Relative Intelligence Quotes

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

No man is smart, except by comparison to those who know less

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.

Every poker player is smarter than me.

Just because we're stupid doesn't mean everybody else was.

I am a very mediocre intellect, at best, and I am smarter than most people I know - and that terrifies me.

From a human point of view, the difference between the mind of a human and that of a mountain goat is wonderful; from the point of view of the infinite ignorance that surrounds us, the difference is not impressive. Indeed, from that point of view, the goat may have the better mind, for he is more congenially adapted to his place, and he would not endanger his species or his planet for the sake of an idea.

It is my experience that in some areas [my poodle] Charley is more intelligent that I am, but in others he is abysmally ignorant. He can't read, can't drive a car, and has no grasp of mathematics. But in his own field of endeavor, which he is now practicing, the slow, imperial smelling over and anointing on an area, he has no peer. Of course his horizons are limited, but how wide are mine?

Nobody is smarter than you are. And what if they are? What good is their understanding doing you?

You only know that you're smart because you're around dumb people from time to time!

My brother and sister are smarter than me. But I'm the most successful because I've been given opportunities that they never had.

The only useful answer to the question 'Who is smarter, a man or a woman?' is, which man and which woman?

I started realizing that I wasn't so dumb; rather, most people simply didn't know the answers to the questions that I was interested in-or they didn't care.

But wasn't there some sort of rule that said parents had to be smarter than their kids? It didn't seem fair.

Indeed I had not much wit, yet I was not an idiot - my wit was according to my years.

Decide that you like college life. In your dorm you meet many nice people. Some are smarter than you. And some, you notice, are dumber than you. You will continue, unfortunately, to view the world in exactly these terms for the rest of your life.

When you have two people who are the smart girls, then the 'smart' ceases to exist; they're just women who are smart.

It really sucks to be the number two intelligent species on this planet; you can just ask gorillas.