Only ignorance excuses stupidity

~ Nalini Singh

Nalini Singh Growing Ignorance Knowing Smarts Wisdom

I've always loved science fiction. I think the smartest writers are science fiction writers dealing with major things.” – Associated Press interview, 12-7-11

~ Walter Mosley

Walter Mosley Brains Science Fiction Smarts Writing

Sam enjoyed knowledge. The accumulation and distribution of facts gave him a feeling of control, of utility, of the opposite of the powerlessness that comes with having a smallish, underdeveloped body that doesn't dependably respond to the mental commands of a largish, overstimulated brain.

~ Jonathan Safran Foer

Jonathan Safran Foer Brain Control Facts Knowledge Power Smarts

And pity--people who inspire it in you are actually very powerful people. To get someone else to take care of you, to feel sorry for you--that takes a lot of strength, smarts, manipulation. Very powerful people.

~ Deb Caletti

Deb Caletti Feel Manipulation People Pity Powerful Smarts Sorry Strength

It's always good to be underestimated.

~ Melissa De La Cruz

Melissa De La Cruz Adantges Power Smarts Strentgh And Weakness War

Yet human intelligence has another force, too: the sense of urgency that gives human smarts their drive. Perhaps our intelligence is not just ended by our mortality; to a great degree, it is our mortality.

~ Adam Gopnik

Adam Gopnik Drive Humans Ingenuity Intelligence Mortality Smarts Urgency

Be intelligent, but know it is better to be kind than smart.

~ Bryant Mcgill

Bryant Mcgill Betterment Intelligence Kindness Knowing Smarts

Intelligence is often worshiped, even when that intelligence allows unfathomable injustice and suffering to occur under its smart watch.

~ Bryant Mcgill

Bryant Mcgill Injustice Intelligence Smarts Suffering Worship

But the compulsive overachievement of today's elite college students - the sense that they need to keep running as fast as they can - is not the only thing that keeps them from forming the deeper relationships that might relieve their anguish. Something more insidious is operating, too: a resistance to vulnerability, a fear of looking like the only one who isn't capable of handling the pressure. These are young people who have always succeeded at everything, in part by projecting the confidence that they always will. Now, as they get to college, the stakes are higher and the competition fiercer. Everybody thinks that they are the only one who's suffering, so nobody says anything, so everybody suffers. Everyone feels like a fraud; everybody thinks that everybody else is smarter than they are.

~ William Deresiewicz

William Deresiewicz College Confidence Fraud Overachievement Smarts Students Success Vulnerability

Some years ago I read a book that brought Einstein's theory of relativity down to an eighth grade level. This convinced me that any subject can be made easy. In other words, always beware of anyone who tells you a topic is above you or better left to experts. This person may, for some reason, be trying to shut you out. You CAN understand almost anything.

~ Richard J. Maybury

Richard J. Maybury Anything Easy Intelligence Knowledge Smart Smarts Understanding

But I am a just man, even to my enemy—and I will acknowledge, beforehand, that they are cleverer brains than I thought them.

~ Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins Acknowledge Acknowledgement Adversaries Adversary Beforehand Brains Clever Enemies Enemy Intelligence Intelligent Man Smart Smarts Thought

No,” Gideon says. “No guns. The most dangerous weapon you have is your brain. Give someone a gun and they tend to quit using it.

~ Paula Stokes

Paula Stokes Brain Guns Smarts Strategy Weapons

If this is a smart world then I want to be stupid.

~ Bryant Mcgill

Bryant Mcgill Smarts Stupidity

Do not be a stupid, unless someone is paying you to be.

~ M.f. Moonzajer

M.f. Moonzajer Paying Simplicity Smarts Stupid

We know that the war against intelligence is always waged in the name of common sense.

~ Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes Common Sense Feeling Intelligence Smarts

I have not the smarts or patience for political office.

~ Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins Political Office Smarts