Smart People Quotes

It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.

People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.

Intelligence is so damn rare and the people who have it often have such a bad time with it that they get bitter or propagandistic and then it's not much use.

I've seen that phenomenally successful people believe they can learn something from everybody. I call them 'mavericks with mentors.' Richard Branson, for instance, is a total maverick but he surrounds himself with incredibly successful, smart people and he listens to them.

Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you.

Smart people focus on the right things.

There is one thing Anthony Weiner and I agree on: there are a lot of smart, hard-working people in the financial industry.

I think there are too many smart people pursuing internet stuff, finance, and law. That is part of the reason why we haven't seen as much innovation.

The hedge fund known as "Long Term Capital Management" collapsed last fall through overconfidence in its highly leveraged methods, despite I.Q.'s of its principals that must have averaged 160. Smart people aren't exempt from professional disasters from overconfidence. Often, they just run aground in the more difficult voyages they choose, relying on their self-appraisals that they have superior talents and methods.

Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.

I make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and listening to them. And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I am.

Very smart people are often tricked by hackers, by phishing. I don't exclude myself from that. It's about being smarter than a hacker. Not about being smart.

The world has many very smart people who are doing interesting and different things, and there is no better way to learn than to interact with them.

The real problems of our economy began when the very smart people of our society went to Wall Street.

Well, that's why smart people get tripped up with worry and fear. Worry...fear...is just a misuse of the creative imagination that has been placed in each of us. Because we are smart and creative, we imagine all the things that could happen, that might happen, that will happen if this or that happens. See what I mean?

I'm a meathead, man. You've got smart people, and you've got dumb people. I just happen to be dumb.

A wise man has to always listen to the peers he surrounds around himself. That's why you surround yourself with other smart people. Captain Kirk keep Mr. Spock right beside him.

They're smart in Orange County. Smart and rich - just how I like 'em.

There's a difference between being politically incorrect and boorish. And we've seen that line crossed a dozen times by smart people who've mistaken politics for punditry.

Business is just like sports: if you're the best in the group that you run in, you're never going to get any better. It's the same thing in business. I surround myself with people who are smarter than me and have more experience than me, and I have gotten a lot of great advice.

My closest adviser is my wife. It's nice to have one of the smartest people in business as your life partner, and someone you have dinner with and breakfast with.

We are not experts on everything. We are not capable of doing everything by ourselves. There are a bunch of other smarter people around the world.

Smart people are a dime a dozen. What matters is the ability to think different... to think out of the box.

The best and brightest don't go into politics. The best and brightest are at Goldman Sachs.