“There are two principles on which all men of intellectual integrity and good will can agree, as a 'basic minimum,' as a precondition of any discussion, co-operation or movement toward an intellectual Renaissance. . . . They are not axioms, but until a man has proved them to himself and has accepted them, he is not fit for an intellectual discussion. These two principles are: a. that emotions are not tools of cognition; b. that no man has the right to initiate the use of physical force against others.” MenTwoUseForceEmotionPrinciplesMovementFitIntegrityIntellectualToolsAgreeAcceptedDiscussionOperationsMinimumGood WillRenaissanceCognitionAxiomsInitiatePhysical Force Author:Ayn Rand
“Knowledge and wonder are the dyad of our worthy lives as intellectual beings. Voyager did wonders for our knowledge, but performed just as mightily in the service of wonder and the two elements are complementary, not independent or opposed. The thought fills me with awe - a mechanical contraption that could fit in the back of a pickup truck, traveling through space for twelve years, dodging around four giant bodies and their associated moons, and finally sending exquisite photos across more than four light-hours of space from the farthest planet in our solar system.” YearsTwoBodyLightHoursSpaceWonderFourPlanetsFitMoonElementsIntellectualIndependentWorthyGiantsAweTwelveTruckExquisiteSolar SystemComplementaryPickupsPickup Trucks Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“For a woman ... to explore and express the fullness of her sexuality, her ambitions, her emotional and intellectual capacities, her social duties, her tender virtues, would entail who knows what risks and who knows what truly revolutionary alteration to the social conditions that demean and constrain her. Or she may go on trying to fit herself into the order of the world and thereby consign herself forever to the bondage of some stereotype of normal femininity - a perversion, if you will.” IfsKnowsWorldTryingMayOrderSocialForeverVirtueRiskConditionsEmotionalDutyGoes OnFitNormalAmbitionIntellectualCapacitySexualityRevolutionaryStereotypeFemininityBondageFullnessPerversionAlterationsConstrainSocial Conditions Author:Louise J. Kaplan
“The high intellectual value of images, however, lies in the fact that they usually, and perhaps always, fit more than one actual experience.” FactsLyingValuesFitIntellectual Author:Susanne Katherina Langer
“Really unreflective people are now inwardly without Christianity, and the more moderate and reflective people of the intellectual middle class now possess only an adapted, that is to say marvelously simplified Christianity. A god who in his love arranges everything in a manner that in the end will be best for us; a god who gives to us and takes from us our virtue and our happiness, so that as a whole all is meet and fit and there is no reason for us to take life sadly, let alone exclaim against it; in short, resignation and modest demands elevated to godhead” PeopleGivingEndsReasonWholeChristianityClassVirtueMiddleFitDemandIntellectualMiddle ClassNo ReasonModestHis LoveModeratesResignationAdapted Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
“As to whether those who fit the common meaning of the term "intellectual" should act in the manner that [ Edward] Said prescribes, that's another question. Needless to say, I agree with him that they should, and that they commonly do not.” ShouldSaidTermCommonFitIntellectualAgree Author:Noam Chomsky