Intelligence Quotes

Little things affect little minds. ~ Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli "I don't profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense." ~ David Copperfield by Charles Dickens "This affair must all be unravelled from within." He tapped his forehead. "These little grey cells. It is 'up to them'--as you say over here." ~ The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie But the dullard's envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end. ~ Zuleika Dobson by Sir Max Beerbohm Flippancy, the most hopeless form of intellectual vice. ~ New Grub Street by George Gissing "I feel that there is reason lurking in you somewhere, so we will patiently grope round for it." ~ The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Always the dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. ~ As You Like It by William Shakespeare "Indeed, I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much rather have been merry than wise." ~ Emma by Jane Austen It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness, to think that a thousand square miles are a thousand times more wonderful than one square mile, and that a million square miles are almost the same as heaven. ~ Howards End by E. M. Forster "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it - there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." ~ A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle