Alan Kay Quotes

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

Be quick to learn and wise to know.

Knowledge is silver. Outlook is gold. IQ is a lead weight.

Not to sound corny, but intelligence is big. Everything fades, and everything can be modified. But intelligence is something you can't fake. I'm not even talking about whether you can read a thesaurus backwards. But there is a beauty in common sense.

Well, the fact is that one imagination is critically important, and if you have had your imagination stimulated by what is basically a variety of subjects, you are much more amenable to accepting, to understanding and interacting with the realities of the world.

I think intelligence basically can be in a way defined by the possibility of having two opposite ideas living together and at the same time functioning. That's why I think a smart script has two things living in the same place, and they're absolutely contradictory.

I believe that you can always learn from observation.

Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to un-know.

Don’t think that intelligence stops with allies.

We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.

The ignorant are to be found as much among the educated as among the uneducated.

Where everyone else sees a straight line, you see a maze, and when I'm done talking to you, the maze starts to make more sense --Reply by Dove to Aly's silent inquiry

There's nothing wrong with the world. What's wrong is our way of looking at it.

Wisdom begins when you discover the difference between "That doesn't make sense" and "I don't understand.

The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.

Intelligence complicates. Wisdom simplifies.

How can people be so stupid? I marvel at that. See, I think you have to work as being ignorant - and if you're gonna work at being ignorant, why not work at being informed?

Some minds remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but to pass on through by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere along the route.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Fluid intelligence is not a Big Five personality trait: It's a measurement of one's ability to rapidly learn and apply a rule set. As an entrepreneur, you're rapidly dealing with different issues, and your ability to switch from one issue to another is very important.

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

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

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.