Rene Descartes Quotes

Intellect is a fire; rash and pitiless it melts this wonderful bone-house which is called man. Genius even, as it is the greatestgood, is the greatest harm.

Fifty percent of Winston is genius, fifty percent bloody fool. He will behave like a child.

We measure minds by their stature; it would be better to esteem them by their beauty.

We are entering a period of human history that may provide an answer to the question of whether it is better to be smart than stupid.

Baby steps count, too, as long as you're moving forward.

I want to explore the borders between being a genius and being an idiot.

Some great minds become great by turning the rubble of an exploded paradigm into something consistent and meaningful. Others become great by laying the gunpowder, grain by grain. Every important revolution needs both kinds of minds to complete itself.

Whenever you are angry or afraid, nervous or worried or resentful, repeat the mantram until the agitation subsides. The mantram works to steady the mind, and all these emotions are power running against you, which the mantram can harness and put to work for you.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year.

Intelligence is a separate gift, for the benefit of students, so that they may think of themselves as intellectual and not very intelligent, or intelligent and not very intellectual. One hopes, of course, that they try to bring the two virtues, the two elements, into their lives at the same time.

But for my own example, I'd never believe one little kid could have so much brains!

Unlike physical progress, which is subject to natural restrictions, the qualities of the mind can be developed limitlessly.

Whate'er the talents, or howe'er designed, We hang one jingling padlock on the mind.

Genius, in one respect, is like gold; numbers of persons are constantly writing about both, who have neither.

No nation has produced anything like his equal. There is no quality in the human mind, there is no class of topics, there is no region of thought, in which he has not soared or descended, and none in which he has not said the commanding word.

Madness is the acme of intelligence.

Brilliant men are often strikingly ineffectual. They fail to realize that the brilliant insight is not by itself achievement. They never have learned that insights become effectiveness only through hard systematic work.

To my mind the single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom.

Simple minds, presumably, are the easiest to manage.

Have patience to walk with short steps until you have wings to fly.

Let the mind be cheerful but calm. Never let it run into excesses, because every excess will be followed by a reaction.

Heav'n is not always got by running.

Genius is full of trash.

In order for us [people] to progress, we need brilliance and brilliance isn't fair and it's not polite and we can't grow it. It happens. Genius happens and it doesn't always happen in a zip code where we can access it. Therefore, we kind of need [Internet] not to keep tabs on everybody but we need to give them access to everybody else.

Peter Kropotkin...was recognized by friend and foe as one of the greatest minds...of the nineteenth century...The lucidity and brilliance of his mind combined with his warm-heartednes s into the harmonious whole of a fascinating and gracious personality.