The clever people never listen, and the stupid people never talk.
people clever listen talk stupid
A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savor of it. Let him act like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach.
strength ability man men knowing wise clever limits height act arrow great paths aid
A book is like a man clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers
reading man age thought beautiful book flight clever brave ugly reminder dull wet
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
man wise questions clever answers
Clever people seem not to feel the natural pleasure of bewilderment, and are always answering questions when the chief relish of a life is to go on asking them.
life intelligence people questions clever feel pleasure natural
I never make stupid mistakes. Only very, very clever ones.
mistakes clever stupid
Most people tire of a lecture in 10 minutes clever people can do it in 5. Sensible people never go to lectures at all.
people clever
Josh Billings said, It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems.
age human world running clever variety difficult rich modern thing
I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry that is prose words in their best orderpoetry the best words in the best order.
poetry order nature definitions clever words remember poets prose young
Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue more clever than another.
society education clever
Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous.
favors history human clever natural
A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
man clever understand stupid
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.' The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the turtle standing on' 'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the little old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
man world earth smile clever stars end sun astronomy public young galaxy lady scientist
There is no accident so disastrous that a clever man cannot derive some profit from it nor any so fortunate that a fool cannot turn it to his disadvantage.
accident man age clever fool profit
When you argue with your inferiors, you convince them of only one thing they are as clever as you.
clever thing
There is no bore like a clever bore.
clever bore
The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games which it is most attached is called, "Keep tomorrow dark," and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. Then they go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.
doubt race people men games fun human dark prophet clever readers end beginning tomorrow listen grow simple dead wait great
I would prefer as friend a good man ignorant than one more clever who is evil too.
man evil good clever friend ignorant
.. And there I suddenly found my articulate self in a dazzling land of smiling, jostling people wearing and not wearing all sorts of costumes and doing all sorts of clever things. And that's when I knew! What other life could there be but that of an actor?
life people actor smiling clever things found land actorsandacting
I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-Second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our private lives; The unmentiona
anger earth fear bright clever hopes lives afraid
Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.
man men truth animals clever animal
No mistake is so commonly made by clever people as that of assuming a cause to be bad because the arguments of its supporters are, to a great extent, nonsensical
mistakes people clever bad mistake arguments great made
Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.
race misfortune invention man human clever nonsense curse books
Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time
people time chess clever foolish
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
funny understanding clever word understand single cleverness t-shirt
Showing 1 to 25 of 150 results
You must log in to post a comment.
There are no comments yet.