“Clever men are good, but they are not the best.”
Goethe.
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)
Variant: Clever men are good, but they are not the best.
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Thomas Carlyle481
Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… 1795–1881Related quotes
G. K. Chesterton book The Napoleon of Notting Hill
Book I, Chapter II: "The Man in Green"
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)
“If men were only as wise as they are clever…”
Sean Russell (1952) author
Source: Sea Without a Shore (1996), Chapter 38 (p. 550)
“The best men are not consistent in good—why should the worst men be consistent in evil?”
Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White
Source: The Woman in White
“No one is bound to be clever, but every one is under an obligation to be good.”
Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597–1654) French author, best known for his epistolary essays
Il n'y a personne qui soit tenu d'être habile; mais il n'y en a point qui ne soit obligé d'être bon.
Aristippe, ou De la cour (1658), Discours VII.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 66.
“Cultivate truth, good faith, experience, cleverness, sociability, and industry.”
Pittacus of Mytilene Greek sage
As quoted by Diogenes Laërtius, i. 78.
“The best of men cannot suspend their fate:
The good die early, and the bad die late.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) English trader, writer and journalist
Character of the Late Dr. S. Annesley (1715).