Quotessence
Home / Topics / Smart People Quotes

Smart People Quotes

Browse 213 quotes about Smart People.

Related topics

ThinkingIfsVery SmartDumbStupidKnowsWorldEnoughIntelligenceIntelligentStupid PeopleTryingDumb PeopleReally SmartWayFactsKindSurroundCompanyHardHas BeensIdeasInterestingMeanWantYears

Smart People Quotes

“Even very smart people can try to shoehorn new information that just doesn't fit into an existing paradigm.For a long time the story that we've been telling ourselves is that humans are just another animal. We evolved from other animals and our place in the universe isn't particularly special. What I'm trying to convey in my book [The Sixth Extinction] is that we are unusual.”

PeopleTryingHumansLongBookStoriesUniverseAnimalSpecialInformationFitLong TimeSmartUnusualExtinctionParadigmSmart PeopleVery SmartNew Information
Author:Elizabeth Kolbert
Create image

“The world is a big place. There are lots of smart people in it. Entrepreneurs are kidding themselves if they think they have any kind of monopoly on knowledge. And, sure as I'm a Macintosh user, on the same day that an entrepreneur tells this lie, the venture capitalist will have met with another company that's doing the same thing.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldKindBigsLyingCompanyMetsSmartEntrepreneurArroganceCapitalistUsersVentureMonopolySmart PeopleMacintoshVenture Capitalists
Author:Guy Kawasaki
Create image

“Highly intelligent and well-informed people disagree on every political issue. Therefore, intelligence and knowledge are useless for making decisions, because if any of that stuff helped, then all the smart people would have the same opinions. So use your "gut instinct" to make voting choices. That is exactly like being clueless, but with the added advantage that you'll feel as if your random vote preserved democracy.”

PeopleIfsFeelsWellsUsePoliticalChoicesStuffDecisionOpinionDemocracyIssuesSmartAdvantageVoteIntelligentInstinctUselessGutsVotingDisagreeSmart PeopleMaking DecisionsCluelessPolitical IssuesGut InstinctHighly Intelligent
Author:Scott Adams
Create image

“By sort of combining the research of a lot of smart people, I came up with an equation for dread [dread=uncontrollability+unfamiliarity+imaginability+suffering+scale of destruction+unfairness]. The dread equation is a simplification, but it's a way to explain why we fear something so much when it is so unlikely. Part of it is the lack of control. That's why we're more scared of plane crashes than car crashes even though we know rationally which is more dangerous.”

PeopleKnowsWaySufferingDangerousCarSmartResearchDestructionScaredScalesPlanesDreadCrashEquationsUnlikelySmart PeopleCombiningSimplificationUnfairnessCar CrashPlane CrashesLack Of Control
Author:Amanda Ripley
Create image

“I think making a great action movie is one of the hardest cinematic endeavors. By definition, smart characters avoid action. Smart people don't go down dark alleys, but if you're making an action movie and you want to have an action sequence, somehow you have to get that character into that dangerous situation.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWantCharacterActionDarkSituationDangerousSmartDefinitionsHardestEndeavorSequenceAlleysSmart PeopleAction MovieCinematicDangerous SituationsDark Alleys
Author:Doug Liman
Create image

“I try to write for highest common denominator. I don't write for dumb people. I figure if everybody doesn't get it, that's OK. Someone bright enough will get it, and that's who I write for. It's probably not the way to make million-sellers. What can I say? I won't apologize for trying to write for smart people.”

PeopleIfsWayWritingTryingEnoughCommonMillionsFiguresHighestSmartDumbApologizingSmart PeopleSellersCommon DenominatorDumb People
Author:Paul Westerberg
Create image

“I have a great affection for people who are intellectually engaged with the world, and who don't treat everything superficially. And I think, when people talk about nerdiness, what they're really talking about is smart people who who are trying to think hard about the world. And I don't think that's an insult, I think that's a great thing.”

PeopleThinkingWorldTryingHardTalkingSmartTreatsAffectionGreat ThingsEngagedInsultSmart PeopleNerdiness
Author:John Green
Create image

“...People need to ask, "How do I play the hand that has been dealt me?" The world is not going to give you extra return just because you want it. You have to be very shrewd and hard working to get a little extra. It's so much easier to reduce your wants. There are a lot of smart people and a lot of them cheat, so it's not easy to win.”

PeopleWorldWantNeedsGivingLittlesHas BeensHardPlayHandsAsksWinningEasyHard WorkReturnEasierSmartExtrasCheatSmart People
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“The hedge fund known as "Long Term Capital Management" collapsed last fall through overconfidence in its highly leveraged methods, despite I.Q.'s of its principals that must have averaged 160. Smart people aren't exempt from professional disasters from overconfidence. Often, they just run aground in the more difficult voyages they choose, relying on their self-appraisals that they have superior talents and methods.”

PeopleLongSelfRunningLastsFallDifficultTermKnownTalentSmartManagementMethodDisasterSuperiorsDespiteLong TermFundPrincipalVoyagesSmart PeopleAppraisalHedge FundOverconfidence
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“When we were young, there weren't very many smart people in the investment world. You should have seen the people in the bank trust departments. Now, there are armies of smart people at private investment funds, etc . If there were a crisis now, there would be a lot more people with a lot of money ready to take advantage.”

PeopleIfsWorldShouldWould BeYoungReadySmartAdvantageShould HaveArmyCrisisInvestmentDepartmentEtcFundLots Of MoneySmart People
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“I was an advocate of the deregulation movement and I made - along with a lot of other smart people - a fundamental mistake. The financial industry undergirded the entire economy and if it is made riskier by deregulation and collapses in widespread bankruptcies as what happened in 2008, the entire economy freezes because it runs on credit.”

PeopleIfsMadeRunningMistakeEconomyHappenedMovementIndustrySmartFundamentalsFinancialCreditCollapseFreezeBankruptcySmart PeopleDeregulation
Author:Bill O'Reilly
Create image

“I was an advocate of the deregulation movement and I made - along with a lot of other smart people - a fundamental mistake, which is that deregulation works fine in industries which do not pervade the economy. The financial industry undergirded the entire economy and if it is made riskier by deregulation and collapses in widespread bankruptcies as what happened in 2008, the entire economy freezes because it runs on credit.”

PeopleIfsMadeSaidRunningMistakeEconomyHappenedMovementFineIndustrySmartFundamentalsFinancialAppearanceCreditCollapseFreezeViewpointsBankruptcySmart PeopleDeregulation
Author:Richard Posner
Create image

“I think there ought to be some serious discussion by smart people, really smart people, about whether or not proliferation of things like The Smoking Gun and TMZ and YouTube and the whole celebrity culture is healthy. We've switched from a culture that was interested in manufacturing, economics, politics - trying to play a serious part in the world - to a culture that's really entertainment-based. I mean, I know people who can tell you who won the last four seasons on American Idol and they don't know who their [bleeping] Representatives are.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldTryingMeanPlayWholeLastsCultureFourSeriousOughtHealthySmartGunEconomicsSeasonsEntertainmentDiscussionSmokingIdolsRepresentativesYoutubeManufacturingSmart PeopleProliferationReally SmartAmerican IdolFour SeasonsCelebrity Culture
Author:Stephen King
Create image

“Too, some of my teachers helped me to navigate those books, showed me the maps and paths and secret decoder rings - people like Linda Kintz and Forest Pyle and Mary Wood and Diana Abu Jaber. They didn't treat me like a messy writer girl in combat boots who had infiltrated the smart people room. They treated me like I deserved to be there, potty mouth and all, they helped make a space for me to rage and ride my own intellect. That's why I'm saying their names out loud.”

PeopleBookGirlNamesMy OwnSpaceRoomsSecretPathTeacherSmartMouthsTreatsWoodsIntellectRageRingsForestsTreatedLoudMapsCombatBootsMaryMessyNavigateSmart PeopleDianaPottyCombat BootsPotty Mouth
Author:Lidia Yuknavitch
Create image

“When I was trying to figure out why lives have improved so much in the last 300 years, where we've gone from a third of kids dying before 5 to - by 1990 it was down to 10% - now it's down to 5%. And saying why, over all history, there were smart people, but that number didn't change. Average life span didn't change. What's magical about what's been deemed the Industrial Revolution? It's really energy intensity.”

PeopleTryingYearsKidsLastsEnergyNumbersGoneDyingFiguresRevolutionSmartThirdsAverageIntensitySmart PeopleIndustrial RevolutionLife SpanAverage Life
Author:Bill Gates
Create image

“It was a time of turmoil at colleges and universities. And I saw some very smart people and very privileged people behaving irresponsibly. And I couldn't help making a contrast between some of the worst of what I saw on the campus and the good sense and the decency of the people back in my own community.”

PeopleHelpingCommunityMy OwnSawsWorstCollegeSmartUniversityContrastPrivilegedDecencyGood SenseTurmoilCampusSmart PeopleVery SmartColleges And Universities
Author:Samuel Alito
Create image