“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 Carlyle 481
Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… 1795–1881Related quotes
Book I, Chapter II: "The Man in Green"
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)
“If men were only as wise as they are clever…”
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?”
Source: The Woman in White
“No one is bound to be clever, but every one is under an obligation to be good.”
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.”
As quoted by Diogenes Laërtius, i. 78.
“The best of men cannot suspend their fate:
The good die early, and the bad die late.”
Character of the Late Dr. S. Annesley (1715).