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INSULTS --- INSURANCE --- INTEGRITY
INTELLECTUALS --- INTELLIGENCE
INTENTIONS

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INSULTS

see "COMMUNICATION" for related links
see "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for related links


A thick skin is a gift from God.
--Konrad Adenauer (1876—1967)
German statesman.
In "New York Times" [30 December 1959].

If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread,
they can sure make something out of you.
--Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay) (1942— )
American heavyweight boxer.

She was okay. There was nothing wrong with her
that a vasectomy of the vocal cords would not fix.
--Lisa Alther

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician:
a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
--Aristophanes (c. 450—c. 388 BC)
Greek comic dramatist.

^

Lady Astor once remarked to Winston Churchill at
a dinner party, "Winston, if you were my husband,
I would poison your coffee!" Winston replied,
"Madam if I were your husband I would drink it!"

^

No man can humiliate me or disturb me. I won't let him.
--Bernard Baruch (1870—1965)
American financier.

He brings to the fierce struggle of politics the
tepid enthusiasm of a lazy summer afternoon at a
cricket match.
--Aneurin Bevan (1897—1960)
British Labour politician.

A fool shows his annoyance at once,
but a prudent man overlooks an insult.
--Bible
"Proverbs" 12:16 NIV

It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs
Carlyle marry one another and so make only two
people miserable instead of four.
--Samuel Butler (1835—1902)
English novelist, essayist, and critic.
Letter to Miss E.M.A. Savage [21 November 1884].

-

Richard Porson:
Yes, Mr. Southey is indeed a wonderful poet. He
will be read when Homer and Virgil are forgotten.

Byron:
But not till then.

--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
As quoted in John Berryman's _Love and Fame_ [1970], "The Other Cambridge".

-

He has all the virtues I dislike and
none of the vices I admire.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].

It is always easier to hear an insult and not retaliate than have the
courage to fight back against someone stronger than yourself; we can
always say we're not hurt by the stones others throw at us, and it's
only at night - when we're alone and our wife or our husband or our
school friend is asleep - that we can silently grieve over our own
cowardice.
--Paulo Coelho (1947— )
Brazilian lyricist and novelist.

A moral, sensible, and well-bred man,
Will not affront me, and no other can.
--William Cowper (1731—1800)
English poet and hymnodist.
_Conversation_, l. 193

He'd make a lovely corpse.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_Martin Chuzzlewit_ [1843-1844], Chapter 25

A gentleman will not insult me, and no
man not a gentleman can insult me.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey]
(c.1818—1895)
American abolitionist, reformer, and writer.

I feel that there is reason lurking in you somewhere,
so we will patiently grope round for it.
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930)
Scottish-born writer of detective fiction.
_The Lost World_

He is not only dull in himself, but the
cause of dullness in others.
--Samuel Foote (1720—1777)
English dramatist and actor.

Something of the code of the Southern gentleman has
survived and differentiates us...Southerners can be
insulted. With some Easterners, it's impossible.
--Shelby Foote (1916—2005)
American author.

The first human to hurl an insult instead of a stone,
was the founder of civilization.
--attributed to Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Austrian psychiatrist.

Your main Fault is, you are good for nothing.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_, 6054 [1732]

I hate the man who builds his name
On ruins of another's fame.
--John Gay (1685—1732)
English poet and dramatist.
_Fables_, pt. 1 [1727],
"The Poet and the Rose"

When they circumcised him they threw away the wrong bit.
--David Lloyd George (1863—1945)
Welsh-born British Prime Minister [1916—1922].
(On his Liberal Party colleague Sir Herbert Samuel.)

No one can have a higher opinion of him than I have,
and I think he's a dirty little beast.
--W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911)
English writer of comic and satirical verse.

[On the 'woolly-bearded poet' Sturge Moore] A
sheep in sheep's clothing.
--Edmund Gosse (1849—1928)
English translator and literary historian.

[On being criticised by Sir Geoffery Howe] Like being
savaged by dead sheep.
--Denis Healey (1917— )
British economist and statesman, writer,
and chancellor of the Exchequer [1974-1979].

Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid
moments when he was merely stupid.
--Heinrich Heine (1797—1856)
German poet.
Said of Savoye, appointed ambassador to Frankfurt by Lamartine [1848].

When you're away, I'm restless, lonely, Wretched,
bored, dejected; only here's the rub, my darling
dear, I feel the same when you're near.
--Samuel Hoffenstein (1890—1947)
Russian-born Hollywood screenwriter.

Never insult an alligator until after you have
crossed the river.
--Cordell Hull (1871—1955)
American lawyer, U.S. Senator and
Secretary of State for FDR.

He's simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.
--Paul Keating (1944— )
24th Prime Minister of Australia [1993—1996].

May your soul be forever tormented by fire and your
bones be dug up by dogs and dragged through the
streets of Minneapolis.
--Garrison Keillor (1942— )
American writer and radio host.

Curse the blasted, jelly-boned swines, the slimy, the
belly-wriggling invertebrates, the miserable sodding
rotters, the flaming sods, the snivelling, dribbling,
dithering, palsied, pulseless lot that make up England
today. They've got white of egg in their veins, and
their spunk is that watery it's a marvel they can
breed. They can nothing but frog-spawn - the
gibberers! God, how I hate them!
--D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence (1885—1930)
English novelist and poet.
Letter to Edward Garnett [3 July 1912].

I would insult you, but you wouldn't understand.
So I won't.
--Barry F. Lenin III

^

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742—1799)
German physicist and satirist.

One day a person not noted for his tact made a
slighting remark to Lichtenberg about his notably
large ears. Lichtenberg replied: 'Well, just think
of it — with my ears and your brains we'd make
a perfectly splendid ass, wouldn't we?'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

He can compress the most words into the
smallest idea of any man I know.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

There's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in
high society . . . outside a kennel.
--Clare Boothe Luce (1903—1987)
American playwright and politician.
_The Women_ [1936]

The only gracious way to accept an insult is
to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it;
if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't
laugh at it, it's probably deserved.
--Russell Lynes (1910—1991)
American art critic.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury
itself disappears.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.

You've got the brains of a four year old boy, and
I bet he was glad to get rid of it.
--Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895—1977)
American film comedian.

Every word she [Lillian Hellman] writes is a lie,
including 'and' and 'the'.
--Mary McCarthy (1912—1989)
American novelist.

The President is nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. . . . I went to
the White House directly after tea where I found the original Gorilla about
as intelligent as ever. What a specimen to be at the head of our affairs
now!
--George B. McClellan (1826—1885)
American Union general during the
Civil War.
On President Abraham Lincoln.

It is the insult and not the injury
that makes the deeper wounds.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
"The Politician" _Prejudices: Fourth Series_ [1924]

A wise man is superior to any insults which can
be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly
behavior is patience and moderation.
--Jean Moliθre [Jean Baptiste Poquelin]
(1622—1673) French comic dramatist.
_The Would-be Gentleman_

New Zealanders who leave for Australia
raise the IQ of both countries.
--Sir Robert Muldoon (1921—1992)
Prime Minister of New Zealand [1975—1984].

JOURNALIST: 'Hey Joe [Namath],' How did you
do in Basket Weaving at [the University of] Alabama?'
Joe Namath: 'I flunked out, I switched to something
easier--journalism.'

To add insult to injury.
--Gaius Julius Phaedrus (c. 15 B.C.— c. 50 A.D.)
The versifier of Aesop's Fables in Latin.
_Fables_ bk. 5

At ev'ry Trifle scorn to take Offense,
That always shows Great Pride, or Little Sense.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
_An Essay on Criticism_ [1711]

You call yourself some kind of goddess and you know
nothing, madam, nothing. What don't die can't live.
What don't live can't change. What don't change can't
learn. The smallest creature that dies in the grass
knows more than you. You're right. I'm older. You've
lived longer than me but I'm older than you. And
better'n you. And madam, that ain't hard.
--Terry Pratchett (1948— )
English science fiction writer.
_Lords and Ladies_ [1992]

-

A truly noble nature cannot be insulted.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.
_Moral Sayings_, #369, tr. Darius Lyman Jr. [1862]


A man of courage never endures an insult;
an honorable man never offers one.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.
_Moral Sayings_, #997, tr. Darius Lyman Jr. [1862]

-

He is a man of splendid abilities, but utterly
corrupt. He shines and stinks like a rotten
mackerel by moonlight.
--John Randolph (1773—1833)
American political leader who was an important
proponent of the doctrine of states' rights in
opposition to a strong centralized government {EB}.
On Edward Livingston, quoted in W. Cabell Bruce
_John Randolph of Roanoke_ [1922].

-

They never open their mouths without subtracting
from the sum of human knowledge.
--Thomas Brackett Reed (1839—1902)
American lawyer and politician.


I will say to the gentleman that if I ever
'made light' of his remarks, it is more
than he ever made of them himself.
--Thomas Brackett Reed (1839—1902)
American lawyer and politician.
To William M. Springer of Illinois,
in the House of Representatives [1881].

-

People who cannot recognize a palpable absurdity
are very much in the way of civilization.
--Agnes Repplier (1855—1950)
American author.
_In Pursuit of Laughter_ [1936]

Jesse Jackson is like a seagull--he flies in, makes
a lot of noise, craps on everything, and leaves.
--T.J. Rodgers, CEO Cypress Semiconductor

[William McKinley] has no more backbone than
a chocolate eclair.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
He was irked by the President's reluctance to declare war on Spain in 1898.
In Bill Adler, comp., _Presidential Wit: From Washington to Johnson_, p.90 [1966].

It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.—65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.

-

Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause:
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist,
_The Merchant of Venice_ [1596—1597], Act III, Scene III


She speaks, yet she says nothing.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist,
_Romeo and Juliet_ [1595—1596], Act 2,
Scene 2, Line 12


A pox o' your throat! You bawling, blasphemous,
incharitable dog!
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist,
_The Tempest_ [1611—1612], Act I, Scene I


The saying is true, 'The empty vessel makes the
greatest sound.'
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist,
_King Henry V_ [1598—1599], Act 4,
Scene 4,line 72


OSWALD: What dost thou know me for?
KENT: A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud,
shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-
stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting
slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and
art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into
clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist,
_King Lear_ [1605—1606]


When he is best he is a little worse than a man, and
when he is worst he is little better than a beast.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist,
_The Merchant of Venice_ [1596—1598]

-

-

With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even
Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare
when I measure my mind against his. The intensity of my impatience with
him occasionally reaches such a pitch, that it would positively be a relief
to me to dig him up and throw stones at him, knowing as I do how incapable
he and his worshippers are of understanding any less obvious form of indignity.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]

which drew this rejoinder:

The way Bernard Shaw believes in himself is very refreshing in these
atheistic days when so many people believe in no God at all.
--Israel Zangwill (1864—1926)
Jewish spokesman and writer.


Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]
_Back to Methuselah_ [1921]

-

Commonly they use their feet for defense,
whose tongue is their weapon.
--Sir Philip Sidney (1554—1586)
English soldier, poet, and courtier.

You would need three promotions to be an asshole.
--Neil Simon (1927— )
American playwright.
_Biloxi Blues_ [1988 movie]; spoken by Sgt. Toomey.

-

Heckler: (from the crowd)
Tell 'em what's on your mind, Al. It won't
take long.

Al Smith: (grinning and pointing at the man)
Stand up, pardner, and I'll tell 'em what's on
both our minds. It won't take any longer.

--Alfred E. Smith (1873—1944)
American politician; four-time Democratic
governor of New York and the first Roman
Catholic to run for President of the U.S..
Quoted in _Time_ (magazine) [8 May 1964], "Lyndon's Fables."

-

Miss Truman is a unique American phenomenon with a pleasant voice
of little size and fair quality... yet Miss Truman cannot sing very well.
She is flat a good deal of the time... she communicates almost nothing
of the music she presents... There are few moments during her recital
when one can relax and feel confident that she will make her goal,
which is the end of the song.
--Paul Hume, music critic of the "Washington Post",
on a 1950 recital by Margaret Truman (daughter of the President).

to which President Truman replied:

I have just read your lousy review buried in the back pages. You sound
like a frustrated old man who never made a success, an eight-ulcer man
on a four-ulcer job, and all four ulcers working. I have never met you,
but if I do you'll need a new nose and plenty of beefsteak and perhaps
a supporter below.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].
To "Washington Post" critic Paul Hume.

-

-

It is discouraging to try and penetrate a mind like yours.
You ought to get it out and dance on it. That would take
some of the rigidity out of it.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.


He is useless on top of the ground; he aught
to be under it, inspiring the cabbages.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
"Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"
_Pudd'nhead Wilson_ [1894]


You take the lies out of him and he'll shrink
to the size of your hat; you take the malice
out of him and he'll disappear.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Life on the Mississippi_ [1883]

-

His mother should have thrown him away
and kept the stork.
--Mae West (1893—1980)
American stage and film actress.

-

Some cause happiness wherever they
go; others, whenever they go.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.


He has no enemies, but is intensely
disliked by his friends.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.

-

[Earl of Sandwich:] "Pon my soul, Wilkes, I don't know whether
you'll die upon the gallows or of the pox."
[Wilkes:] "That depends, my Lord, whether I first embrace your
Lordship's principles, or your Lordship's mistresses."
--John Wilkes (1725—1797)
English journalist and politician.
In Sir Charles Petrie _The Four Georges_ [1935].

-

J. W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy): "You bastard."
Henry "Rico" Fardan (Lee Marvin): "Yes sir. In my case,
an accident of birth. But you, sir, you're a self-made
man."
--"The Professionals" [1966 film]

--

It's not just the ups and downs that make
life difficult. It's the jerks.
--Alfred E. Neuman [MAD magazine]

Insults are effective only where emotions are present.
--Spock,
character in "Star Trek"

They do say, Mrs M, that verbal insults hurt more
than physical pain. They are, of course, wrong, as
you will soon discover when I stick this toasting
fork into your head.
--dialogue, "Sense and Senility" Black Adder [Edmund]

-----

effrontery ih-FRUN-tuh-ree, noun:
Insulting presumptuousness; shameless
boldness; insolence.




INSURANCE

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.

see "HOME & FAMILY" for related links


The insurance policy was a guarantee that, no matter
how many necessities a man had to forego all through
life, death was something to which he could look
forward.
--Fred Allen [John Florence Sullivan] (1894-1956)
American humorist,
_Much Ado About Me_ [1956]

It seems to me that the only result of compulsory
insurance for motor vehicles would be that nobody
would care and accidents would increase.
--Lord Banbury [1925]

Insurance: An ingenious modern game of chance in
which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable
conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the
table.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist

I detest life-insurance agents; they argue that
some day I shall die, which is not so.
--Stephen Butler Leacock (1869-1944)
Canadian humorist

-

In the late 60s, Mad magazine had a quip about life
insurance being a gamble in which you lose if you
win, and win if you lose.

---

Below are actual insurance claim form gaffes [c. 1999]. These are from the collection made
by Norwich Union [Automobile insurance company] for their annual Christmas magazine.

"I started to slow down but the traffic was more stationary than I thought."

"I pulled into a lay-by with smoke coming from under the bonnet. I realised the car was on fire so took
my dog out and smothered it with a blanket."

Q: Could either driver have done anything to avoid the accident?
A: Travelled by bus?

A Norwich Union customer collided with a cow. The questions and answers on the claim form were:
Q - What warning was given by you?
A - Horn
Q - What warning was given by the other party?
A - Moo

"On approach to the traffic lights the car in front suddenly broke."

"I didn't think the speed limit applied after midnight."

"I knew the dog was possessive about the car but I would not have asked her to drive it if I had
thought there was any risk."

"Windscreen broken. Cause unknown. Probably Voodoo."




INTEGRITY

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.

see "CHARACTER" for related links


Integrity has no need of rules.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won
the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.

No more duty can be urged upon those who
are entering the great theater of life than
simple loyalty to their best convictions.
--Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1814—1880)
American clergyman and author.
In Joan F. Marques
_Empower The Leader In You!_, p. 18 [2004].

Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of trick
and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple
integrity in another.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words;
Addressed to Those Who Think_ [1820]

The strength of a nation derives
from the integrity of the home.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.

One of the most important ways to manifest integrity
is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing
so, we build the trust of those who are present.
--Stephen Covey (1932— )
American author.

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably
integrity. Without it, no real success is possible,
no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football
field, in an army, or in an office.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953—1961].

Integrity simple means not violating one's own identity.
--Erich Fromm (1900—1980)
American philosopher and psychologist.

Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the
belief that as a people we can live above the level of
moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical
community is a corrupt community.
--John W. Gardner (1912—2002)
American administrator.

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think
only on those things that are in line with your
principles and can bear the full light of day.
The content of your character is your choice.
Day by day, what you choose, what you think,
and what you do is who you become. Your
integrity is your destiny — it is the light
that guides your way.
--Heraclitus (c.535—475 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless,
and knowledge without integrity is dangerous
and dreadful.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_Rasselas_ [1759]

You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.
--Bobby Jones [Robert Tyre Jones Jr.] (1902—1971)
American golfer, winner of the 1930 "grand slam."
(On penalizing himself one stroke, the margin of his defeat,
in a national championship golf match after driving his ball
into the woods and, unseen, accidentally nudging it.
In Alistair Cooke _America_ [1973].)

If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart
were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be
well-nigh useless, since their chief purpose is to
make us bear with patience the injustice of our
fellows.
--Jean Moliθre [Jean Baptiste Poquelin]
(1622—1673) French comic dramatist.
_Le Misanthrope_ [1666], act V, sc. i

And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is?
The ability not to pick a watch out of your neighbor's
pocket? No, it's not as easy as that. If that were all,
I'd say that ninety-five percent of humanity were honest,
upright men. Only, as you can see, they aren't. Integrity
is the ability to stand by an idea.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_The Fountainhead_ [1943] Part Two, "Ellsworth M. Toohey", Ch. 10

Integrity is doing the right thing,
even if nobody is watching.
--Jim Stovall

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual
superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do
wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_What is Man_ [1906], sec. 6

Integrity and firmness are all I can promise. These, be the
voyage long or short, shall never forsake me, although I
may be deserted by all men.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
Letter to Henry Knox [1 April 1789] (1 month before assuming the Presidency).

-----

probity [PRO-buh-tee], noun:
Complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness.



INTELLECTUALS

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.

see "KNOWLEDGE" for related links


One historically important type of expert...is the
intellectual, whom we may define as an expert whose
expertise is not wanted by the society at large.
--Peter Berger,
_The Social Construction of Reality_

Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are
of more importance than values. That is to say,
their own ideas and other people's values.
--Gerald Brenan (1894—1987)
British travel writer and novelist.

An 'intellectual' is a man who takes more words than he
needs to say more than he knows.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953—1961].

The world's great men have not commonly been great
scholars, nor its great scholars great men.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
_The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_ [1858]

Intellectuals (especially professors) tend to become
silly because they are never called upon to make
decisions upon which very much depends.
--Leo Rosten (1908—1997)
Polish-born American writer and social scientist.

I've made an odd discovery. Everytime I talk to a genius
I feel quite sure that joy and happiness is no longer a
possibility. Yet, when I talk with my gardener, I'm
convinced of the opposite; joy and happiness is just
around the corner.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.

What is a highbrow? He is a man who has
found something more interesting than
women.
--Edgar Wallace (1875—1932)
English thriller writer.
Also attributed to others.



INTELLIGENCE

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.

see "KNOWLEDGE" for related links


It is impossible to underrate human
intelligence--beginning with one's own.
--Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918)
American historian & man of letters.

She hung up and I set out the chess board. I filled a pipe, paraded the
chessmen and inspected them for French shaves and loose buttons, and
played a championship tournament game between Gortchakoff and Meninkin,
seventy-two moves to a draw, a prize specimen of the irresistible force
meeting the immovable object, a battle without armour, a war without blood,
and as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you could find anywhere
outside an advertising agency.
--Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)
American writer of detective fiction.
_The Long Goodbye_, Chapter 24

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence
and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have
great sadness on earth.
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881),
Russian novelist, journalist, and short story writer.
_Crime and Punishment_ [1866], ch. V, pt. III

'Excellent,' I cried.
'Elementary,' said he.
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
Scottish-born writer of detective fiction.
_The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes_ [1894]
('Elementary,my dear Watson' is not found in any book by Conan Doyle
but is first found in P.G.Wodehouse _Psmith Journalist_ [1915] ODTQ.)

One has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be
able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence
is when confronted with what exists. If such humility could
be conveyed to everybody, the world of human activities
would be more appealing.
--Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.
In Mark Winokur _Einstein, A Portrait_ [1984].

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)
American novelist.
In "Esquire" [February 1936] _The Crack-Up_.

I now know all the people worth knowing in
America, and I find no intellect comparable
to my own.
--[Sarah] Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)
American critic, teacher, and woman of letters.
In Robert Chambers _The Book of Days_, p. 68.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what
is necessary is only to try to think of them again.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
_Proverbs in Prose_

Happiness in intelligent people is
the rarest thing I know.
--Ernest Hemingway (1889-1961)
American novelist.

Don't take up a man's time talking about the smartness of
your children; he wants to talk to you about the smartness
of his children.
--Edgar Watson Howe (1854-1937)
American journalist and author.

The only means of strengthening one's intellect
is to make up one's mind about nothing - to let
the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.
--John Keats (1795-1821)
English poet.

No one in this world, so far as I know--and I have searched
the records for years, and employed agents to help me--
has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence
of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has any one
ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is always
made runs the other way. Because the plain people are
able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases,
to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in
their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption
is folly. They dislike ideas, for ideas make them
uncomfortable.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880-1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
"Notes on Journalism",
_Chicago Tribune_ [19 September 1926]

If a man's talk is commonplace and his
writing distinguished, it means that his
talent lies in the place from which he
borrows and not in himself.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592)
French moralist and essayist.
_Essays_, bk. 3, ch. 2

New Zealanders who leave for Australia
raise the IQ of both countries.
--Sir Robert Muldoon (1921—1992)
Prime Minister of New Zealand [1975—1984].

^

From the Blue Earth (Minn.) Faribault County Register.

About 18,000 deer in the state will take part in a
postcard survey asking them to report information
about wild turkey sightings while hunting.
--_New Yorker_ (magazine) [24 December 2007]

^

We get too soon old and too late smart.
--Pennsylvania Dutch proverb

Erudition, like a bloodhound, is a charming thing when
held firmly in leash, but it is not so attractive when
turned loose upon a defenseless, unerudite public.
--Agnes Repplier (1855-1950)
American author.
_Points of View_ [1891]

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.
--George Santayana (1863-1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.
"Against Prying Philosophers" in
_Little Essays_ [1920]

-

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
German philosopher.
"Our Relation to Others" sec. 23, in
_Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer_, tr. T. Bailey Saunders


Great minds are like eagles, and build
their nests in some lofty solitude.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
German philosopher.
_Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer_ [1851], "Counsels and Maxims"

-

Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor:
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich.
--William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
English dramatist.
_The Taming of the Shrew_ [1593-1594]

Intelligence alone, without wisdom and empathy for suffering, is hollow.
--John G. Stoessinger (1927- )
Political analyst, teacher, and author.
_Why Nations Go to War_ [1974]

An intelligent woman is a woman with whom
one can be stupid as one wants.
--Paul Valιry (1871-1945)
French poet.
"Mauvaises Pensιes et Autres" [1941]

Brains are never a handicap to a girl if she
hides them under a see-through blouse.
--Bobby Vinton (1935- )
American singer.


TOPICAL

Not surprisingly, many of the same millions who call Bush dumb consider
Bill Clinton the White House's most brilliant occupant. ...

Indeed, the zeitgeist was not surprised when the Lovenstein Institute
of Scranton, Pennsylvania, led by Dr. Werner R. Lovenstein and Professor
Patricia F. Dilliams, released its study ranking the IQs of every president
over the last 50 years and found that first among them, with a 182, was
Bill Clinton. He was followed, in order, by Jimmy Carter, John F. Kennedy,
Richard Nixon, and Franklin Roosevelt (so much for 50 years).

As for the dumbest chief executives, they were, in descending order,
Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and--brace yourself--his son, the
current president, whose 91 charts in at exactly half of Clinton's.

The results were so alarming--ohmygod, our president is a complete
doofus!--they were forwarded via e-mail tens of millions of times, from
one concerned citizen to another, and impelled Garry Trudeau to compose
a Doonesbury strip around Bush's low "intelligence quota."

Just one problem. There is no Lovenstein Institute, no Dr. Lovenstein,
no Professor Dilliams. That the Internet ruse spread so quickly, without
anyone bothering to immediately verify the results (it was "a fact too
good to check," as they say at the New York Times), frankly explains
more about our culture than it does about our president.

--Joel Engel, "Too Smart To Be So Dumb",
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/730avutr.asp

---

TRIVIA: The animal with the largest brain in
proportion to its size is the ant.

-----

acuity uh-KYOO-uh-tee, noun:
Acuteness of perception or vision; sharpness.
Ex.: They fail to understand how a person can hold beliefs
so contrary to theirs and still retain any mental acuity.
--Charles Krauthammer,
"Why Bush Will Win", _Washington Post_ [3 November 2000]

discursive (adj.)
1. Ranging over numerous topics, esp. in an orderly or
coherent way.
2. Proceeding by reason rather than intuition, as an
argument or discourse.
Synonyms: deductive
Similar: rational, logical, inductive, reasonable.

effulgent (adj.) [κ-'fκl-jκnt ]
Shining brilliantly, resplendent,
emitting a brilliant light.

perspicacity (noun)
Keenness of mental perception or grasp; astuteness.
Synonyms: perceptiveness, perceptive,
astuteness, wit, discernment, acuity
Similar: acumen, awareness, shrewdness,
intelligence, sagacity, discrimination,
insight
Related: vision, aptitude, comprehension, intuition,
discrimination, understanding, insight

precocious (adj.)
Mentally advanced for age: developed or mature, especially
mentally, at an unusually early age, or showing such advanced
development

sagacious (adj.) [sκ-'gey-shκs]
Having keen mental powers, shrewd,
sound in judgment, extremely wise.




INTENTIONS

.
.

see: "GOOD INTENTIONS"
see: "PLANS"


Hell is full of good intentions or desires.
--St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090—1153)
Cistercian monk and mystic; the founder
and abbot of the abbey of Clairvaux.

A truth that's told with bad intent,
beats all the lies you can invent.
--William Blake (1757-1827)
English poet

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect
liberty when the government's purpose is beneficent. Men
born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their
liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty
lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning
but without understanding.
--Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)
American lawyer and associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court [1916-1939],
in "Olmstead et al. vs. United States,"
277 U.S. 438, 478 [1928]

The evil that is in the world almost always comes
of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much
harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won
the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
'The Plague'

There's nothing we read of in torture's inventions
Like a well-meaning dunce with the best of intentions.
--James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)
American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat,
_A Fable for Critics_ [1848]

To be always intending to make a new and better life
but never to find time to set about it is as... to put
off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day to
the next until you're dead.
--Og Mandino (1923-1996)
American author and motivational speaker

If I had the time, and there were no sweeter follies
offering, I should like to write an essay on the books
that have quite failed of achieving their original
purposes, and are yet of respectable use and potency
for other purposes. For example, [...] turn to
"Gulliver's Travels." The thing was planned by its
rev. author as a devastating satire, a terrible piece
of cynicism; it survives as a story-book for sucklings.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880-1956)
American journalist and literary critic,
_Damn! A Book of Calumny_ [1918]

Everyone worked according to his capacity . . . . Nobody
shirked--or almost nobody. . . the behavior of the cat
was somewhat peculiar. It was soon noticed that when
there was work to be done the cat could never be found.
She would vanish for hours on end, and then reappear at
meal-times, or in the evening after work was over, as
though nothing had happened. But she always made such
excellent excuses, and purred so affectionately, that
it was impossible not to believe her good intentions.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903-1950)
English novelist,
_Animal Farm [1945], Chapter 3

We all remember how many religious wars were fought for
a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were
burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving
souls from the eternal fire of hell.
--Karl Popper (1902-1994)
Austrian-born British philosopher of science


Over the course of the succeeding decades, as the laws of war --
or, as they came to be known, international humanitarian law --
evolved and expanded, the ICRC [International Committee of the Red
Cross] became the legally recognized guardian of these regulations.
And yet, the paradox of the success of the Red Cross movement, the
advance of international law, and, after World War II, the worldwide
diffusion of the concept of human rights and new authority for it,
is that all these developments coincide not with a new era in which
Kant's perpetual peace was ushered in, but rather with the hideous
course of the twentieth century itself. No century has had better
norms and worse realities. In the period from the signing of the
first Geneva Convention and the subsequent conferences of 1899 and
1907 in The Hague, to the outbreak of World War I, the rights of
individuals in wartime were expanded, "aggressive force" was
outlawed, and protections for civilians were expanded. Then came
the mass slaughter in the trenches of World War I and the Armenian
genocide to make a mockery of all that.

In the aftermath of that war, in a Europe shocked by the toll exacted
by gas attacks, another Hague conference outlawed the use of poison
gas and other forms of chemical and biological warfare. Three years later,
the Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawed war itself. Those whom the gods wish
to destroy they first allow to set international legal norms. Nine years
later, the Japanese army was murdering Chinese civilians by the hundreds
of thousands in Nanking. Four years after that, the Germans put in motion
the Final Solution. Four years after that, twenty million Russians were
dead and Europe was in ruins.

--David Rieff,
_A Bed For the Night, Humanitarianism In Crisis_


In all the ills which befall us, we look more at the
intention than the effect. A tile which falls from
the house may hurt more, but does not vex us so much
as a stone thrown designedly by an ill-natured hand.
--Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
French philosopher and novelist

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
Layin' in the sun,
Talkin' bout the things
They woulda-coulda-shoulda done...
But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
All ran away and hid
From one little did.
--Shel Silverstein (1930-1999)
Ameican poet and songwriter

To be always intending to live a new life, but never to
find time to set about it; this is as if a man should put
off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night
to another, till he is starved and destroyed.
--John Tillotson (1630-1694)
Archbishop of Canterbury (1691-1694)

It is a true saying, "Hell is paved with good intentions."
--John Wesley (1703-1791)
English preacher and founder, with his brother Charles,
of the Methodist movement in the Church of England


end page




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