quotations about intelligence
I believe in "intelligence," and I believe also that there are inherited differences in intellectual ability, but I do not believe that intelligence is a simple scalar endowment that can be quantified by attaching a single figure to it--an I.Q. or the like.
PETER MEDAWAR
Advice to a Young Scientist
I once spoke to a human geneticist who declared that the notion of intelligence was quite meaningless, so I tried calling him unintelligent. He was annoyed, and it did not appease him when I went on to ask how he came to attach such a clear meaning to the notion of lack of intelligence. We never spoke again.
PETER MEDAWAR
Advice to a Young Scientist
Though he had both esteem and admiration for the sensibility of the human race, he had little respect for their intelligence: man has always found it easier to sacrifice his life than to learn the multiplication table.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
Mr. Harrington's Washing
Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers.
EMIL CIORAN
A Short History of Decay
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
Mortals and Others
A man must be completely wanting in intelligence if he does not show it when actuated by love, malice, or necessity.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
Those natures are intellectual which, possessing intelligence, are objects of intelligence to others.
ZOROASTER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Reason is man's instrument for arriving at the truth, intelligence is man's instrument for manipulating the world more successfully; the former is essentially human, the latter belongs to the animal part of man.
ERICH FROMM
The Sane Society
Intelligence is the starlight of the brain.
N. P. WILLIS
attributed, Day's Collacon