Duc de la Rochefoucauld - Lord Salisbury - Oscar Wilde - Albert Einstein - Bertrand Russell - Richard Feynman - Erol Ozan - Holly Black - George Bernard Shaw - Gilbert Parker - Blackadder III TV - Elizabeth Wordsworth - George R R Martin - John Steinbeck - Alfred Fripp -
The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it. Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 1678
There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Too clever by half. Lord Salisbury, re Disraeli’s amendment on Disestablishment
I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying. Oscar Wilde
It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer. Albert Einstein
A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
I couldn’t claim that I was smarter than sixty-five other guys – but the average of sixty-five other guys, certainly! Richard P Feynman, ‘Surely, You’re Joking, Mr Feynman’
In pursuit of happiness, smart people often end up dumbing down themselves. Erol Ozan
Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty. Holly Black, White Cat
Find enough clever things to say, and you’re a Prime Minister; write them down and you’re a Shakespeare. George Bernard Shaw
It’s the people who try to be clever who never are; the people who are clever never think of trying to be. Gilbert Parker
Baldrick, I’d bump into cleverer people at a lodge meeting at the guild of village idiots. Blackadder III: Ink & Incapability, BBC 1987
If all the good people were clever,
And all clever people were good,
The world would be nicer than ever
We thought that it possible could.
But somehow, ’tis seldom or never
The two hit it off as they should;
The good are so harsh to the clever,
The clever so rude to the good! Elizabeth Wordsworth, Good and Clever
It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise. George R R Martin
Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids. John Steinbeck, East of Eden
If we cannot be clever we can always be kind. Alfred Fripp