“Innovation is strict common sense with wild imagination.”

“There are two things in the world that can never get on together—religion and common sense. Religion deals with the next life, common sense with this; religion points to the sky, common sense to the earth; religion is all imagination, common sense all reason; religion deals with what nobody can understand, common sense with what everybody can understand; religion gives us no return for our investments but flash notes on the bank of expectation, common sense gives us good interest and full security for our capital. They are as opposite as two things can possibly be, and they are always at strife. Religion is always trying to fill the world with delusions, and common sense is always trying to drive them away. Religion says Live for the next world, and common sense says Live for this.”

“No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot.”

“Rosemary was only a spinster in the strict sense of denotation. She was eminently, eminently nubile.”

“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”

“Common sense ain't common.”

“Using, as an excuse, others’ failure of common sense is in itself a failure of common sense.”

“Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense…”

“That seems to us to be the common sense of the matter; and common sense often makes good law.”

“They're not terribly imaginative. They're not entrepreneurial. They don't innovate. That's why they're stealing our intellectual property.”