“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.”
“It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.”
“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”
“The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.”
“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all I can borrow.”
“The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.”
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
“I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being--forgive me--rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.”
“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”
“I think of myself as an intelligent, sensitive human being with the soul of a clown which always forces me to blow it at the most important moments.”