I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.
So unless we come together as a people and stop our foolish beefing among each other, sit down like intelligent men and women and settle the things that divide us from each other, then come together like a solid wall and we could make something happen.
When I have a difficult subject before me - when I find the road narrow, and can see no other way of teaching a well established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools - I prefer to address myself to the one man, and to take no notice whatever of the condemnation of the multitude; I prefer to extricate that intelligent man from his embarrassment and show him the cause of his perplexity, so that he may attain perfection and be at peace.
Wit is brushwood; judgment, timber; the one gives the greatest flame, the other yields the most durable heat; and both meeting make the best fire.
To me, the most poetic and intelligent way to bring up a subject is by showing very simply who you are and what you believe in.
For me a page of good prose is where one hears the rain. A page of good prose is when one hears the noise of battle.... A page of good prose seems to me the most serious dialogue that well-informed and intelligent men and women carry on today in their endeavor to make sure that the fires of this planet burn peaceably.
We are speaking to the intelligence of Canadians, not to their emotion.
There is a monsterous deal of stupid quizzing, & common-place nonsense talked, but scarcely any wit.
If we wander around as politicians jumping at every shadow and desperately afraid of having our words taken out of context or attacks layered on in an unfair way, I think we're actually doing a disrespect to Canadians, to people's intelligence.
I've always felt, in all my books, that there's a deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence - providing they have the facts, providing they have the information.
Think before you speak. Read before you think.
If only our great thinkers could learn to talk, and our great talkers could learn to think.
New Rule: Stop asking Miss USA contestants if they believe in evolution. It’s not their field. It’s like asking Stephen Hawking if he believes in hair scrunchies. Here’s what they know about: spray tans, fake boobs and baton twirling. Here’s what they don’t know about: everything else. If I cared about the uninformed opinions of some ditsy beauty queen, I’d join the Tea Party.
I want to listen with an open mind, but I don't want to listen with an empty mind.
Genius speaks only to genius.
I always told myself that if I was going to be given a voice, I might as well say something worth listening to and not something that's just going to feed people stupidity.
Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
However stupid a fools words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man.
I want to do an intelligent talk show where you have room to breathe.
Consider me the entity within the industry without a history of spitting the epitome of stupidity.
I read Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Reader's Digest... I read some responsible journalism, and from that, I form my own opinions. I also happen to be intelligent, and I question everything.
