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Brilliance Quotes

Browse 362 quotes about Brilliance.

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Brilliance Quotes

“We live in a highly complex, technological world – and it's not entirely obvious what's right and what's wrong in any given situation, unless you can parse the situation, deconstruct it. People just don't have the insight to be able to do that very effectively.”

ThinkingLifePhilosophyWisdomScienceKnowledgeTechnologyMoralityEthicsIntelligenceInsightStupidityThoughtComplexityWrongRightModern WorldBrillianceAnalyticsSemanticsSad Truth
Author:Christopher Langan
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“If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.”

ThinkingWarPhilosophyFactsGovernmentHappinessPoliticsPeaceChangeForgetWorryInformationIgnoranceDataQuestioningBackwardsContestsTaxationBrillianceMotionPopular
Book:Fahrenheit 451
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“MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of many thoughtless spectators.”

MadnessIndividualityInsanityBrilliance
Book:The Devil's Dictionary
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“Uncommon success is found on the spiritual plane; you can't get there through common convention or following others. Hard work is not enough; many work slavishly-hard for little reward. Intelligence is insufficient; how many educated and brilliant people there are who fail utterly and completely. Goodness is not enough; how many meek and good souls are tilled into the earth like manure by demigods to fertilize their golden crops. There is something more — it is the unseen essential, and everyone has access to it.”

SoulSuccessSpiritualityWorkEducationFailureGoodnessGoldIntelligenceUnseenBrillianceMeeknessCompletenessAccessibilityCommonalityInsufficiencyRewardingFertilizeSlavishly
Book:Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
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“Could I but acquaint the world with Robert G. Ingersoll's humanity, with his ideas and his sentiments of love, patience and understanding, a renascence would automatically take place that would give life and living on this little earth of ours some semblance of what we call paradise. And this great and wonderful man had to die! I do not know the purpose of life, nor do I understand why death should come to all that is; but this I do know -- that when Robert G. Ingersoll died, on July 21, 1899, then you and I, and the whole world, suffered a mortal blow. When the mighty heart, of his mighty body, that supplied the blood to his mighty brain, burst, never again was there to fall from his eloquent lips the pearls of thought that had been so wondrously formed in his brain. The mightiest voice in all the world was silenced, forever. No wonder the people wept when they heard that Ingersoll was dead. He was the greatest of the Great -- the Mightiest of the Mighty. He was 'as constant as the Northern Star whose true fixed and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament.' He was the indistinguishable star whose brilliance never dimmed. When Robert G. Ingersoll died, his death was 'the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of time ... When shall we ever see another?' When Robert G. Ingersoll died, the sky should have been rent asunder, and Nature should have gone into mourning. When this man died, Nature's masterpiece was destroyed, and hot tears of grief should have fallen from the heavens. Robert G. Ingersoll no longer belongs to his family; He no longer belongs to his friends; He no longer belongs to his country; Robert G. Ingersoll now belongs to all the world -- the whole universe -- He is immortal and eternal. Among the galaxies of Nature's masterpieces, none shine with a greater brilliance than the babe who was born in this house 121 years ago today, and named Robert Green Ingersoll.”

LoveDeathHumanityUniverseUnderstandingVoiceNatureHonorEternalRespectPraiseParadiseAdmirationMasterpieceBrillianceSufferGreatestSentimentGalaxiesIngersollRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green IngersollMightyWeptMightiest
Book:Ingersoll the Magnificent
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“If God wants something from me, he would tell me. He wouldn't leave someone else to do this, as if an infinite being were short on time. And he would certainly not leave fallible, sinful humans to deliver an endless plethora of confused and contradictory messages. God would deliver the message himself, directly, to each and every one of us, and with such clarity as the most brilliant being in the universe could accomplish. We would all hear him out and shout "Eureka!" So obvious and well-demonstrated would his message be. It would be spoken to each of us in exactly those terms we would understand. And we would all agree on what that message was.”

NeedsUnderstandingAtheismLogicClarityHistorianBrillianceWantsMessageFallibilityAtheist ArgumentSilent GodArgument From God S SilenceInternet InfidelsRichard Carrier
Book:Why I Am Not a Christian: Four Conclusive Reasons to Reject the Faith
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“Brilliance some are born with it, but others create it over time. It lightens the foulest of hearts and pierces the darkest of nights to lead us on the right path of our future destinies.”

LifeInspirationalBelieveInspirationMotivationalInspirational QuotesLife LessonsMotivationFaithLife QuotesMotivational QuotesInspiringDestinyDreamsInspireSelf LoveLife And LivingGoalsSelf DiscoveryAuthorBelieve In YourselfSelf MotivationBe YourselfInspiring QuotesBe YouMotivational InspirationalNever Give UpTrue SelfMotivational QuoteDestiny QuotesSoul SearchingBrillianceMotivateTrue BeautyInspiring ThoughtsTrue YouInspiring WordsImania MargriaTrue WorthBrilliance Quotes
Author:Imania Margria
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“Yet surely, in the world of humans, no one goes out of their way to run down a person who hasn't really made it in the world, or whose reputation is already on the wane. And no one would pause to savour the sight or the sound of some boring bird such as a kite or a crow. So, really, it's precisely because the uguisu is supposed to be such a marvellous bird that one's perversely more aware of its failings.”

SuccessJudgmentBirdExpectationsBrillianceBirdsCelebrityJudgmentalGossipingCelebrity Gossip
Book:The pillow book
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“Oh, how we need MLK Day right now-- need MLK--his vision, his words, his feistiness-- not the way he's painted by the centrists (no less the right), but the way he stood up for what was necessary to make America live up to its ideals (yes, he was imperfect yes, bits of hypocrisy and misogyny, and yet mostly brilliance and caring and extraordinary efforts on behalf of all Americans because we are all deprived of justice and equity if any of us are).”

JusticeVisionIdealsCaringImperfectionEquityBrillianceInterconnectednessMlkMlk Day
Author:Shellen Lubin
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“We were singing for Dr. Du Bois' spirit, for the invaluable contributions he made, for his shining intellect and his courage. To many of us he was the first American Negro intellectual. We knew about Jack Johnson and Jesse Owens and Joe Louis. We were proud of Louis Armstrong and Marian Anderson and Roland Hayes. We memorized the verses of James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Countee Cullen, but they were athletes, musicians and poets, and White folks thought all those talents came naturally to Negroes. So, while we survived because of those contributors and their contributions, the powerful White world didn't stand in awe of them. Sadly, we also tended to take those brilliances for granted. But W.E.B. Du Bois and of course Paul Robeson were different, held on a higher or at least on a different plateau than the others.”

Role ModelsHeroesAfrican AmericansBlacksTalentsBrillianceIntellectualsW E B Du Bois
Book:All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
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“Marketing is so powerful that it can make even an extremely untalented musician a one-hundred-hits wonder.”

HumorAbleFunnyQuotesAbilityMusicTalentStrengthHumourGeniusMusicianCapableJokesHumorousCapacityMarketingRadioBrilliantTechniqueGiftAdvertisingAccomplishedSatireFacultyAphorismBrandingGiftedQuotationsBentJokeHilariousFacilitySalesExpertiseBrillianceCompetentAphorismsTouchPersonal BrandingArtistrySkillfulSkillExpertAptitudeMarketersKnackAdvertisersFlairAdeptMarketAphoristAphoristsMusiciansPlaylistsForteTalentedDexterityPersonal BrandHitUntalentedCrackAceSkilledHitsMarketerPlaylistConsummateProficientAptDeftAdvertiserDexterousMasterlyTop 40AdroitMusoMusosOne Hit WonderTop FortyUngifted
Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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“Another savage trait of our time is the disposition to talk about material substances instead of about ideas. The old civilisation talked about the sin of gluttony or excess. We talk about the Problem of Drink--as if drink could be a problem. When people have come to call the problem of human intemperance the Problem of Drink, and to talk about curing it by attacking the drink traffic, they have reached quite a dim stage of barbarism. The thing is an inverted form of fetish worship; it is no sillier to say that a bottle is a god than to say that a bottle is a devil. The people who talk about the curse of drink will probably progress down that dark hill. In a little while we shall have them calling the practice of wife-beating the Problem of Pokers; the habit of housebreaking will be called the Problem of the Skeleton-Key Trade; and for all I know they may try to prevent forgery by shutting up all the stationers' shops by Act of Parliament.”

SinBlameBrillianceG K ChestertonModern Barbarism
Book:All Things Considered
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“What would [James} do now? Would he think to Aiden was too much trouble for too little reward? Would the sex matter to him so much that he would discout everything else in favour of it? Aiden didn't want to think so, hoped that James would see that love was so much more than that. What was so great about sharing fluids that looked like snot anyway? What did love have to do with that? But he know by now that ninety-nine percent of the population would call that opinion world. The mathematics of the situation were not in his favour.”

HumourSelf DiscoveryBrillianceAsexuality
Book:Blue Steel Chain
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“No institution of learning of Ingersoll's day had courage enough to confer upon him an honorary degree; not only for his own intellectual accomplishments, but also for his influence upon the minds of the learned men and women of his time and generation. Robert G. Ingersoll never received a prize for literature. The same prejudice and bigotry which prevented his getting an honorary college degree, militated against his being recognized as 'the greatest writer of the English language on the face of the earth,' as Henry Ward Beecher characterized him. Aye, in all the history of literature, Robert G. Ingersoll has never been excelled -- except by only one man, and that man was -- William Shakespeare. And yet there are times when Ingersoll even surpassed the immortal Bard. Yes, there are times when Ingersoll excelled even Shakespeare, in expressing human emotions, and in the use of language to express a thought, or to paint a picture. I say this fully conscious of my own admiration for that 'intellectual ocean, whose waves touched all the shores of thought.' Ingersoll was perfection himself. Every word was properly used. Every sentence was perfectly formed. Every noun, every verb and every object was in its proper place. Every punctuation mark, every comma, every semicolon, and every period was expertly placed to separate and balance each sentence. To read Ingersoll, it seems that every idea came properly clothed from his brain. Something rare indeed in the history of man's use of language in the expression of his thoughts. Every thought came from his brain with all the beauty and perfection of the full blown rose, with the velvety petals delicately touching each other. Thoughts of diamonds and pearls, rubies and sapphires rolled off his tongue as if from an inexhaustible mine of precious stones. Just as the cut of the diamond reveals the splendor of its brilliance, so the words and construction of the sentences gave a charm and beauty and eloquence to Ingersoll's thoughts. Ingersoll had everything: The song of the skylark; the tenderness of the dove; the hiss of the snake; the bite of the tiger; the strength of the lion; and perhaps more significant was the fact that he used each of these qualities and attributes, in their proper place, and at their proper time. He knew when to embrace with the tenderness of affection, and to resist and denounce wickedness and tyranny with that power of denunciation which he, and he alone, knew how to express.”

LiteratureLanguageBrainHistoryPowerCourageInfluenceUniquePerfectionPrejudiceAffectionTyrannyThoughtPrizeBigotryWickednessAccomplishmentsBrillianceEloquenceShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareRareDegreeIngersollRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green IngersollDenunciation
Book:Ingersoll the Magnificent
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“Your opinion of your mental capacity may be great, but if your idea of intelligence is crude, your intelligence-producing thought will also be crude, and can produce only crude intelligence. It is therefore evident that to simply think that you are brilliant will not produce brilliancy, unless your understanding of brilliancy is made larger, higher and finer. …. When your thinking is brilliant, you will be brilliant, but if your thinking is not brilliant you will not be brilliant, no matter how brilliant you may think you are.”

ThinkingOpinionProduceCapacityIntelligenceBrilliantThoughtGreatThinkMentalIdeaBrillianceBrilliancy
Author:Christian D. Larson
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“To observe is not to not feel—in fact, it is to put yourself at the mercy of feeling, like the child's warm skin meeting the cold air of midnight. My own children, too, have been roused from the unconsciousness of childhood; theirs too is the pain and the gift of awareness. 'I have two homes,' my daughter said to me one evening, clearly and carefully, 'and I have no home.' To suffer and to know what it is that you suffer: how can that be measured against its much-prized opposite, the ability to be happy without knowing why?”

ChildhoodAwarenessDivorceObservationBrillianceAftermathObserver
Book:Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation
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“Woman of Virtue She could be as still as a statue But unapologetically vibrant Even in her silence She exudes confidence Yet so humble She runs her race with courage Because she has a clear picture Of where she is going She knows who she is And what she wants She understands what her worth signifies Extremely dignified Many odds she defies She has influence that no one denies No matter where she goes, she prospers She makes life so much better Never doubts her own power She whose face shines brighter Such a paragon of splendour That recognises God’s favour Committed to excellence Crowned with brilliance Clothed by abundance Cloaked in resilience Conquers any turbulence She is someone I look up to A woman of virtue”

Gift Gugu Mona PhilosophyExcellenceGift Gugu Mona BooksAbundanceBrillianceWoman Of VirtueSplendourGift Gugu Mona PoemsGod S Favour
Book:From My Mother's Classroom: A Badge of Honour for a Remarkable Woman
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