“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.”
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), quoted in New York Times, March 19, 1940

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940), “The Crack-Up” (1936)

“It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.”
G. H. Hardy (1877 – 1947)

“Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare.”
Harriet Martineau (1802 – 1876)

“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.”
Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924)

“To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it, requires brains.”
Mary Pettibone Poole, A Glass Eye at a Keyhole, 1938

“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)

“Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil.”
Unknown

“Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.”
Bertolt Brecht (German poet and playwright, 1898-1956)

“I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.”
Socrates (Ancient Greek Philosopher, 470 BC-399 BC)

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
Ernest Hemingway (American novelist and short-story writer, Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, 1899-1961)

“I’ve always felt that a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.”
Abigail Adams (First Lady (1797-1801), wife of John Adams, 2nd US president, and mother of John Quincy Adams, 6th US president, 1744-1818)

“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.”
Rene Descartes (French Mathematician, Philosopher and Scientist, 1596-1650)

“Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.”
Dr. Carl Sagan (American Astronomer, Writer and Scientist, 1934-1996)

“Belief is the death of intelligence.”
Robert Anton Wilson

“Genius always finds itself a century too early.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Intellectuals solve problems. Geniuses prevent them.”
Albert Einstein