Sagacity Quotes - Page 2

• Serendipity is the way to make discoveries, by accident but also by sagacity, of things one is not in quest of. Based on experience, knowledge, it is the creative exploitation of the unforeseen.

  Adrian Bejan

  Discovery, Creative, Serendipity

  "Constructal Theory of Social Dynamics". Book by Adrian Bejan and Gilbert W. Merkx, 2007.

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• The most Indian thing about the Indian is surely not his moccasins or his calumet, his wampum or his stone hatched, but traits of character and sagacity, skill, or passion.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Passion, Native American, Character

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Waldo Emerson, Waldo Emerson Forbes (1911). “Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1872 [1876] Ed”

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• Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the certainty and stability of science.

  Samuel Johnson

  Knowledge, Science, Men

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.27

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• So swift, silent and furtive were his movements like those of a trained bloodhound picking out a scent, that I could not but think what a terrible criminal he would have made had he turned his energy and sagacity against the law instead of exerting them in its defense. -Dr. Watson, The Sign of the Four

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Thinking, Law, Energy

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2016). “The Sign of the Four”, p.51, Arthur Conan Doyle

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• When in doubt, tell the truth. That maxim I did invent, but never expected it to be applied to me. I did say, "When you are in doubt," but when I am in doubt myself I use more sagacity.

  Mark Twain

  Truth, Doubt, Use

  Mark Twain (2008). “Mark Twain's Speeches: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.393, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• So powerfully does fortune appear to sway the destinies of men, putting a silver spoon into one man's mouth, and a wooden one into another's, that some of the most sagacious of men, as Cardinal Mazarin and Rothschild, seem to have been inclined to regard luck as the first element of worldly success; experience, sagacity, energy, and enterprise as nothing, if linked to an unlucky star.

  William Mathews

  Stars, Destiny, Men

  William Mathews (1874). “Getting on in the World: Or, Hints on Success in Life”, p.23, Belford Bros.

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• His [the President's] office is anything he has the sagacity and force to make it.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Office, Political, President

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• Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity; They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness; Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports; Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of warfare; If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy before the time is ripe, he must be put to death together with the man to whom the secret was told.

  Sun Tzu

  Art, Military, War

  "Strategy Six Pack".

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• The darling schemes and fondest hopes of man are frequently frustrated by time. While sagacity contrives, patience matures, and labor industriously executes, disappointment laughs at the curious fabric, formed by so many efforts, and gay with so many brilliant colors, and, while the artists imagine the work arrived at the moment of completion, brushes away the beautiful web, and leaves nothing behind.

  Timothy Dwight V

  Beautiful, Disappointment, Gay

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• I picture the vast realm of the sciences as an immense landscape scattered with patches of dark and light. The goal towards which we must work is either to extend the boundaries of the patches of light, or to increase their number. One of these tasks falls to the creative genius; the other requires a sort of sagacity combined with perfectionism.

  Denis Diderot

  Fall, Dark, Science

  Denis Diderot, David J. Adams (2000). “Thoughts on the interpretation of nature: and other philosophical works”, Clinamen Press Ltd.

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• The enemy of art is the enemy of nature; art is nothing but the highest sagacity and exertion of human nature; and what nature will he honour who honours not the human?

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Art, Honor, Enemy

  "Aphorisms on man. Translated from the original manuscript of the Rev. John Caspar Lavater, citizen of Zuric" by Johann Kaspar Lavater, New-York: re-printed by T. and J. Swords, for Berry and Rogers, Hanover-Square, 1790.

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• Serendipity... You will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called 'The Three Princes of Serendip': as their Highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.

  Horace Walpole

  Silly, Discovery, Serendipity

  Letter to Horace Mann, 28 Jan. 1754. Coinage of the word serendipity.

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• The very large, very respectable, and very knowing class of misanthropes who rejoice in the name of grumblers,--persons who are so sure that the world is going to ruin, that they resent every attempt to comfort them as an insult to their sagacity, and accordingly seek their chief consolation in being inconsolable, their chief pleasure in being displeased.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Class, Names, Knowing

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1871). “Success and Its Conditions”, p.199

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• Sydney Smith playfully says that common sense was invented by Socrates, that philosopher having been one of its most conspicuous exemplars in conducting the contest of practical sagacity against stupid prejudice and illusory beliefs.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Stupid, Common Sense, Prejudice

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1875). “Success and Its Conditions”, p.284

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• In practice it is possible to determine directly the skin colour and hence the ethnic affiliations of the ancient Egyptians by microscopic analysis in the laboratory; I doubt if the sagacity of the researchers who have studied the question has overlooked the possibility.

  Cheikh Anta Diop

  Practice, Doubt, Skins

  Cheikh Anta Diop, E. Curtis Alexander, Mwalimu Imara Mwadilifu (1984). “Cheikh Anta Diop: an African scientist : an axiomatic overview of his teachings and thoughts”, Eca Assoc

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• The Sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights - the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn. And a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others.

  Walter Bagehot

  Kings, Rights, Three

  The English Constitution "The Monarchy (continued)" (1867)

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• The idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government) has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction.

  Alexander Hamilton

  War, Simple, Doctors

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.133, Coventry House Publishing

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• Great statesmen seem to direct and rule by a sort of power to put themselves in the place of the nation over which they are set, and may thus be said to possess the souls of poets at the same time they display the coarser sense and the more vulgar sagacity of practical men of business.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Men, Soul, Vision

  Woodrow Wilson, Howard Seavoy Leach (1970). “The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson: Authorized Ed”

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• Common sense is a phrase employed to denote that degree of intelligence, sagacity, and prudence which is common to all men.

  William Fleming

  Men, Common Sense, Degrees

  William Fleming, Charles Porterfield Krauth (1860). “The Vocabulary of Philosophy, Mental, Moral and Metaphysical: With Quotations and References; for the Use of Students”, p.95

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• Fortune has been considered the guardian divinity of fools; and, on this score, she has been accused of blindness; but it should rather be adduced as a proof of her sagacity, when she helps those who cannot help themselves.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Divinity, Fool, Helping

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.52

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• It is a matter of course and of absolute necessity to the conduct of business, that any discretionary businessman must be free to deal or not to deal in any given case; to limit or withhold the equipment under his control, without reservation. Business discretion and business strategy, in fact, has no other means by to work out its aims. So that, in effect, all business sagacity reduces itself in the last analysis to judicious use of sabotage.

  Thorstein Veblen

  Mean, Work Out, Use

  Thorstein Veblen (1964). “The Nature of Peace”, p.168, Transaction Publishers

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• Baseball is the exponent of American Courage, Confidence, Combativeness, American Dash, Discipline, Determination, American Energy, Eagerness, Enthusiasm, American Pluck, Persistency, Performance, American Spirit, Sagacity, Success, American Vim, Vigor, Virility.

  Albert Goodwill Spalding

  Baseball, Determination, Discipline

  Albert Goodwill Spalding, Samm Coombs (1991). “America's national game: historic facts concerning the beginning evolution, development, and popularity of base ball, with personal reminiscences of its vicissitudes, its victories, and its votaries”

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• For, besides, that many persons find too sensible an interest in perpetually recalling such topics; besides this, I say, the motive of blind despair can never reasonably have place in the sciences; since, however unsuccessful former attempts may have proved, there is still room to hope, that the industry, good fortune, or improved sagacity of succeeding generations may reach discoveries unknown to former ages.

  David Hume

  Discovery, Despair, Age

  David Hume (1999). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, p.59, Open Court

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• Honest and outspoken, honorable and uncompromising, Jubal A. Early epitomized much that was the Southern Confederacy. His self-reliance, courage, sagacity, and devotion to the cause brought confidence then just as it inspires reverence now.

  James I. Robertson, Jr.

  Self, Southern, Inspire

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• As to sagacity, I should say that his judgement respecting the warmest place and the softest cushion in a room is infallible, his punctuality at meal times is admirable, and his pertinacity in jumping on people's shoulders till they give him some of the best of what is going, indicates great firmness.

  Thomas Huxley

  Cat, Jumping, People

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Leonard Huxley (1900). “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”

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