Alfred North Whitehead Quotes

Better than the strength of men and horses is our wisdom.

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

Intelligence is not a science.

I don't know how to depict intelligence.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.

I am much more intelligent than you think.

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

What one fool can understand, another can.

We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.

A wise man thinks what is easy is difficult.

I knew that the most important thing a man has is in his head, and from a young age, I often studied the head structure of each person, hoping to crack his codes. I considered a high forehead a gift from God.

What's more valuable - intelligence or consciousness?

Intelligence is an extremely subtle concept. It's a kind of understanding that flourishes if it's combined with a good memory, but exists anyway even in the absence of good memory. It's the ability to draw consequences from causes, to make correct inferences, to foresee what might be the result, to work out logical problems, to be reasonable, rational, to have the ability to understand the solution from perhaps insufficient information. You know when a person is intelligent, but you can be easily fooled if you are not yourself intelligent.

Wit does not take the place of knowledge.

The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secrets of things.

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

People are not stupid.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

My definition of an educated man is the fellow who knows the right thing to do at the time it has to be done. You can be sincere and still be stupid.

A great memory is never made synonymous with wisdom, any more than a dictionary would be called a treatise.

Knowledge, may it be said, is higher than magic and is more to be sought. It is quite possible to see what is happening and yet not know what is forward, for while seeing is believing, it does not follow that either seeing or believing is knowing.

I'm a little smarter than most.

Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.

Much learning does not teach understanding.