“An intellectual may be interested in ideas and policies for their own sake, but a politician's interest is exclusively in the question of whether an idea's time has come.” MayIdeasInterestPolicyPoliticianIntellectualSake Author:Michael Ignatieff
“Mathematics is not arithmetic. Though mathematics may have arisen from the practices of counting and measuring it really deals with logical reasoning in which theorems-general and specific statements-can be deduced from the starting assumptions. It is, perhaps, the purest and most rigorous of intellectual activities, and is often thought of as queen of the sciences.” MayScienceDealsPracticeActivityIntellectualAccountsMathematicsStartingStatementsQueensAssumptionReasoningLogicalCountingMeasuringArithmeticTheoremsLogical Reasoning Author:Christopher Zeeman
“Money is the most important subject intellectual persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it is widely understood and its defects remedied very soon.” WorldMayPersonsImportantMoneySubjectsCivilizationIntellectualUnderstoodCollapseDefectsMonetaryNew World Order Author:Robert W. Hemphill
“It's disheartening that animal people criticize societies that enlist the help of actors or organize creative acts like 'I'd rather go naked than wear fur,' to increase public awareness to our cause. These are great/courageous ideas which time has come! Liberation of animals is REVOLUTION - not elegant performance/ intellectual competition. We should do most anything to advance the animal rights cause. All the bickering may make the one step forward... TWO STEPS BACKWARD???” PeopleShouldMayTwoIdeasHelpingActorsCausesAnimalStepsCreativeRightsAwarenessRevolutionIntellectualPerformancesIncreaseCompetitionNakedLiberationCourageousCriticizeAnimal RightsOrganizeElegantFurSteps ForwardBickeringDisheartening Author:Adela Popescu
“Not understanding the process of a spontaneously-ordered economy goes hand-in-hand with not understanding the creation of resources and wealth. And when a person does not understand the creation of resources and wealth, the only intellectual alternative is to believe that increasing wealth must be at the cost of someone else. This belief that our good fortune must be an exploitation of others may be the taproot of false prophecy about doom that our evil ways must bring upon us.” WayBelieveMayPersonsDoeHandsEvilBeliefProcessUnderstandingWealthEconomyCreationCostIntellectualResourcesFortuneAlternativesExploitationProphecyDoomGood FortuneHand In Hand Author:Julian Simon
“The highest reach of science is, one may say, an inventive power, a faculty of divination, akin to the highest power exercised in poetry; therefore, a nation whose spirit is characterised by energy may well be eminent in science; and we have Newton. Shakspeare [sic] and Newton: in the intellectual sphere there can be no higher names. And what that energy, which is the life of genius, above everything demands and insists upon, is freedom; entire independence of all authority, prescription and routine, the fullest room to expand as it will.” MenWellsMayScienceSpiritNamesEnergyNationsRoomsGeniusHigherDemandAuthorityHighestIntellectualIndependenceFacultyRoutineSpheresNewtonPrescriptions Author:Matthew Arnold
“The human race may be divided into people who love cats and people who hate them; the neutrals being few in numbers, and, for intellectual and moral reasons, not worth considering.” PeopleHumansMayReasonHateNumbersRaceMoralIntellectualCatHuman RaceDividedConsidering Book:The Fireside Sphinx Source: The Fireside Sphinx
“The news today about 'Atomic bombs' is so horrifying one is stunned. The utter folly of these lunatic physicists to consent to do such work for war-purposes: calmly plotting the destruction of the world! Such explosives in men's hands, while their moral and intellectual status is declining, is about as useful as giving out firearms to all inmates of a gaol and then saying that you hope 'this will ensure peace'. But one good thing may arise out of it, I suppose, if the write-ups are not overheated: Japan ought to cave in. Well we're in God's hands. But He does not look kindly on Babel-builders.” IfsMenWorldGivingWritingWellsLooksMayDoeWarHandsTodayPurposeMoralOughtNewsIntellectualDestructionGood ThingsAriseFollyBombsJapanConsentCavesPhysicistLunaticBuilderFirearmsExplosivesAtomic BombStunnedInmatesBabel Author:J. R. R. Tolkien
“Curiosity, which may or may not eventuate in something useful, is probably the most outstanding characteristic of modern thinking ... Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity, and the less they are deflected by the consideration of immediacy of application, the more likely they are to contribute not only to human welfare, but to the equally important satisfaction of intellectual interest, which may indeed be said to have become the ruling passion of intellectual life in modern times.” ThinkingShouldHumansMaySaidImportantPassionInterestModernIntellectualInstitutionsCuriositySatisfactionWelfareCharacteristicsConsiderationApplicationDevotedRulingOutstandingCultivationModern TimesImmediacyIntellectual LifeRuling Passion Author:Abraham Flexner