Quotes about education and intelligence

Kurt Hahn (1886–1974) German educator

Pathways World School http://www.pathways.ac.in/round-square.asp

“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.”

Alejandro Jodorowsky (1929) Filmmaker and comics writer

As quoted in Investing with Impact: Why Finance is a Force for Good (2016) by Jeremy Balkin

“When I'm away from you
I'm happier than ever
Wish I could explain it better
I wish it wasn't true.
Give me a day or two
To think of something clever
To write myself a letter
To tell me what to do.”

Billie Eilish (2001) American singer-songwriter

Source: "Happier Than Ever" · Official video at YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GJWxDKyk3A · Performance on Saturday Night Live (12 December 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPfW6mGx1SA

“For a woman, forty is torture, the end. I think turning forty is miserable.”

Grace Kelly (1929–1982) American actress and Princess consort of Monaco

Kelly (1969) in interview with William B. Arthur. Cited in: James Spada (1988) Grace: The Secret Lives of a Princess. p. 280

“I don't believe in God, but I have this idea that if there were a God, or destiny of some kind looking down on us, that if he saw you taking anything for granted he’d take it away. So he'll be like: 'You think this is going pretty well?”

Hugh Laurie (1959) British actor, comedian, writer, musician and director

Then he'll go and send down some big disaster.
Stargazing: Heather's Angry, Jane is Ill, Hugh is Anxious Kansas City Star, Wed, Oct. 31, 2007

“My mother was mistrustful of the education system, so it was all right with her if we didn't go to school. She was taking us to Truffaut films, and I was busy getting through a Knut Hamsun book or something, so she felt satisfied we weren't wasting our lives watching The Brady Bunch. Because of where we lived, I would've had to go to Belmont High, so the year I was supposed to start high school I tried to get into the High School for the Performing Arts, which had just opened. I sent them a tape of me playing blues guitar and some short stories I'd written, but they didn't want me.”

Beck (1970) American Musician (b.1970)

LA Weekly, 23 June 2000

“The most essential and fundamental aspect of culture is the study of literature, since this is an education in how to picture and understand human situations.”

Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) British writer and philosopher

“Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea.”

Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) British writer and philosopher

“If I wanted to kill somebody, I'd take this book and beat you to death with it, and I wouldn't feel a thing.”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

NBC interview (1987)

“I can't judge any of you. I have no malice against you and no ribbons for you. But I think that it is high time that you all start looking at yourselves, and judging the lie that you live in.”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

“I think an Oscar nomination does open doors. I have been fortunate to have had some incredible roles since the movie. [Whether] the nomination had anything to do with that, I don’t know – I just know I am incredibly grateful to be getting the work that I am.”

Timothée Chalamet (1995) French-American Actor (1995)

Source: "Interview: Timothée Chalamet on being a young Hollywood actor" in SilverKris https://www.silverkris.com/interview-timothee-chalamet/ (13 December 2019)

“I almost think the chemistry, as opposed to the physical mechanics of the actual kissing or a sex scene, is more palpable in the lack of contact.”

Timothée Chalamet (1995) French-American Actor (1995)

Source: "Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer on friendship, the Oscars and that peach scene" in GQ Magazine https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/armie-hammer-timothee-chalamet-interview (17 September 2017)

“I think that’s fair, well, I don’t know if it’s fair but I think people are entitled to their own reaction.”

Timothée Chalamet (1995) French-American Actor (1995)

Source: "Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet on drugs, disillusionment and playing father and son" in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/13/steve-carell-and-timothee-chalamet-on-drugs-disillusionment-and-playing-father-and-son (13 December 2018)

“Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”

José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=1033132.html <br class="br">2004

“[Intelligence services] are poor pigs suffering from two mental illnesses: The one disease is because they never get public recognition for what they actually do. This is inevitable, as they have to work in secret. This deformes the soul. The other disease bases on the fact that they have the tendency to believe they understood the national interests of their own country much better than their own government. This latter disease is the reason that I do not trust them.”

Helmut Schmidt (1918–2015) Chancellor of West Germany 1974-1982

DIE ZEIT, 30. August 2007, Zeit.de http://www.zeit.de/2007/36/Interview-Helmut-Schmidt?page=all

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97; also in Transformation : Arts, Communication, Environment (1950) by Harry Holtzman, p. 138. This may be an edited version of some nearly identical quotes from the 1929 Viereck interview below.
1930s
Context: I believe in intuition and inspiration. … At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason. When the eclipse of 1919 confirmed my intuition, I was not in the least surprised. In fact I would have been astonished had it turned out otherwise. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.

“You must all, somewhere deep in your hearts, believe that you have a special beauty that is like no other and that is so valuable that you must not abandon it. Indeed, you must learn to cherish it.”

Sophia Loren (1934) Italian actress

“To be white, red, yellow, or black is to be a painter. Today it is not sufficient for the painter to think of colour; he should be colour, feed on colour and transform himself into painting. That is the essential thing. To feel like colour means to carry within oneself the entire range of colours, not as a treasure, but as a trust.”

Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) Dutch architect, painter, draughtsman and writer

Quote in Van Doesburg's article 'Elementarism', as cited in De Stijl – Van Doesburg Issue, January 1932, pp. 17–19
1926 – 1931

“That one mother [of victim] that gets on television all the time, who thinks I should get 33 injections, I think she ought to take 33 valiums and go lie down.”

John Wayne Gacy (1942–1994) American serial killer and torturer

Source: CBS 2 News interview (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YqB_4N6erE