It has always been my private conviction that any man who puts his intelligence up against a fish and loses had it coming.
It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one’s intelligence.
Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelation of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations, and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to perform in the social life of man.
Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.[Klug ist nicht, der keine Fehler macht, sondern Klug ist, der sie schnell zu verbessern versteht.]
Intelligence always had a pornographic influence on me.
If you’re the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room. Smart people hang out with smarter people in order to learn. Dumb people hang out with dumber people in order to feel smart. Surround yourself with people you want to learn from and are going places you want to be. Surround yourself with people taking intelligent action in their lives.
If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.[Nur wir, in unsrer Hoffahrt, drängen aus einigen Zusammenhängen in einer Freiheit leeren Raum, statt, klugen Kräften hingegeben, uns aufzuheben wie ein Baum.]
If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do.
I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us – everything that exists – proves that there are infinite laws behind it. There can be no denying this fact. It is mathematical in its precision.
I doubt whether, in the eyes of pure intelligence, an ill-grounded hasty rejection be not a greater sign of weakness than an ill-grounded and hasty faith.
I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood. Don’t degrade me into the position of giving you useful information.
