Peggy Noonan Quotes

I think the oddest thing about the advanced people is that, while they are always talking about things as problems, they have hardly any notion of what a real problem is.

Between the semi-educated, who offer simplistic answers to complex questions, and the overeducated, who offer complicated answers to simple questions, it is a wonder that any questions get satisfactorily answered at all.

One of the great mind destroyers of college education is the belief that if it's very complex, it's very profound.

I think it's OK that everyone's not real heavy and wordy and heady.

Rule of thumb: if you think something is clever and sophisticated beware-it is probably self-indulgence.

Intellect is the ability to avoid belaboring the obvious.

You want the truth, of course. You want me to put two and two together. But two and two doesn’t necessarily get you the truth. Two and two equals a voice outside the window. Two and two equals the wind. The living bird is not its labeled bones.

Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine

Think of my movies as heightening our awareness, not confusing the difference between truth and fiction, but heightening our awareness of how confused we can become about what is real.

Instead of encouraging the student to devote himself to his studies for the sake of studying, instead of encouraging in him a real love for his subject and for inquiry, he is encouraged to study for the sake of his personal career; he is led to acquire only such knowledge as is serviceable in getting him over the hurdles which he must clear for the sake of his advancement.

Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious.

What is simple is wrong, and what is complicated cannot be understood.

When smart people are nice, it's always terrifying, because I know they're taking in everything and thinking all kinds of smart and potentially judgmental things.

Much of what sophisticates loftily refer to as the "complexityof the real world is in fact the inconsistency in their own minds.

Critiquing relieves you of the responsibility of doing integrative thinking.

I think of how and why and what happened and the thoughts come easily, but the answers don't.

Intellectuals ... regard over-simplification as the original sin of the mind and have no use for the slogans, the unqualified assertions and sweeping generalizations.

Truth is too simple for us: we do not like those who unmask our illusions.

Success is the study of the obvious. Everyone should take Obvious 1 and Obvious 2 in school.

And simple truth miscalled simplicity

Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. It's how we're used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way.

Illusions only control you when you think they are real.

It ain't always rocket science, sometimes a door is just a door.

Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts.

Most elected officials cling to their ideological biases, despite the real-world facts that disprove their theories time and again. Most have no common sense, and most never acknowledge that they were wrong.