“Controversial as we all know, is often a euphemism for interesting and intelligent.”
“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”
“Your brain doesn t know what it cannot do until you tell it.”
“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”
“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”
“The hallmark of intelligence is not whether one believes in God or not, but the quality of the processes that underlie one’s beliefs.”
“The only means of strengthening one s intellect is to make up one s mind about nothing -- to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.”
“I am so clever that sometimes I don t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
“It is not that I m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”
“An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. Can they be brought together? This is a practical question. We must get down to it. I despise intelligence really means: I cannot bear my doubts.”
“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won t come in.”
“Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration s shove or society s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It s all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”
“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.”
“A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.”
“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.”
“I d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.”