Quotes about intellect
A collection of quotes on the topic of intellect, human, humanity, man.
Quotes about intellect
“Intellect takes you to the door, but it doesn't take you into the house.”
Shams-i Tabrizi (1185–1248) 1185-1248, spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi.
Me & Rumi (2004)
Ja'far al-Sadiq (702–765) Muslim religious person
Muhammad Kulayni, Usūl al-Kāfī - The Book of Intellect and Ignorance.
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, General
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet
Source: I Sonetti Di Michelangelo: The 78 Sonnets of Michelangelo with Verse Translation
“We know not through our intellect but through our experience.”
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) French phenomenological philosopher
Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker
Alex Jones: The "Justin Biebler" Rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMB0KyhPN8, 21 February 2011. <br class="br">2011
Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer
Danny Boyle (The Face, February 2000)
About
Galileo Galilei Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina
Variant: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Source: Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615)
Context: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.
Context: I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.<!-- ¶22
Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio
Canto VI, lines 43–46 (tr. Carlyle-Wicksteed).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian poet
Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona
de la mia donna disiosamente...
che lo 'ntelletto sovr'esse disvia.
Trattato Terzo, line 1.
Il Convivio (1304–1307)
“Just as science is the intellect of the world, art is its soul.”
Maxim Gorky (1868–1936) Russian and Soviet writer
Untimely Thoughts (1917-18) (original: Наиболее успешно и могуче будит в нашей душе ее добрые начала сила искусства. Как наука является разумом мира, так искусство — сердце его.)
Context: The good qualities in our soul are most successfully and forcefully awakened by the power of art. Just as science is the intellect of the world, art is its soul.
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing
Cassandra (1860)
Context: Why have women passion, intellect, moral activity — these three — and a place in society where no one of the three can be exercised? Men say that God punishes for complaining. No, but men are angry with misery. They are irritated with women for not being happy. They take it as a personal offence. To God alone may women complain without insulting Him!
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (480) philosopher of the early 6th century
Christopher Callahan (October 2000), Music in Medieval Medical Practice: Speculations and Certainties https://symposium.music.org/index.php/40/item/2168-music-in-medieval-medical-practice-speculations-and-certainties#16 <br class="br">De Institutione Musica
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Source: 'Letter VII. to Lord John Russell' (30 January 1836), The Letters of Runnymede (1836), pp. 60-61
W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems
The Choice http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1602/, st. 1 <br class="br">The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
Source: The Man In The Arena: Speeches and Essays by Theodore Roosevelt
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Variant: Just as iron rusts from disuse... even so does inaction spoil the intellect.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
“Through money, democracy becomes its own destroyer, after money has destroyed intellect.”
Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) German historian and philosopher
“Intellect is a part of a good faith. Intellect is the light, the heart is the direction.”
Tariq Ramadan (1962) Swiss muslim scholar
“Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.”
Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) Italian writer, politician, theorist, sociologist and linguist
Variant: Pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will.
Mark Twain book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Source: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
“…to know how to think with emotions and to feel with intellect…”
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Source: The Book of Disquiet
Auguste Comte (1798–1857) French philosopher
Source: A General View of Positivism (1848, 1856), p. 24
“Human beings have not been given anything higher than wisdom and intellect.”
Musa al-Kadhim (745–799) Seventh of the Twelve Imams and regarded by Sunnis as a renowned scholar
Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 419.
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, General
Natsume Soseki (1867–1916) Japanese novelist
Chi ni hatarakeba kado ga tatsu. Jō ni saosaseba nagasareru. Iji o tōseba kyūkutsu da. Tokaku ni hito no yo wa suminikui.
草枕 Kusamakura, 1906.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
“Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but rather memory.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
Variant translations:
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.
As quoted in The Book of Unusual Quotations (1957) by Rudolf Flesch, p. 12
Any one who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his understanding, but rather his memory.
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), I Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) American author, poet, editor and literary critic
"The Angel Of The Odd: An Extravaganza".
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer
Der Witzling ist der Bettler im Reich der Geister; er lebt von Almosen, die das Glück ihm zuwirft—von Einfällen.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 67.
“Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect.”
Averroes (1126–1198) Medieval Arab scholar and philosopher
Attributed to Averroes, in: John Bartlett (1968) Familiar Qutations. p. 155
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer
Der Verstand und das Herz stehen auf sehr gutem Fuße. Eines vertritt oft die Stelle des andern so vollkommen, dass es schwer ist zu entscheiden, welches von beiden tätig war.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 42.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Part I, Ch. 9: International Policy
1920s, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920)
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Source: The Spiritual Life (1947), p. 256
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath
Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life http://www.spiritualbee.com/spiritual-book-by-tagore/ (1916)
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Other
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer
Es gibt Menschen mit leuchtendem und Menschen mit glänzendem Verstande. Die ersten erhellen ihre Umgebung, die zweiten verdunkeln sie.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 28.
Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human
Section IX, "Man Alone with Himself" / aphorism 609
Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell in 1912, as quoted in Clark The life of Bertrand Russell (1976), p. 174
1910s
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) American author, poet, editor and literary critic
The Poetic Principle (1850)
Humphry Davy (1778–1829) Cornish chemist
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 241
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Hitherto it has grown out of the secure, non-struggling life of the aristocrat. In future it may be expected to grow out of the secure and not-so-struggling life of whatever citizens are personally able to develop it. There need be no attempt to drag culture down to the level of crude minds. That, indeed, would be something to fight tooth and nail! With economic opportunities artificially regulated, we may well let other interests follow a natural course. Inherent differences in people and in tastes will create different social-cultural classes as in the past—although the relation of these classes to the holding of material resources will be less fixed than in the capitalistic age now closing. All this, of course, is directly contrary to Belknap's rampant Stalinism—but I'm telling you I'm no bolshevik! I am for the preservation of all values worth preserving—and for the maintenance of complete cultural continuity with the Western-European mainstream. Don't fancy that the dethronement of certain purely economic concepts means an abrupt break in that stream. Rather does it mean a return to art impulses typically aristocratic (that is, disinterested, leisurely, non-ulterior) rather than bourgeois.
Letter to Clark Ashton Smith (28 October 1934), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 60-64
Non-Fiction, Letters
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) American author, poet, editor and literary critic
Marginalia http://www.easylit.com/poe/comtext/prose/margin.shtml (November 1844)
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
C. G. Jung. 2014. Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 7: Two Essays in Analytical Psychology. Princeton University Press. p. 71
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
In Memory Of Major Robert Gregory, st. 12
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
John Henry Newman (1801–1890) English cleric and cardinal
Discourse V, pt. 9.
The Idea of a University (1873)
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi5KkXig3s "Biblical Series IV: Adam and Eve: Self-Consciousness, Evil, and Death"
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
As quoted in The Rumi Collection : An Anthology of Translations of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (2000) by Kabir Helminski
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Letter to James F. Morton (18 January 1931), quoted in "H.P. Lovecraft, a Life" by S.T. Joshi, p. 587
Non-Fiction, Letters, to James Ferdinand Morton, Jr.
Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) Italian philosopher
Source: Five Questions Concerning the Mind (1495), p. 199
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 15 - 16
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist
Die Natur baut keine Maschinen, keine Lokomotiven, Eisenbahnen, electric telegraphs, selfacting mules etc. Sie sind Produkte der menschlichen Industrie; natürliches Material, verwandelt in Organe des menschlichen Willens über die Natur oder seiner Betätigung in der Natur. Sie sind von der menschlichen Hand geschaffene Organe des menschlichen Hirns; vergegenständliche Wissenskraft. Die Entwicklung des capital fixe zeigt an, bis zu welchem Grade das allgemeine gesellschaftliche Wissen, knowledge, zur unmittelbaren Produktivkraft geworden ist und daher die Bedingungen des gesellschaftlichen Lebensprozesses selbst unter die Kontrolle des general intellect gekommen, und ihm gemäß umgeschaffen sind.
(1857/58)
Source: Notebook VII, The Chapter on Capital, p. 626.
Michel Danino (1956) Indian writer
On Sri Aurobindo, as quoted in " The Sarasvati was more sacred than Ganga http://www.rediff.com/news/report/interview-with-michel-danino/20100522.htm", Rediff (22 May 2010)
“Health and intellect are the two blessings of life.”
Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy
Monosticha.
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
Reflections of a Non-Political Man http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=946 [Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen] (1918)
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, The World Movement (1910)
Thomas Mann book Confessions of Felix Krull
Madame Houpflé, Bk. 2, Ch. 9
Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man (1954)
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: 1950s, My Philosophical Development (1959), p. 213
Galileo Galilei book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
In the 1661 translation by Thomas Salusbury: … such are the pure Mathematical sciences, to wit, Geometry and Arithmetick: in which Divine Wisdom knows infinite more propositions, because it knows them all; but I believe that the knowledge of those few comprehended by humane understanding, equalleth the divine, as to the certainty objectivè, for that it arriveth to comprehend the necessity thereof, than which there can be no greater certainty." p. 92 (from the Archimedes Project http://archimedes.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/toc/toc.cgi?page=92;dir=galil_syste_065_en_1661;step=textonly) <br class="br">In the original Italian: … tali sono le scienze matematiche pure, cioè la geometria e l’aritmetica, delle quali l’intelletto divino ne sa bene infinite proposizioni di piú, perché le sa tutte, ma di quelle poche intese dall’intelletto umano credo che la cognizione agguagli la divina nella certezza obiettiva, poiché arriva a comprenderne la necessità, sopra la quale non par che possa esser sicurezza maggiore." (from the copy at the Italian Wikisource). <br class="br">Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
Theodor W. Adorno book Minima Moralia
Das Zentrum der geistigen Selbstdisziplin als solcher ist in Zersetzung begriffen. Die Tabus, die den geistigen Rang eines Menschen ausmachen, oftmals sedimentierte Erfahrungen und unartikulierte Erkenntnisse, richten sich stets gegen eigene Regungen, die er verdammen lernte, die aber so stark sind, daß nur eine fraglose und unbefragte Instanz ihnen Einhalt gebieten kann. Was fürs Triebleben gilt, gilt fürs geistige nicht minder: der Maler und Komponist, der diese und jene Farbenzusammenstellung oder Akkordverbindung als kitschig sich untersagt, der Schriftsteller, dem sprachliche Konfigurationen als banal oder pedantisch auf die Nerven gehen, reagiert so heftig gegen sie, weil in ihm selber Schichten sind, die es dorthin lockt. Die Absage ans herrschende Unwesen der Kultur setzt voraus, daß man an diesem selber genug teilhat, um es gleichsam in den eigenen Fingern zucken zu fühlen, daß man aber zugleich aus dieser Teilhabe Kräfte zog, sie zu kündigen. Diese Kräfte, die als solche des individuellen Widerstands in Erscheinung treten, sind darum doch keineswegs selber bloß individueller Art. Das intellektuelle Gewissen, in dem sie sich zusammenfassen, hat ein gesellschaftliches Moment so gut wie das moralische Überich. Es bildet sich an einer Vorstellung von der richtigen Gesellschaft und deren Bürgern. Läßt einmal diese Vorstellung nach—und wer könnte noch blind vertrauend ihr sich überlassen—, so verliert der intellektuelle Drang nach unten seine Hemmung, und aller Unrat, den die barbarische Kultur im Individuum zurückgelassen hat, Halbbildung, sich Gehenlassen, plumpe Vertraulichkeit, Ungeschliffenheit, kommt zum Vorschein. Meist rationalisiert es sich auch noch als Humanität, als den Willen, anderen Menschen sich verständlich zu machen, als welterfahrene Verantwortlichkeit. Aber das Opfer der intellektuellen Selbstdisziplin fällt dem, der es auf sich nimmt, viel zu leicht, als daß man ihm glauben dürfte, daß es eines ist.
E. Jephcott, trans. (1974), § 8
Minima Moralia (1951)
Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society
Source: Lectures on Negative Dialectics (1965-66), pp. 19-20
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: 1950s, Portraits from Memory and Other Essays (1956), p. 9
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, The World Movement (1910)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Disputed
Dora Russell (1894–1986) author, feminist, socialist campaigner
Challenge to the Cold War (1985) Vol. 3, Ch. 14
C.G. Jung book Psychological Types
Variant translation: We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.
Conclusion, p. 628
Psychological Types, or, The Psychology of Individuation (1921)
W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems
III, st. 2 <br class="br">The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), Vacillation http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1751/
“What has to be overcome is not difficulty of the intellect but of the will.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher
Source: 1930s-1951, Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993), Ch. 9 : Philosophy (chapters 86–93 of the so called Big Typescript), p. 161
Corresponding to TS 213, Kapitel 86
Context: What makes a subject difficult to understand — if it is significant, important — is not that some special instruction about abstruse things is necessary to understand it. Rather it is the contrast between the understanding of the subject and what most people want to see. Because of this the very things that are most obvious can become the most difficult to understand. What has to be overcome is not difficulty of the intellect but of the will. [Nicht eine Schwierigkeit des Verstandes, sondern des Willens ist zu überwinden. ]
