Top 188 Intellect Quotes

What is important is that one utilizes one’s intellect and not to be 100 percent sure about one’s convictions. One should always leave room for doubt.

Many of the best teachers I know are being laid off because their unions value seniority over intellect, passion, creativity, and drive.

The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect.

Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season. All great men of letters have therefore been enthusiastic walkers.

When I open my mouth and talk, sometimes people say they are amazed of my intellect. I don’t know if that’s because I truly speak in a way that people can understand or feel a certain way, or because they don’t expect it. I don’t know. That’s something I am curious about.

On the whole, the psychological work of the last quarter of the nineteenth century emphasized the study of consciousness to the neglect of the total life of intellect and character.

The history of philosophy is not, like the history of the sciences, to be studied with the intellect alone. That which is receptive in us and that which impinges upon us from history is the reality of man’s being, unfolding itself in thought.

I believe in a world where there are no heroes, and I’ve read and know humanity a lot. There are moments that I admire in a person courage, intellect, hard work. These are the qualities I admire in an intellectual, in a writer, and there are so many people who have these things.

I was impressed by the capability and talent and intellect of our troops on the ground. These kids are really impressive.

Basically I was a rebel growing up. I got kicked out of six schools. But I don’t think that it makes you less of an intellect. You know, if you ever crave knowledge, there’s always a library.

Our healthcare system has seen some of the greatest achievements of the human intellect since we started recording history: We’re developing incredible devices and implantables to improve the quantity and quality of people’s lives.

Luck is of little moment to the great general, for it is under the control of his intellect and his judgment.

A magazine or a newspaper is a shop. Each is an experiment and represents a new focus, a new ratio between commerce and intellect.

The challenge of a president himself struggling to find the conjunction between the right words and honest expression, a use of language that respects intellect, truth, and sincerity, has largely been abandoned.

Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.

Even as one and the same person is called by different names according to the different functions he performs, so also one and the same mind is called by the different names: mind, intellect, memory, and egoity, on account of the difference in the modes – and not because of any real difference.

It is better to have a fair intellect that is well used than a powerful one that is idle.

These people being of a sharp and acute intellect, and gifted with a rich and powerful understanding, excel in whatever studies they pursue, and are more quick and cunning than the other inhabitants of a western clime.

I deeply admire and respect Hillary Clinton. I think she is a great intellect with great fortitude. I think she was a strong secretary of state and a hardworking and effective senator.

There are four Powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses: sight, hearing and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.

You can’t surprise LeBron any more. He’s such a smart player. His intellect has caught up with his athletic ability.

My intellect has always been more responsible than my emotions for how I respond to the world.

I don’t understand why the accent you speak in has to indicate what level of intellect you have.

No amount of learning goes to waste. It adds to building your skill set and intellect.

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

The thing that I was brought up to prize above everything else is the intellect. There is no problem that the intellect cannot solve, but it never had an original thought. Originality is the realm of the unconscious.

The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in which the colors are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.

Manufacturing is finite, but human intellect is infinite. Textile is all about manufacturing, and industries like pharmaceuticals are all about human intellect.

The University conceives of itself as dedicated to the power of the intellect. Its commitment is to the way of reason.

From the lowest animals of which we can affirm intelligence up to man this type of intellect is found.

Fashion is to please your eye. Shapes and proportions are for your intellect.

Now is the era of intellect, information and the Internet.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Not to be able to move around or do things without thinking – that’s tough. I may end up that way, but if I do, I hope to hell my intellect will take over, and I’ll find some kind of joy and a way to contribute.

Forgiveness is a very personal and intimate thing. Forgiveness is not something that you can speak for others because it includes not only your desire and will, your reflection and intellect, but also your emotions.

The privileged man, whether he be privileged politically or economically, is a man depraved in intellect and heart.

I believe that the great painters with their intellect as master have attempted to force this unwilling medium of paint and canvas into a record of their emotions.

What we have to remember is we want to utilize the tremendous intellect that we have in the military to win wars. I’ve talked to a lot of the generals, a lot of our advanced people. And believe me, if we gave them the mission, which is what the commander-in-chief does, they would be able to carry it out.

We seem to have lost our contact with the primordial: the idea of – call it divine revelation as opposed to something that’s learned by the human intellect – something that, if you lay yourself completely open, and you just open your heart completely, something will actually come into it.

Faith is a kind of winged intellect. The great workmen of history have been men who believed like giants.

There’s something advantageous about having people underestimate your intellect, insomuch as a lot of things are revealed to you. They assume you don’t know what you’re talking about, then all of a sudden, you do. And the next thing you know, you have information you wouldn’t normally have.

I obtain great satisfaction out of using my intellect.

The battle was first waged over the right of the Negro to be classed as a human being with a soul; later, as to whether he had sufficient intellect to master even the rudiments of learning; and today it is being fought out over his social recognition.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

I believe very firmly that indigenous populations had a really good, intuitive understanding of why we’re here. And we’re trying to gain that same understanding through psychology and intellect in modern civilization.

Sometimes I think your intellect can get in your way as an actor or an artist. When you come from a world of improv and comedy, you’re able to let it flicker and fall out.

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.

I know you shouldn’t spit in your own soup but I think most crime writing is like TV and doesn’t make enormous demands on one’s intellect.

As Obama prepares to begin the last year of his presidency, he stands in an unusual position on the national stage: He is the rationalist, a creature of intellect rather than emotion.

I prefer intellect and charm.

The bad guys I play don’t want to be bad. It’s the struggle between the part of them that’s an animal and the part that’s the intellect that’s interesting.

The melody will tell me what the song should be about, the tone of the song. That’s when the intellect comes in. Because I have a list of possible titles and concepts, and I expand on that.

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

I’m an extreme do’er – I’m not an intellect; I’m not a bookworm. I do, do, do, and nine times out of ten, I fail, but I learn from that.

You know, I would say that songwriting is something about the expression of the heart, the intellect and the soul.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

Obama is a man of first-class intellect and first-class temperament. But his character remains highly suspect.

Our intent with Led Zeppelin was not to get caught up in the singles’ market, but to make albums where you could really flex your muscles – your musical intellect, if you like – and challenge yourself.

From time to time, I need a rest from the exercitation of my intellect.

Whatever we believe about how we got to be the extraordinary creatures we are today is far less important than bringing our intellect to bear on how do we get together now around the world and get out of the mess that we’ve made. That’s the key thing now. Never mind how we got to be who we are.

Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening – and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented.

I always say that to compose is to think. Playing is good, it’s useful, but it’s how your intellect puts the ideas together that will bring hands to write or to play. So, it’s really a combination of many things; hearing sounds, hearing layers of counterpoints, of chords.

Chinese food tries to engage the mind, not just the palate. To provoke the intellect.

I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn’t have to choose. And I believe that’s always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately.

Men have been found to deny woman intellect; they have credited her with instinct, with intuition, with a capacity to correlate cause and effect much as a dog connects its collar with a walk.

The function of intellect is to provide a means of modifying our reactions to the circumstances of life, so that we may secure pleasure, the symptom of welfare.

The novels that have fascinated me most are the ones that have reached me less through the channels of the intellect or reason than bewitched me.

The late Roy Jenkins was both a mentor and a personal friend. He was a man of both phenomenal intellect and political achievement in equal measure.

The violent quarrel between the abstractionists and the surrealists seems to me quite unnecessary. All good art has contained both abstract and surrealist elements, just as it has contained both classical and romantic elements – order and surprise, intellect and imagination, conscious and unconscious.

We ourselves can die with comfort and even with joy if we know that death is but a passport to blessedness, that this intellect, freed from all material chains, shall rise and shine.

The most important thing my grandfather taught me was that the most noble way to use your skills, intellect and energy is to defend the marginalized against those with the greatest power – and that the resulting animosity from those in power is a badge of honor.

I throw a spear into the darkness. That is intuition. Then I must send an army into the darkness to find the spear. That is intellect.

There is certainly a higher percentage of wit in British comedy than in American comedy. What always tickles me is the way in which people try to use their intellect to get themselves out of tricky situations but never quite manage to do so – much to their enormous embarrassment.

Most blacks will argue that they excel because of hard work, because of intellect, determination, sweat, blood, tears and risk.

Intellect is the swiftest of things, for it runs through everything.

The problem lies with us: we’ve become addicted to experts. We’ve become addicted to their certainty, their assuredness, their definitiveness, and in the process, we have ceded our responsibility, substituting our intellect and our intelligence for their supposed words of wisdom.

‘Dancing in the Dark’ is one track. Basically, the song is about connecting with someone mentally, and you’re moved so much by the intellect that both of you want to make it physical.

Donald Trump has got unlimited number of insecurities. But the No. 1 one thing, I would say, is his insecurity with his intellect. There’s a reason why he always refers to where he went to college and, you know, that, ‘I’m a smart person.’ You know, it may be narcissism. But I think it really reflects an insecurity.

An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgment – his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.

Around the time I began starving, in the early eighties, the visual image had begun to supplant text as culture’s primary mode of communication, a radical change because images work so differently than words: They’re immediate, they hit you at levels way beneath intellect, they come fast and furious.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

Human beings are accustomed to think of intellect as the power of having and controlling ideas and of ability to learn as synonymous with ability to have ideas. But learning by having ideas is really one of the rare and isolated events in nature.

The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart.

If men were but to read the New Testament with the same tone and emphasis, with which they do other books, and were to keep out of mind the idea of its being sacred, they would be disgusted with the credulity, and the want of intellect, reason and judgment, that is apparent in it.

Only a well-rounded intellect, a spirit nourished in the eternal sources of intelligence and culture, of justice and wisdom, is a safeguard against both indifference and skepticism.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

It is important to value intellect and discipline, of course, but it is also important to recognize the power of irrationality, enthusiasm and vast energy.

I aspire to a poetry of great formal integrity, deep passion and high intellect, and I have many models for how to do that.

Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind!

I prefer my partner to have profound, deep intellect, a profound education, but where their education comes from is no preference of my own.

I’m no intellect. I’m no preacher. I’m an entertainer. And If I don’t get up there and entertain people, I’m not giving them what they paid for.

In truth, every creation of the mind is first of all ‘poetic’ in the proper sense of the word; and inasmuch as there exists an equivalence between the modes of sensibility and intellect, it is the same function that is exercised initially in the enterprises of the poet and the scientist.

What’s right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity – intellect and resources – to do some thing about them.

I’ll tell you this: you can look at all the masculine toughies you want – the Ben Roethlisbergers, the Russell Crowes, the David Petraeuses – but if you want to look at what a man should be – persevering, honest, a person who manifests his intellect into action – you need look no further than Roger Ebert.

M*A*S*H offered real characters and everybody identified with them because they had such soul. The humor was intelligent and it always assumed that you had an intellect.

When art works travel from place to place, what you have is the opportunity to engage with the intellect of another person who has made a thing that should have enough information in it in the way it’s constructed to start thinking about why that picture got made – not why it is relevant to you.

We don’t have any power other than our intellect and our hearts.

With my intellect, I’m somebody who can think fast, think on my feet and can think under pressure.

Cultivate the frontal portion of her brain as much as that of man is cultivated, and she will stand his equal at least. Even now, where her mind has been called out at all, her intellect is as bright, as capacious, and as powerful as his.

You gotta use cuss words when you don’t have no intellect.

The object of preaching is to constantly remind mankind of what they keep forgetting; not to supply the intellect, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.

The grinding of the intellect is for most people as painful as a dentist’s drill.

Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

We should take care not to make the intellect our goal; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

There is not enough high intellect to be catered to and when most people think of Hiphop they think of low intellect.

There are many types of education: formal education, street education, personal education, experiential education, and I’ve found that I’ve had different partners who have a lot of wonderful intellect and education from all different types of sources.

Some people, however long their experience or strong their intellect, are temperamentally incapable of reaching firm decisions.

As someone who has researched and written about the Mexican cartels and the futile ‘war on drugs’ for coming on twenty years, I know how tough a subject it is. Mind-bending, soul-warping, heartbreaking, it challenges your intellect, your beliefs, your faith in humanity and God.

Vivid images are like a beautiful melody that speaks to you on an emotional level. It bypasses your logic centers and even your intellect and goes to a different part of the brain.

I think there can be a positive sort of futurism even in a presentist society. But I think it’s a kind of futurism that envisions augmenting human ability and intellect rather than creating some artificial machine intelligence that displaces us.

The person most qualified to tell the tale of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the man himself, as gifted an intellect as he is an athlete.

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

I’ve been told I’m bright. But when I act, I get incredibly stupid. I feel my intellect slowing down. I feel it happening physically. And that’s not negative in acting!

Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.

Of the many forms of false culture, a premature converse with abstractions is perhaps the most likely to prove fatal to the growth of a masculine vigour of intellect.

Thought is the labor of the intellect, reverie is its pleasure.

Sense is a line, the mind is a circle. Sense is like a line which is the flux of a point running out from itself, but intellect like a circle that keeps within itself.

Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible; reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless. Even the possible can be senseless.

I look upon another’s insistence on the merits of his or her life – duties, intellect, accomplishment – and see that most of it is nonsense.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is often very hard to find his vulnerable part.

Somehow our society has formed a one-sided view of the human personality, and for some reason everyone understood giftedness and talent only as it applied to the intellect. But it is possible not only to be talented in one’s thoughts but also to be talented in one’s feelings as well.

It might be expensive to make music lessons available. But it’s even more costly to deal with human beings who have half their intellect and spirit left undeveloped.

A novel is a great act of passion and intellect, carpentry and largess. From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited readers who chose to make the journey with me to join me on the high wire.

I am always fully in tune with the interviewer, who is usually trying to make me look silly. My objective is quite the opposite during an interview: I never use my wit or my intellect to make the interviewer look silly.

Ad agencies do all kinds of market research that ask people what they think they want, and instead, you should be creating things that you want. If you do something and you get it, the rest of the world will get it, too. Trust your own instincts, your own intellect, and your own sense of humor.

Faith is the heroism of the intellect.

I believe intellect is needed in order to develop any creative output and that intellect alone is not enough!

A job letter, an interview – even a writing sample – have far less to do with intellect and far more to do with aesthetics than you think.

I’ve always been a fan of physical comedy. It kind of hits you in a different way; it bypasses the intellect and hits you in the gut.

The flapper has charm, good looks, good clothes, intellect and a healthy point of view.

I have some strategical vision, I could calculate some few moves ahead and I have an intellect that is badly missed in the country which is run by generals and colonels.

I think that the leaf of a tree, the meanest insect on which we trample, are in themselves arguments more conclusive than any which can be adduced that some vast intellect animates Infinity.

Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect and passion in their operation.

A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.

The level of potential physical productivity of a society depends on both the development of the intellect of its members, and a minimal standard of both demographic characteristics and of consumption.

Since the days of Abraham many men of unusual intellect not only have diligently studied the divine plan, but have devoted their lives to having a part in making it known to others.

Richard Nixon is typically considered the modern exemplar of a dark and vindictive president. President Trump would be Nixon minus the keen intellect and work ethic.

I always felt like my value was much more in my intellect than it was in my appearance, and so that’s what I spent time cultivating. And some of that I get from my mother, some of that comes from the schools that I went to, and some of that comes from probably insecurity.

I am coming more and more to the conviction that the necessity of our geometry cannot be demonstrated, at least neither by, nor for, the human intellect.

When women make their image about youth and sexuality, and not about intellect, that’s kind of a dead-end road. So I think it’s a combination of self-entrapment and entrapment by society.

You see, the people that have a point of view and have an opinion and have some intellect are dangerous in the film community – they’re dangerous.

Art is great. At its best, it engages the intellect and challenges the spirit; it connects us across history and reminds us of our humanity.

I don’t dare postulate about science, but I know that it takes both emotion and intellect in order for art to happen.

People desire power. I don’t know why they want it so. It seems to me it implies a hugely superior intellect which separates them from most of the populace.

Because of our sacred regard for each human intellect, we consider the obtaining of an education to be a religious responsibility.

Poetry proceeds from the totality of man, sense, imagination, intellect, love, desire, instinct, blood and spirit together.

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

When I write, I feel that I’m writing with my intellect. When I paint, I think it’s some other force making me paint. I – as I wrote in my novel ‘My Name is Red’ – watch with amazement what my hand is doing on the paper, what kind of line, what kind of strange, beautiful thing it’s doing in spite of my will, so to speak.

People, unprotected by their roles, become isolated in beauty and intellect and illness and confusion.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Justice Scalia was usually particularly challenging to me at oral argument, but I so respected his intellect and commitment to the pursuit of truth.

She was short on intellect, but long on shape.

The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened and decorated by the intellect of man.

Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.

Telling or encouraging people to vote for a party would be an insult to peoples’ intellect.

‘L.A. Law’ has been a bit of a blessing and a curse. First of all, it was a very prestigious show that had a lot of intellect, and I was the pretty boy. I’ve had to battle that my whole career: ‘Oh, you were the face guy. You didn’t really have to act; you just had to wear the right suits.’ I had to battle that.

It is easy to remove the mind from harping on the lost illusion of immortality. The disciplined intellect fears nothing and craves no sugar-plum at the day’s end, but is content to accept life and serve society as best it may.

The proud depend upon the world to tell them whether they have value or not. Their self-esteem is determined by where they are judged to be on the ladders of worldly success. They feel worthwhile as individuals if the numbers beneath them in achievement, talent, beauty, or intellect are large enough.

I’m definitely responsible for the image that I put out there. But it does become frustrating, because I don’t want ‘sexy’ to be my defining characteristic. I’d love for my ambition and will and intellect and sense of humour to define me as well.

F.D.R. achieved greatness not by means of imposing his temperament and intellect on the world but by reacting to what the world threw at him.

The ideal of an all-sided education for youth had always been close to my heart. I saw clearly the arid results of ordinary instruction, aimed only at the development of body and intellect.

A human being has been given an intellect to make choices, and we know there are other food sources that do not require the killing of a creature that would protest being killed.

The direction and constancy of the will is what really matters, and intellect and feeling are only important insofar as they contribute to that.

The intellect is a cold thing and a merely intellectual idea will never stimulate thought in the same manner that a spiritual idea does.

One of the things I reject in our cultural divisions is the clash between faith and reason, and I would say the same about mystery and intellect. They are somehow mysteriously akin to each other.

As you see, I do not treat the creation of fiction, that to say the invention and development of fantasies, as a form of abstract thought. I don’t wish to deny the uses of the intellect, but sometimes one has the intuition that the intellect by itself will lead one nowhere.

The Geometer has the special privilege to carry out, by abstraction, all constructions by means of the intellect. Who, then, would wish to prevent me from freely considering figures hanging on a balance imagined to be at an infinite distance beyond the confines of the world?

It is an unscrupulous intellect that does not pay to antiquity its due reverence.

My intellect was quickened at divinity school, and my abilities to discern were strengthened, and that’s always valuable.

My mom is still whispering in my ear, ‘Look as good as you can.’ She taught me that being the best you can be in your appearance as well as your intellect was primary.

Music has just as much to do with movement and body as it does soul and intellect.

What is important, then, is not that the critic should possess a correct abstract definition of beauty for the intellect, but a certain kind of temperament, the power of being deeply moved by the presence of beautiful objects.

It is a law in the universe that a wave of spiritual awakening is always followed by a period of doubting materialism, each phase is necessary in order that the spirit may receive equal development of heart and intellect without being carried too far in either direction.

Life is a massive amount of feelings with the occasional profound engagement with intellect. As I get older, I hope the intellect takes over.

I have a big problem with people who glamorize dumbness and demonize education and intellect. And I’m giving a pretty good description of Sarah Palin right now.

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.

People really had a problem with my disinterest in submission. They had a problem with my intellect, and they had a problem with my choice of lovers. They had a problem with my choice of everything.

The older I get, the more I feel that’s all we are: a big bunch of feelings and instincts all wrapped up in some brief encounter with intellect.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

America’s fine, nice, nice hiking near L.A. But I am European. I love London and Paris. Friends and intellect, big thought, why not?

Napoleon was probably the equal at least of Washington in intellect, his superior in education. Both of them were successful in serving the state.

Whereas what man can learn about the world through his senses and through the intellect which relies upon sense-observation may be called ‘anthropology,’ what the spiritual man within us can know may be called ‘anthroposophy.’

The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect, between life and death. When literature becomes too intellectual – when it begins to ignore the passions, the emotions – it becomes sterile, silly, and actually without substance.

In the comics, there’s a lot to sort of digest with Five. He’s 58-years-old. He’s trapped in this body. He has a genius level intellect. He’s insane. He has a wife who’s a mannequin. And when you’re reading this on the page, it’s just like, Wait, wait, what?’