Quotes About Intelligence

If you think that," said Bean, "you're an idiot." "Actually, I do think that, and I'm not an idiot.

Humans make a machine, and then fool themselves into believing that their own brains are no better than the machines. This allows them to believe that their creation, the computer, is as brilliant as their own minds. But it's a ridiculous self-deception. Computers aren't even in the same league.

Too late,' said Valentine. 'Tragedies are like that,' said Ender. 'And their tragic flaw was … muteness?' 'Their tragic flaw was arrogance – they thought they could terraform any world that didn't have intelligence of the kind they knew how to recognize – beings that spoke to each other mind to mind.

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.

I suppose your evaluation of his intelligence is just right." "Such a Goldilocks line. Makes me feel so…ursine." "Why can't you just say 'bearlike'?" "Because I know the word 'ursine,' and so do you, and it's fun to say.

You really are the stupidest smart kid in the world," said Mother.

I divide officers into four classes: the clever, the lazy, the stupid, and the industrious. The man who is clever and lazy is fit for the very highest commands, he has the temperament and the requisite nerves to deal with all situations. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the high staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy, but whoever is stupid and industrious must be removed immediately.

He had led missions inside China before, but always for the purpose of sabotage or intelligence gathering, or "involuntary high officer force reduction," Peter's mostly-ironic euphemism for assassination.

Individually, human beings are all dolts.>

The enemy may outgun us, but they will never outthink us.

God made us with death inside, and also with intelligence. We have our seventy years or so, perhaps ninety, with care in the mountains of Georgia, a hundred and thirty is not unheard of, though I personally believe they are all liars. They would claim to be immortal if they thought they could get away with it. We could live forever, if we were willing to be stupid the whole time.

You're very smart. Smarter than I am, I hope. Though of course I have such incredible vanity that I can't really believe that anyone is actually smarter than I am. Which means that I'm all the more in need of good advice, since I can't actually conceive of needing any.

I think you're too smart to write the kind of book that would please the kind of reader who would buy a book with that title.

Orson Scott Card

Yes, the bear was smart—for a bear—able to figure out about stone-throwing—he had never seen that behavior on the Discovery Channel.

Estabas equivocada. Hermanita, hay, quizá, dos o tres mil personas en el mundo tan inteligentes como nosotros. La mayoría se está ganando la vida en algún sitio. En la enseñanza, pobres desgraciados, o en la investigación. Muy pocos ocupan realmente posiciones de poder.

There is no sin except stupidity.

She is very clever, too clever for a woman. She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness.

Irony is wasted on the stupid

I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays.

It is the stupid and the ugly who have the best of it in this world

If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.