Quotes About Astuteness

Good wits will jump.

To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.

To how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn demeanor procured the credit of prudence and capacity!

Her] work taught me that you could be all the traditional feminine things -- a mother, a lover, a listener, a nurturer -- and you could also be critically astute and radical and have a minority opinion that was profoundly moral.

Trouble is, he wasn't clever enough to pretend to be a little less clever.

The great principle of Justice: prevent crime rather than punish it. All that is needed to execute a guilty man is a firing squad or a hangman. To prevent there being guilty men requires great astuteness.

Happily she never attempted to joke, and this perhaps was the most decisive mark of her cleverness

It's no mischief much while she's a little un; but an over-'cute woman's no better nor a long-tailed sheep,—she'll fetch none the bigger price for that.

Expert: a man who makes three correct guesses consecutively.

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.

So also to Sir Robert Peel was Catholic Emancipation horrible, so was Reform of Parliament, so was the Corn Law Repeal. They were horrible to him, horrible to be thought of, horrible to be expressed. But the people required these measures, and therefore he carried them, arguing on their behalf with all the astuteness of a practised statesman.

A prudent person after all can pick something Even from an enemy.

I'm not ruthless. It's common sense that's ruthless.

I have taken to living by my wits.

Nulla è piccolo per una grande mente, sentenziò Holmes.

In his singular character the dual nature alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally predominated in him. The

Mr. Holmes always knows whatever there is to know.

Good heavens!" cried the Colonel, laughing, "do you mean to say all our sympathy was wasted and your fit an imposture?" "Speaking professionally, it was admirably done," cried I, looking in amazement at this man who was forever confounding me with some new phase of his astuteness. "It is an art which is often useful

What are wits for unless a man uses them?

He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly.

I cannot tolerate fools - won't have anything to do with them. I only want to associate with brilliant people.

Be wise as a serpent and wary as a dove!

Los niños... A veces son mucho más astutos que los atontados y pesados adultos.)

You have all the cleverness which makes a successful man. Have you the tact?