Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

People are not stupid.

The President has a quick and able mind, though not everybody gives him that, not by a long shot.

Light has spread, and even bayonets think.

Intellect is the ability to avoid belaboring the obvious.

That ability to take in your surroundings and sort out the important stuff, to be aware, to be vigilant. Then take all that information, put it together, and see if it makes sense to you.

The quality of a man's mind can generally be judged by the size of his wastepaper basket.

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

My best asset is my brain. Without my brain, I don't think the rest of me would be too hot.

The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.

These little grey cells. It is up to them.

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

Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

I have great faith in the intelligence of the American viewer and reader to put two and two together and come up with four.

Intelligence is not a science.

Knowing demands the organ fitted to the object.

If you understand hallucination and illusion, you don't blindly follow any leader. You must know if the person is sane or insane, over the abyss.

Focusing isn't just an optical activity, it is also a mental one.

Men of genius are not quick judges of character. Deep thinking and high imagining blunt that trivial instinct by which you and I size people up.

Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct form ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.

... common sense is very rare.

Everyone complains of his memory, but no one complains of his judgment.

There is one radical distinction between different minds … that some minds are stronger and apter to mark the difference of things, others to mark their resemblances.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.