Superior Intelligence Quotes

There is no greater evidence of superior intelligence than to be surprised at nothing.

Josh Billings

Intelligence, Aristocracy, Comedy

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We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.

John Kenneth Galbraith

Agreement, Pessimism, Mark

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Those who want their rights respected under the Constitution and the law ought to set the example themselves of observing the Constitution and the law. While there may be those of high intelligence who violate the law at times, the barbarian and the defective always violate it. Those who disregard the rules of society are not exhibiting a superior intelligence, are not promoting freedom and independence, are not following the path of civilization, but are displaying the traits of ignorance, of servitude, of savagery, and treading the way that leads back to the jungle.

Calvin Coolidge

Ignorance, Rights, Law

Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 4 March 1925

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My comprehension of God comes from a deeply felt conviction of a superior intelligence that reveals itself in the knowable world.

Albert Einstein

World, Conviction, Comprehension

Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.324, Princeton University Press

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Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence. Of course superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage.

Elizabeth Zimmermann

Knitting, Average, Hands

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A good athlete can enter a state of body-awareness in which the right stroke or the right movement happens by itself, effortlessly, without any interference of the conscious will. This is a paradigm for non-action: the purest and most effective form of action. The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we can't tell the dancer from the dance. It happens when we trust the intelligence of the universe in the same way that an athlete or a dancer trusts the superior intelligence of the body.

Laozi

Writing, Athlete, Games

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A certain critic -- for such men, I regret to say, do exist -- made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have out-generalled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.

P. G. Wodehouse

Summer, Children, Regret

P.G. Wodehouse (2009). “Summer Lightning: (Blandings Castle)”, p.10, Random House

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...no man of genuinely superior intelligence has ever been an actor. Even supposing a young man of appreciable mental powers to be lured upon the stage, as philosophers are occasionally lured into bordellos, his mind would be inevitably and almost immediately destroyed by the gaudy nonsense issuing from his mouth every night.

H. L. Mencken

Men, Night, Mind

H.L. MENCKEN (1958). “PREJUDICES A SELECTION”

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Henry Kissinger is possessed of a truly superior intelligence, in addition to which he has two qualities which, unfortunately, many great men lack: he is able to listen and he has a very subtle sense of humour.

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

Men, Two, Quality

"The Shah's Story". Book by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, p. 144, 1980.

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Cows sometimes wear an expression resembling wonderment arrested on its way to becoming a question. In the eye of superior intelligence, on the other hand, lies the nil admirari spread out like the monotony of a cloudless sky.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Lying, Eye, Expression

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Although other animals cannot reason nor speak the way humans do, this does not give us the right to do with them as we like. Even though our supposed possession of a soul and superior intelligence are used to create an arbitrary dividing line over rights, the fact remains that all animals have the capacity to experience pain and suffering, and in suffering they are our equals.

Nathaniel Altman

Pain, Animal, Rights

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To discover the rules of society that are best suited to nations, there would need to exist a superior intelligence, who could understand the passions of men without feeling any of them, who had no affinity with our nature but knew it to the full, whose happiness was independent of ours, but who would nevertheless make our happiness his concern, who would be content to wait in the fullness of time for a distant glory, and to labour in one age to enjoy the fruits in another. Gods would be needed to give men laws.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Passion, Independent, Men

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Learning to be flexible in values takes a very long time...Of course I felt a little uncomfortable during questioning the concept of God, but then reading about the history and evolution of Gods. There were many different Gods: the God of war, the God of peace, the God of love, which was more like the people that invented them. They behaved, they got angry, they made sacrifices, they created floods when they didn't like the way things are going. This didn't come through as superior intelligence.

Jacque Fresco

War, Reading, Sacrifice

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This sense of wonder leads most scientists to a Superior Being - der Alte, the Old One, as Einstein affectionately called the Deity - a Superior Intelligence, the Lord of all Creation and Natural Law.

Abdus Salam

Law, Atheism, Deities

Abdus Salam, H. R. Dalafi (1994). “Renaissance of Sciences in Islamic Countries”, p.139, World Scientific

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Sometimes you're sure dogs have some secret, superior intelligence, and other times you know they're only their simple, goofy selves.

Deb Caletti

Dog, Simple, Self

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Modesty teaches us to speak of the ancients with respect, especially when we are not very familiar with their works. Newton, who knew them practically by heart, had the greatest respect for them, and considered them to be men of genius and superior intelligence who had carried their discoveries in every field much further than we today suspect, judging from what remains of their writings. More ancient writings have been lost than have been preserved, and perhaps our new discoveries are of less value than those that we have lost.

Francis Atterbury

Writing, Heart, Men

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