Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
The only reason people do not know much is because they do not care to know. They are incurious. Incuriousity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is.
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.
Imagination is intelligence with an erection.
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.
Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.
I have nothing to declare except my genius.
The more I see and hear, the more I realize how much I don’t know.
Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out.
The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.
If we listened to our intellect we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go in business because we’d be cynical: “It’s gonna go wrong.” Or “She’s going to hurt me.” Or,”I’ve had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore …” Well, that’s nonsense. You’re going to miss life. You’ve got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.
Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.
I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.
