received by the science fiction and fantasy audience. I hope you're right, because in many ways this is the best audience in the world to write for. They're open-minded and intelligent. They want to think as well as feel, understand as well as dream. Above all, they want to be led into places that no one has ever visited before. It's a privilege to tell stories to these readers, and an honour when they applaud the tale you tell.

As they say, a word to the wise is sufficient. And here I've gone and written five paragraphs.

Unless he's really clever," said Theresa. "Smarter than us?" said Peter. He and John Paul looked at each other. Then both of them shook their heads, said, "Naw," and then burst out laughing.