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Intellect Quotes

Browse 1879 quotes about Intellect.

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Intellect Quotes

“There is no doubt that truth is to falsehood as light is to darkness; and so excellent a thing is truth that even when it touches humble and lowly matters, it still incomparably exceeds the uncertainty and falsehood in which great and elevated discourses are clothed; because even if falsehood be the fifth element of our minds, notwithstanding this, truth is the supreme nourishment of the higher intellects.”

IfsMindStillsMatterLightTruthDarknessDoubtHigherTruth IsElementsHumbleIntellectSupremeUncertaintyExcellentNo DoubtFalsehoodDiscourseFifthExceedNourishmentFifth Element
Book:Thoughts on art and life
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“We are accustomed to the artist scoundrel or specialist in vice, and unaccustomed to the creator in whom passion and reason and moral integrity hold in balance. But greatness of intellect and feeling, or soul and conduct - magnanimity, in short - does occur; it is not a myth for boy scouts, and its reality is important, if only to give us the true range of the term "human," which we so regularly define by its lower reaches.”

IfsGivingHumansDoeImportantSoulReasonFeelingsRealityArtistPassionTermMoralBoysGreatnessBalanceIntegrityVicesCreatorIntellectMythRangeAccustomedSpecialistsScoundrelsMagnanimityBoy ScoutMoral Integrity
Author:Jacques Barzun
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“The power of a free people is often at the disposal of a single and seemingly an unimportant individual; a terrible and truthful power; for such a people feel with one heart, and therefore can lift up their myriad arms for a single blow. And, again, there is no graduated scale for the measurement of the influences of different intellects upon the popular mind. Peter the Hermit held no office, yet what a work he wrought!”

PeopleFeelsMindHeartDifferentIndividualInfluenceArmsTerribleOfficeBlowIntellectScalesLiftsPeterTruthfulMeasurementUnimportantHermits
Book:Morals and Dogma
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“The Western approach to reality is mostly through theory, and theory begins by denying reality - to talk about reality, to go around reality, to catch anything that attracts our sense-intellect and abstract it away from reality itself. Thus philosophy begins by saying that the outside world is not a basic fact, that its existence can be doubted and that every proposition in which the reality of the outside world is affirmed is not an evident proposition but one that needs to be divided, dissected and analyzed. It is to stand consciously aside and try to square a circle.”

WorldNeedsTryingPhilosophyFactsRealityExistenceTheoryApproachWesternIntellectCirclesAbstractDividedSquaresEvidentPropositionsDoubtedOutside World
Author:Bruce Lee
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“If mankind were all intellect, they would be continually changing, so that one age would be entirely unlike another. The great conservative is the heart, which remains the same in all ages; so that commonplaces of a thousand years' standing are as effective as ever.”

IfsYearsHeartWould BeAgeMankindThousandStandingRemainsConservativeIntellectThousand YearsCommonplaceGreat Conservative
Book:Passages from the English Note-books of Nathaniel Hawthorne
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“To invent a story, or admirably and thoroughly tell any part of a story, it is necessary to grasp the entire mind of every personage concerned in it, and know precisely how they would be affected by what happens; which to do requires a colossal intellect: but to describe a separate emotion delicately, it is only needed that one should feel it oneself; and thousands of people are capable of feeling this or that noble emotion, for one who is able to enter into all the feelings of someone sitting on the other side of the table.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsShouldMindStoriesFeelingsHappensWould BeAbleSidesEmotionNeededCapableSittingConcernedTablesOneselfIntellectNobleAffectedColossal
Author:John Ruskin
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“The heavenly bodies are nothing but a continuous song for several voices (perceived by the intellect, not by the ear); a music which... sets landmarks in the immeasurable flow of time. It is therefore, no longer surprising that man, in imitation of his creator, has at last discovered the art of figured song, which was unknown to the ancients. Man wanted to reproduce the continuity of cosmic time... to obtain a sample test of the delight of the Divine Creator in His works, and to partake of his joy by making music in the imitation of God.”

MenArtBodyWantedLastsJoySongVoiceDivineFlowTestsEarsDelightCreatorIntellectHeavenlyCosmicSurprisingImitationContinuitySampleLandmarksHeavenly Bodies
Author:Johannes Kepler
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“There are dons who care for the intellect and the imagination, and there are priests who care for the spirit; but broadly speaking the function of universities and churches alike is to trim and tame enthusiasm, to suppress curiosity, and, in short, to whittle immortal souls into serviceable props of the established order.”

SoulCareSpiritOrderImaginationChurchFunctionCuriosityUniversityIntellectEnthusiasmImmortalPriestsWho CaresPropsImmortal Soul
Book:The progress of a biographer
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“There is no exercise of the intellect which is not, in the final analysis, useless. A philosophical doctrine begins as a plausible description of the universe; with the passage of the years it becomes a mere chapter if not a paragraph or a name in the history of philosophy.”

IfsYearsPhilosophyUniverseNamesExercisePhilosophicalMereFinalsIntellectDoctrineUselessAnalysisDescriptionPassagesChaptersParagraphPlausible
Book:Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings
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“The epoch of doubt and transition during which the Greeks passed from the dim fancies of mythology to the fierce light of science was the age of Pericles, and the endeavour to substitute certain truth for the prescriptions of impaired authorities, which was then beginning to absorb the energies of the Greek intellect, is the grandest movement in the profane annals of mankind, for to it we owe, even after the immeasurable progress accomplished by Christianity, much of our philosophy and far the better part of the political knowledge we possess.”

PhilosophyLightAgePoliticalCertainEnergyChristianityDoubtProgressMankindMovementAuthorityIntellectMythologyGreekFancyAccomplishedSubstitutesTransitionFiercePrescriptionsEndeavourEpochProfane
Book:The History of Freedom: Great Event
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“Because it is a 'use it or lose it' brain, when we develop a map area [in the brain], we long to keep it activated. Just as our muscles become impatient for exercise if we've been sitting all day.”

IfsLongUseLosesBrainExerciseSittingAreasIntellectMusclesMapsImpatientUse It Or Lose It
Book:The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
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“If you do not know your place in the world and the meaning of your life, you should know there is something to blame; and it is not the social system, or your intellect, but the way in which you have directed your intellect.”

IfsKnowsWorldWayShouldSocialBlameIntellectMeaning Of LifePlaces In The WorldSocial Systems
Book:A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
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“A dead language is not only one no longer spoken or written, it is unyielding language content to admire its own paralysis. Like statist language, censored and censoring. Ruthless in its policing duties, it has no desire or purpose other than maintaining the free range of its own narcotic narcissism, its own exclusivity and dominance. However moribund, it is not without effect for it actively thwarts the intellect, stalls conscience, suppresses human potential. Unreceptive to interrogation, it cannot form or tolerate new ideas, shape other thoughts, tell another story, fill baffling silences.”

HumansIdeasStoriesFormDesirePurposeLanguageSilenceWrittenEffectsDutyShapesConscienceIntellectAdmireRangeTolerateNarcissismNew IdeasMaintainingRuthlessDominanceParalysisHuman PotentialNarcoticsInterrogationCensoredCensoringUnyieldingExclusivity
Author:Toni Morrison
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“It is impossible to pursue a successful literary career and follow the advice of all one's 'best friends'.I feel compelled to follow the light which my own intellect & judgement cast upon my way, rather than any one of the many conflicting rays which other minds would lend me.”

WayFeelsMindLightMy OwnCareersSuccessfulImpossibleAdviceCastsIntellectPursueMy WayJudgementRaysCompelled
Book:Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)
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“One of the unfortunate consequences of the intellectualization of man's spiritual life was that the word "spirit" was lost and replaced by mind or intellect, and that the element of vitality which is present in "spirit" was separated and interpreted as an independent biological force. Man was divided into a bloodless intellect and a meaningless vitality. The middle ground between them, the spiritual soul, in which vitality and intentionality are united, was dropped.”

MenMindSoulSpiritualSpiritLostForceUnitedMiddleElementsConsequenceIndependentIntellectDividedMeaninglessSpiritual LifeUnfortunateReplacedVitalityMiddle GroundIntentionalitySpiritual Soul
Book:Writings on religion
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“The light of common sense is fundamentally the same light as that of science, that is to say, the natural light of the intellect. But in common sense this light does not return upon itself by critical reflection, and is not perfected by what we shall learn to know as a scientific habit.”

KnowsDoeLightNaturalCommonReturnHabitReflectionCriticalIntellectCommon SenseNot PerfectNatural LightCritical Reflection
Book:An EPZ Introduction to Philosophy
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“Nothing is more human than for man to desire naturally things impossible to his nature. It is, indeed, the property of a nature which is not closed up in matter like the nature of physical things, but which is intellectual or infinitized by the spirit. It is the property of a metaphysical nature. Such desires reach for the infinite, because the intellect thirsts for being and being is infinite.”

MenHumansMatterSpiritDesireImpossibleIntellectualInfinitePropertyIntellectThirstMetaphysicalPhysical Things
Book:Approaches to God
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“Avoid all refined speculations; confine yourself to simple reflections, and recur to them frequently. Those who pass too rapidly from one truth to another feed their curiosity and restlessness; they even distract their intellect with too great a multiplicity of views. Give every truth time to send down deep root into the heart.”

GivingHeartSimpleViewsMeditationReflectionRootsCuriosityIntellectSpeculationRefinedRestlessnessMultiplicityDeep Roots
Author:Francois Fenelon
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“Religions, creeds and forms are only a characteristic outward sign of the spiritual impulsion and religion itself is the intensive action by which it tries to find its inward force. Its expansive movement comes in the thought which it throws out on life, the ideals which open up new horizons and which the intellect accepts and life labours to assimilate.”

TryingActionSpiritualFormForceAcceptingMovementIdealsIntellectCharacteristicsLabourHorizonCreedsInwardNew Horizons
Book:Bulletin
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“What makes a subject difficult to understand — if it is significant, important — is not that some special instruction about abstruse things is necessary to understand it. Rather it is the contrast between the understanding of the subject and what most people want to see. Because of this the very things that are most obvious can become the most difficult to understand. What has to be overcome is not difficulty of the intellect but of the will.”

PeopleIfsWantImportantDifficultUnderstandingSpecialSubjectsOvercomingDifficultyObviousIntellectSignificantInstructionContrast
Book:Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951
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