Quotes About Cleverness

Cleverness is a false presumption', Doc had explained, 'it is like being a natural skater, you are so busy doing tricks to impress that you do not see where the thin ice is and before you know, poof! You are in deep, ice-cold water frozen like a dead herring. Intelligence is a harder gift, for this you must work, you must practise it, challenge it and maybe towards the end of your life you will master it. Cleverness is the shadow whereas intelligence is the substance.

Other things being equal, it is better to be smart than to be stupid.

I would be remiss not to give equal credit to Burke's man here," Farouk amended, earning a smug smirk from Ash's companion. "He was clever enough to offer his throat to one of the villains as a distraction while his master dispatched the rest of them." The man's smirk vanished, only to reappear on Ash's lips.

When you are facing superior strength, you must use your wits.

Why bother with a cunning plan when a simple one will do?

Don't be smart. Smart is only a polished version of dumb. Try intelligence. It will surely see you through.

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.

I heard this story once, she said, where this bloke got locked up for years and years and he learned amazin' stuff about the universe and everythin' from another prisoner who was incredibly clever, and then he escaped and got his revenge. What incredibly clever stuff do you know about the universe, Gytha Ogg? said Granny. Bugger all, said Nanny cheerfully. Then we'd better bloody well escape right now.

The truly smart, having discovered they are cleverer than the people around them, soon learn that the smartest thing of all for them to do is to prevent said people from ever finding this out.

This man was so absent-mindedly clever that he could paint pictures that didn't just follow you around the room but went home with you and did the washing-up.

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.

I kept bugging them about making it more upscale, because I felt Abby, through her cleverness and business sense, was a character who would move up. And that's what she did.

Alejandro, who thought he was a wit. And he was, if you put a "nit" in front of it

The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so that they believe they are as clever as he

Do you really not know that to praise a woman's mind is to abuse her? Is everyone not convinced that where there's cleverness there's no heart? Has it not been decided that a clever woman is a sort of monster who can feel nothing? Ask anyone, they'll all tell you so.

To be clever enough to get all the money, one must be stupid enough to want it.

Alice was clever, but she had the kind of cleverness that verged on the unkind

Alice was clever, but she had the kind of cleverness that verged on the unkind, and this had only gotten worse in the years since she had been diagnosed with leukemia. Sadie didn't want Sam viewed through her sister's acute and often unforgiving lens.

A play is like a balance, you see. If, on one end of the arm, you place a certain quantity of loyalty and cleverness and strong will, on the other end you need an equal weight of something else to offset it.

You have more brain cells than there are grains of sand on your favorite beach, and you have cleverness, dexterity, and creativity—all of which powerfully combine when you are at risk—if you listen to your intuition

Work smarter, not harder," was Scrooge's motto, and his stories were full of inventive schemes that, more often than not, made him even richer and more successful. In Scrooge's world, hard work paid off, yes — but so did cleverness and a desire to do something in a way no one had ever thought of before.

Intelligence is a harder gift. For this you must work, you must practice it, challenge it, and maybe toward the end of your life you will master it. Cleverness is the shadow, whereas intelligence is the substance. -Doc

Look on the happy side, think of the good things. Hadn't it been clever? Yes, it had.

Her cleverness, her love and knowledge of music, literature, her liveliness and charm when he was securely hers masked her desperation.