#intelligence

"I didn't set out to discover a truth. I was actually sent to the Outer Fringes to conduct a chair census and learn some humility. But the truth inevitably found me, as important truths often do, like a lost thought in need of a mind."

"You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace."

"This mindless tolerance, which places observable scientific facts, subject to proof, on the same level as unprovable supernatural fantasy, has played a major role in the resurgence of both anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism."

"I expect that you must receive top marks at school, young lady."Madeleine smiled as she stirred her tea. "There are always rewards for those who state the obvious frequently and with conviction."

"A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool."

"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."

"Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding..."

"The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way."

"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty."

"Theology, philosophy, metaphysics, and quantum physics are merely ways for God to have his smart people believe in him"

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby."

"He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more."

"If your doctrine changed for the better yet your character changed for the worse, you changed for the worse."

"Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness."

"I always appear smarter when I dress up in my giant nipple costume. I know this because I'll overhear people say things like, 'At least he's not a complete boob."

"I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."

"Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them."

"Wisdom is nothing more than confirmed imagination: just because one did not study for his exam does not mean that he should leave it blank."

"Intelligence minus purpose equals stupidity."

"I don't know what good it is to know so much and be smart as whips and all if it doesn't make you happy."