James Smithson Quotes

No one, however smart, however well educated … is the suppository of all wisdom.

The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be too clever by half. The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it.

But what sin is to the moralist and crime to the jurist so to the scientific man is ignorance.

Faith is a poison that paralyzes the mind. In all the days of your life, seek knowledge!

One of the greatest joys known to man is to take a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge.

The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.

Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.

It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.

People are not stupid.

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

The difference between stupid and intelligent people - and this is true whether or not they are well-educated - is that intelligent people can handle subtlety.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.

Education, n.: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

I am much more intelligent than you think.

Intelligence is nothing without delight.

Reason is God's crowning gift to man.

In complete darkness, it is only knowledge and wisdom that separates us.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

The brighter you are, the more you have to learn.

Scientia is knowledge. It is only in the popular mind that it is equated with facts.