Best 499 quotes in «intellect quotes» category

If human beings were really progressive creatures, then all boys would be smarter, healthier, and, wealthier, than their grandfathers.

If I show up at your house ten years from now and find nothing in your living room but The Readers Digest, nothing on your bedroom night table but the newest Dan Brown novel, and nothing in your bathroom but Jokes for the John, I’ll chase you down to the end of your driveway and back, screaming ‘Where are your books? You graduated college ten years ago, so how come there are no damn books in your house? Why are you living on the intellectual equivalent of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese?

If the intellect functions in wrong direction, it is deceit and if it turns in the right direction, it will get one’s work done.

If the mind is to emerge unscathed from this relentless struggle with the unforeseen, 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.

If there is any enlightenment that I have been awakened to, it is that men's minds are dominated by their little aches and pains. We want to think that we are more than that, that we control our live with intellect. But now, without civilization clouding the issue, I wonder to what extent intellect is controlled by instinct and culture is the result of raw gut reactions to life.

If thinking in the sense of intellection were the same as judging, for example, it would not be possible to think without judgment. We would not be able to accept a judgment without thinking because sometimes by mere intuition we accept the truth of a judgment, which in turn means that we do infer without intellection. What all this means is that thought is a necessary step in the process of knowing although in every knowledge acquired by the mind it may not be used because the preliminary ground has already been prepared by previous intellections. In fact, this is true of all faculties of knowledge; each faculty is a necessary element for the process as a whole, but not necessarily needed in every knowledge-acquisition process.

{Letter from Fawcett to the great Robert Ingersoll, 1894} I do so wish, that, in all these big questions, literary men would take you more for a guide than they do, or seem to do. You have, of course, an immense constituency; but your love of letters and your deeply poetic spirit render you worthy of a far greater reverence and respect from writers than it seems to me that you receive. I want the brilliancy of your thought to penetrate our literature profoundly and permanently. But of course that will come. The younger generation of writers cannot escape you any more than the air they breath. You will, indeed, be the air they breath, -- and hence, in many cases, if not all, their inspiration. Especially should the poets love you and sit at your feet. If you die before you see the change, I believe that those who now love you and survive you will see how much of the mere pietistic rubbish in modern poetry has been gradually yet surely swept away by the mighty besom of your fearless and noble intellect.

If you want to go to moksha (attain ultimate liberation), you will have to become simple and straightforward. Being obstinate won’t work there. You will have to remove all the tubers; become totally free from intellect (abudh).

If you work on yourself intellectually, you will be able to realize your potential

Illusion is an intellectual knowledge (buddhijanya). Intellectual knowledge is vikalpi (uncertain, with wrong belief of the self). Whereas, the Real Knowledge (Gnan) is nirvikalpi (Certain, free from I-ness & My-ness). There is no feeling of differences in it. Therefore one is to only understand the real knowledge.

If you want to impress someone, simply make up a vocation and preface it with the words “molecular” or “theoretical” (as in “molecular biologist” or “theoretical physicist”). After you do this no one will question the veracity of anything you say—whether it is related to your putative vocation or not.

In employing the long sentence the inexperienced writer should not strain after the heavy, ponderous type. Johnson and Carlyle used such a type, but remember, an ordinary mortal cannot wield the sledge hammer of a giant. Johnson and Carlyle were intellectual giants and few can hope to stand on the same literary pedestal.

In each of the early surahs, God spoke intimately to the individual, often preferring to pose many of his teachings in the form of a question - 'Have you not heard?' 'Do you consider?' 'Have you not seen?'. Each listener was thus invited to interrogate him or herself. Any response to these queries was usually grammatically ambiguous or indefinite, leaving the audience with an image on which to meditate but with no decisive answer. This new religion was not about achieving metaphysical certainty; the Quran wanted people to develop a different kind of awarness.

Instead of being regarded as intelligent or knowledgeable, many a woman would rather be regarded as beautiful or good in the kitchen; many a man, as handsome or good in bed.

In his fight against the powers of the surrounding world his first weapon was magic, the first forerunner of our modern technology. We suppose that this confidence in magic is derived from the over-estimation of the individual’s own intellectual operations, from the belief in the ‘omnipotence of thoughts’, which, incidentally, we come across again in our obsessional neurotics.

Initially, you grasp [knowledge] through the ‘light’ of the intellect and then the understanding arises, and thereafter a state in which there is absence of anger-pride-deceit-greed and attachment-abhorrence arises.

In modeling: He with better looks is more in demand than he who has read better books.

In no sense an intellectual, I write with my body. And what I write is like a dank haze. The words are sounds transfused with shadows that intersect unevenly, stalactites, woven lace, transposed organ music. I can scarcely invoke the words to describe this pattern, vibrant and rich, morbid and obscure, its counterpoint the deep bass of sorrow.

Intellect, at its best, can make you agnostic. Being theist or atheist is still a matter of choice.

Intellect is not speaking and logicising; it is seeing and ascertaining.

Intellectual and moral growth is no less indispensable than material amelioration... If three is anything more poignant than a body agonizing for want of bread, it is a soul dying of hunger for light.

Intellectual fascination crosses many boundaries.

Intellectual growth is when you surpass the barrier of puerility, puzzling people with your dazzling creativity.

Intellectually curious men become generalists. Intellectually lazy men settle for being specialists.

Intellect counts for nothing if it doesn't wear a designer label.

Intellect is limited, but it has one great merit; it can recognise its limits!

Intellect without implementation is ignorance, not intelligence.

Intelligence is a way of thinking, not a choice of words.

In modeling, the colour of a man’s teeth is more important than his IQ.

In most cases, a beautiful woman who aesthetically fascinates you becomes incapable of deep abstract thinking. Really beautiful woman is well-suited for observation but not for conversation. The complicated psychological difficulties of male brain arises from that -- a woman who can trigger sexual areas of this brain cannot transmit such strong impulses to the intellectual circuits of the brain, and vise versa. Consequently, as a sexual being, he dreams of a beautiful woman, as an intellectual being, a brainy woman, but as an intellectual and sexual being, each one simultaneously.

In reality, the outer instruments (hands, feet, eyes, etc) are not the hindrance (for liberation); it is the inner instrument (mind, intellect, chit and ego) that is obstructive.

Instead of being like a circus where the trainer uses his stick to make animals do stunts to serve the interest of the audience, the system of education should be like an Orchestra where the conductor waves his stick to orchestrate the music already within the musicians’ heart in the most beautiful manner. The teacher should be like the conductor in the orchestra, not the trainer in the circus.

Intellect (buddhi) is indirect light (of the Self, Soul), and Gnan (Knowledge, that which knows the real & relative) is the direct light (of the Self, Soul). The light of the Self that comes through the medium of ego is buddhi (intellect).

Intellect can be helpful, but it needs consciousness to be its master; otherwise it can behave in a very stupid way. It can misunderstand things, it can misrepresent things. It needs a master to guide it, to give it a sense of direction. That master is your being.

Intellect is the virtue of ignoring one’s emotions’ attempt to contaminate one’s opinions.

Intellectual death is endemic in areas where people are unprepared to obtain new information for development. Learning is a way of staying alive.

Intellectual despair is a subject for comedy.

Intellectualism is trivial compared to affairs of the heart.

Intelligence is knowing the right answer. Wisdom is knowing when to say it.

Intellect without implementation is ignorance, not intelligence. By definition: intellect is understanding objectively, implementation of intellect is intelligence, knowledge is a branch of intelligence (intellect plus implementation) and ignorance is lack of knowledge which is a branch of intellect (understanding but not implementing). Further, this is why we call academics “intellectual” and knowledge workers “practitioners.” One could be both of course. From a scriptural perspective, “If any man will do his will, he shall know” (John 7:17). Vast difference between learning and knowing. The gap is in the doing (implementation vs ignorant to the doing).

Intelligence is overrated. Two dogs who sniff each others’ butts learn more about each other in a moment than many humans understand about those they’ve known for a lifetime.

In the conscious- intellect awakens In the subconscious- awareness dissolves. In the unconscious- spirit awakens.

I only know that I know nothing

I prefer to be seen as a know-nothing idiot, than a know-it-all bigot.

In this worldly life, man is a prisoner of everything. He is a prisoner of the mind, a prisoner of the intellect, a prisoner of the chit, a prisoner of the anger-pride-deceit-greed; how can a prisoner of all these ever become free?

{The final resolutions at Robert Ingersoll's funeral, quoted here} Whereas, in the order of nature -- that nature which moves with unerring certainty in obedience to fixed laws -- Robert G. Ingersoll has gone to that repose which we call death. We, his old friends and fellow-citizens, who have shared his friendship in the past, hereby manifest the respect due his memory. At a time when everything impelled him to conceal his opinions or to withhold their expression, when the highest honors of the state were his if he would but avoid discussion of the questions that relate to futurity, he avowed his belief; he did not bow his knee to superstition nor countenance a creed which his intellect dissented. Casting aside all the things for which men most sigh -- political honor, the power to direct the futures of the state, riches and emoluments, the association of the worldly and the well- to-do -- he stood forth and expressed his honest doubts, and he welcomed the ostracism that came with it, as a crown of glory, no less than did the martyrs of old. Even this self-sacrifice has been accounted shame to him, saying that he was urged thereto by a desire for financial gain, when at the time he made his stand there was before him only the prospect of loss and the scorn of the public. We, therefore, who know what a struggle it was to cut loose from his old associations, and what it meant to him at that time, rejoice in his triumph and in the plaudits that came to him from thus boldly avowing his opinions, and we desire to record the fact that we feel that he was greater than a saint, greater than a mere hero -- he was a thoroughly honest man. He was a believer, not in the narrow creed of a past barbarous age, but a true believer in all that men ought to hold sacred, the sanctity of the home, the purity of friendship, and the honesty of the individual. He was not afraid to advocate the fact that eternal truth was eternal justice; he was not afraid of the truth, nor to avow that he owed allegiance to it first of all, and he was willing to suffer shame and condemnation for its sake. The laws of the universe were his bible; to do good, his religion, and he was true to his creed. We therefore commend his life, for he was the apostle of the fireside, the evangel of justice and love and charity and happiness. We who knew him when he first began his struggle, his old neighbors and friends, rejoice at the testimony he has left us, and we commend his life and efforts as worthy of emulation.

Ishmael had the posture of a classic general; the intellect of a cab driver.

I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness - a real thorough-going illness.

It has been my experience that most problems in life are caused by a lack of information. Many people just don't know the things they need to know. Some ignore the truth; others never understand it.

I think modern education over-emphasizes the intellect. I suppose that comes from the scientific trend of the times. You cannot obtain a useful citizen if you only develop his intellect. We take children from their parents because these cannot give them an intellectual training. So far, good. But we fail to give them that training in character which parents alone can give. Home influence, as Grace Aguilar conceived it " where has it gone? It strikes me that this is a grave danger for the future. We are rearing up a brood of crafty egoists, a generation whose earliest recollections are those of getting something for nothing from the State. I am inclined to trace our present social unrest to this over-valuation of the intellect. It hardens the heart and blights all generous impulses. What is going to replace the home, Mr. Keith?