“The obstinancy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinancy of folly and inanity.”
Source: Little Foxes (1865), Ch. 4.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Harriet Beecher Stowe 87
Abolitionist, author 1811–1896Related quotes

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Book I, On Production, Chapter XVII, Section IV, P. 196
Source: Paradoxes of Faith (1987), Ch. X. "Man", p. 136

Source: The Book of My Life (1930), Ch. 13 Customs, Vices and Errors

Pourquoi ne pas en finir? se dit-il enfin; pourquoi cette obstination à lutter contre le destin qui m'accable? J'ai beau faire les plans de conduite les plus raisonnables en apparence, ma vie n'est qu'une suite de malheurs et de sensations amères. Ce mois-ci ne vaut pas mieux que le mois passé; cette année-ci ne vaut pas mieux que l'autre année; d'où vient cette obstination à vivre? Manquerais-je de fermeté? Qu'est-ce que la mort? se dit-il en ouvrant la caisse de ses pistolets et les considérant. Bien peu de chose en vérité; il faut être fou pour s'en passer.
Source: Armance (1827), Ch. 2

Letter to his future wife, Elsie Moll Kachel (23 April 1916) as published in Letters of Wallace Stevens (1966) edited by Holly Stevens, No. 202

“Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.”
16 February 1868
Journal Intime (1882), Journal entries
Context: Clever men will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness; every authority rouses their ridicule, every superstition amuses them, every convention moves them to contradiction. Only force finds favor in their eyes, and they have no toleration for anything that is not purely natural and spontaneous. And yet ten clever men are not worth one man of talent, nor ten men of talent worth one man of genius. And in the individual, feeling is more than cleverness, reason is worth as much as feeling, and conscience has it over reason. If, then, the clever man is not mockable, he may at least be neither loved, nor considered, nor esteemed. He may make himself feared, it is true, and force others to respect his independence; but this negative advantage, which is the result of a negative superiority, brings no happiness with it. Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

“There is nothing so clever as people you agree with.”
Quoted by Helle Thorning-Schmidt on the occasion of Margrethe II's Ruby Jubilee. Speech http://kongehuset.dk/Menu/nyheder/statsministerens-tale-ved-gallataflet (15 January 2012)
Misc.