Savant Quotes

Be able to draw an illustration as least well enough to get your point across to another person. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to recognize many of the major constellations and know the stories behind them. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

By the time they passed Malindi in the early-afternoon hours, Munroe could feel the syntax, the grammar, the resonance of patterns of the country's lingua franca beginning to form, could feel the tension relaxing now that the key to the aural lock had been handed over, and soon enough, over time and of its own accord, her ability to speak would grow and she would rapidly become more and more fluent.

This same poisonous gift - this savant like ability to visualize the way the words configured into shapes - had defined her life and turned her into what she was now. Without language, there would have been no gunrunning, without gunrunning no nights in the jungle fighting off the worst of human predators, without the nights, no instinct of self-preservation and the speed and the need to kill that had marked her every moment, waking and sleeping, since. ~ Taylor Stevens

The chess player who develops the ability to play two dozen boards at a time will benefit from learning to compress his or her analysis into less time. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

The difference between talking on your cell phone while driving and speaking with a passenger is huge. The person on the other end of the cell phone is chattering away, oblivious. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Revenge feels right only to those directly involved. Justice feels right even to outsiders. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

To acquire knowledge, one must study;
but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I suspect that some apparently homosexual people are really heterosexuals who deeply phobic about the opposite sex or have other emotional problems. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Common sense comes from experience, and kids need to fail as well as succeed in order to learn it. It's difficult to develop common sense when you spend a lot of time in your room where nothing much happens. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

If achieving your potential requires favorable judgment by others, you are much less likely to succeed. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I love having ten times as much stuff to do as I can possibly find time to do. That way, I can pick the one-tenth that I want to do most. But if I only have enough to just occupy all my time, I'm stuck doing all of whatever stuff it happens to be. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Many people feel they must multi-task because everybody else is multitasking, but this is partly because they are all interrupting each other so much. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Savant, doesn't it strike you as somewhat ... hypocritical that we fight to keep humans free from the domination of machines, while at the same time some of our own League Worlds use slaves? ~ Brian Herbert

Your modest savant smiles as he says to his admirers: What have I done? Nothing. Man does not invent a force, he directs it. ~ Honore De Balzac

The devotee boasted that he would never abandon the faith; and therefore he persecuted for the faith. But the doctor of science actually boasts that he will always abandon a hypothesis; and yet he persecutes for the hypothesis. The Inquisitor violently enforced his creed, because it was unchangeable. The savant enforces it violently because he may change it the next day. ~ G.K. Chesterton

Learn at least two classic ballroom dances, at least one of them Latin. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to back up a car for a considerable distance in a straight line and back out of a driveway. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

It's a sad day when so many people shirk the most basic responsibilities of life that simply being respectable becomes behavior worthy of special attention. In other words, I think the people you describe are doing what they should. A society has weak values when it regards going to work every day and taking care of your family as heroic. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Know the function of a fuse box and the appearance of a tripped circuit breaker. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Spending waiting moments doing crossword puzzles or reading a book you brought yourself. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I had eventually come to understand that friendship was a delicate, gradual process that mustn't be rushed or seized upon but allowed and encouraged to take its course over time. I pictured it as a butterfly, simultaneously beautiful and fragile, that once afloat belonged to the air and any attempt to grab at it would only destroy it. ~ Daniel Tammet

Be able to decline a date so gracefully that the person isn't embarrassed that he or she asked. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I used to be treated like an idiot, now I'm treated like an idiot savant. ~ Martin Cruz Smith

Just because you're unemployed doesn't mean you're not doing anything useful. You are, for example, at least keeping your mother-in-law's wit sharp. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Know how to treat frostbite until you can get indoors. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Loving behavior contributes to the group at the expense of the individual. Competition contributes to the survival of the individual at the expense of the group. In the garden of life, some people are more like flowers, and other people are more like weeds. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

We all behave like Maxwell's demon. Organisms organize. In everyday experience lies the reason sober physicists across two centuries kept this cartoon fantasy alive. We sort the mail, build sand castles, solve jigsaw puzzles, separate wheat from chaff, rearrange chess pieces, collect stamps, alphabetize books, create symmetry, compose sonnets and sonatas, and put our rooms in order, and all this we do requires no great energy, as long as we can apply intelligence. We propagate structure (not just we humans but we who are alive). We disturb the tendency toward equilibrium. It would be absurd to attempt a thermodynamic accounting for such processes, but it is not absurd to say we are reducing entropy, piece by piece. Bit by bit. The original demon, discerning one molecules at a time, distinguishing fast from slow, and operating his little gateway, is sometimes described as "superintelligent," but compared to a real organism it is an idiot savant. Not only do living things lessen the disorder in their environments; they are in themselves, their skeletons and their flesh, vesicles and membranes, shells and carapaces, leaves and blossoms, circulatory systems and metabolic pathways - miracles of pattern and structure. It sometimes seems as if curbing entropy is our quixotic purpose in the universe. ~ James Gleick

Relatively few of us will find the time-or take it-to live an ever enlarging life. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

There are days when I feel I can do anything and days when I feel I can do nothing. But fortunately for those around me, neither sort occurs very often. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to notice all the confusion between fact and opinion that appears in the news. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

At first, I only laughed at myself. Then I noticed that life itself is amusing. I've been in a generally good mood ever since. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Try square dancing-at least long enough to no longer feel silly and begin to have fun. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Know how to behave at a fine restaurant, which is a telltale measure of social maturity. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Have enough sense to know, ahead of time, when your skills will not extend to wallpapering. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

From ancient times and into the Middle Ages, man had dreamed of taking to the sky, of soaring into the blue like the birds. One savant in Spain in the year 875 is known to have covered himself with feathers in the attempt. Others devised wings of their own design and jumped from rooftops and towers - some to their deaths - in Constantinople, Nuremberg, Perugia. ~ David McCullough

Be able to tell whether garments that look good on the hanger actually look good on you. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Jim Sheridan, the MP who wants to ban sketchwriters from the Commons for being rude about politicians, is a blithering idiot. Sorry, scrub that - clearly a very thoughtful person with whom I might conceivably disagree on some marginal issues. A blithering savant, perhaps. ~ Simon Hoggart

Know the names of past and current artists who are most famous for playing their instruments. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Part of the function of memory is to forget; the omni-retentive mind will break down and produce at best an idiot savant who can recite a telephone book, and at worst a person to whom every grudge and slight is as yesterday's. ~ Christopher Hitchens

Be able to cite three good qualities of every relative or acquaintance that you dislike. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Profit is what we have left after we make a donation to a worthwhile cause. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

No one would choose to be jerked randomly off task again and again until you have half a dozen things you're trying to get done, all at the same time. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

A 45-year old looks a lot like a 25-year old who's been out all night. And feels just as good about having survived the experience. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Know which officials are voted into office and which are appointed, and by whom. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

A fool is someone whose pencil wears out before its eraser does. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

It is crazy. It's our first kid, and all of a sudden, she identifies letters as what they are, and you go, 'This kid is a genius - she's obviously some sort of savant!' ~ Max Greenfield

Make a habit of canceling every subscription to anything you don't have time to read. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I've never found an interesting person with a foul mouth. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to defend your arguments in a rational way. Otherwise, all you have is an opinion. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

[When asked if the voice is an instrument:] Yes, of course. Some are violins, some are fountain pens and some are stethoscopes. And others are just washboards. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to go shopping for a bathing suit and not become depressed afterward. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

But aren't all great quests folly? El Dorado and the Fountain of Youth and the search for intelligent life in the cosmos
we know what's out there. It's what isn't that truly compels us. Technology may have shrunk the epic journey to a couple of short car rides and regional jet lags
four states and twelve hundred miles traversed in an afternoon
but true quests aren't measured in time or distance anyway, so much as in hope. There are only two good outcomes for a quest like this, the hope of the serendipitous savant
sail for Asia and stumble on America
and the hope of scarecrows and tin men: that you find out you had the thing you sought all along. ~ Jess Walter

An ounce of sequins can be worth a pound of home cooking. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I think change is possible, but only for individuals who were never truly gay in the first place and who have a strong personal motivation to recover their heterosexuality. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Interpreting the Bible without training is a bit like finding a specific address in a foreign city with neither map nor knowledge of the language. You might stumble upon the right answer, but in the meantime you've put yourself at the mercy of every ignoramus in town, with no way of telling the savant from the fool. ~ Laurie R. King

Be able to hiccup silently, or at least without alerting neighbors to your situation. The first hiccup is an exception. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

A person who learns to juggle six balls will be more skilled than the person who never tries to juggle more than three. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

The 40s are when you start trading your psychological problems for physical ones. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to suffer wearing a necktie or slightly high heels for an entire evening without complaint or early removal. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I think one of the problems [with raising intelligent children in modern society] is compulsory schooling...and that children are sitting there, and they are taught and told what to believe; they are passive from the very beginning – and one must be very, very aggressive intellectually to have a high IQ [...] the child is taught. Right from the beginning, it's a passive process. He or she sits there, and they simply try to believe everything they're told? ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

The freedom to be an individual is the essence of America. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

There was something savage and elemental and feral in him. The fact that he was a savant only added to the intrigue.
I always go for the dangerous boys, Leesha thought. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

I don't think there's a less elitist thing on earth to do than to try and reach out and connect with another human being . . . And that's what the best writing does, that's what art does. It looks a reader in the eye, and it proceeds honestly with that reader, and nakedly. There is a compact there, a bond, a relationship, a union, a symbiosis . . . It's not about you. Whether you're a genius or an idiot savant. It's about the work. The work is more important than you. So it's not about back-claps and plaudits and "isn't that author smart." It's about, "this book really connected with me. And even though you, my friend, are very different from me, I'm lending it to you, because I think it will connect with you as well." Community. Across the eras. Between people who have never met, who will never meet, who are nonetheless bound in something together, in different ways. ~ Colin Fleming

Know how to travel from your town to a nearby town without a car, either by bus or by rail. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

How can we live in freedom and maintain that we are entitled to *anything* that we can't get without the labor of others? Remember, if we are entitled to the labor of others, that makes slaves of those others. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

A good leader needs to stand behind his or her followers as often as he or she needs to stand in front of them. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I am one of those guys who could do the most emotional scene and crack a joke instantly. I'm lucky. I'm just like an idiot savant. I have one enormously enjoyable, pleasurable - for me - talent, which is being able to act. ~ James Woods

Be able to correctly pronounce the words you would like to speak and have excellent spoken grammar. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to confide your innermost secrets to your mother and your innermost fears to your father. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

The original answer defines certain conditions, [ ... ] Anything else is a different question. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to identify the most common breeds of dogs and cats on sight. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to set a table so that you feel like you're dining, not just sitting and eating. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

If your head tells you one thing and your heart tells you another ,before you do anything,you should first decide wether you have a better head or a better heart. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Teens think listening to music helps them concentrate. It doesn't. It relieves them of the boredom that concentration on homework induces. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I believe that one can indeed work on two or more tasks at once, but in ways yet to be understood. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

I believe that love
not imitation
is the sincerest form of flattery. Your imitator thinks that you can be duplicated; your lover knows you can't. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Holy shit, I think I brought home some cannibal savant or something. Rain Man with a taste for people. Great? ~ Jake Bible

Be able to analyze statistics, which can be used to support or undercut almost any argument. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Alex was a historian by education, a translator of centuries-old scripts by training, and a savant when it came to inane trivia, which she tended to offer up without encouragement and much to the annoyance of everyone around her. Three months ago, Bran, LT, Mason, and the other three guys from their SEAL Team - now the owners of the Deep Six Salvage Company - had hired her to translate the historical documents housed in the Spanish Archives that pertained to the hurricane of 1624. They'd hoped she could give them a leg up on their hunt for the Santa Cristina. ~ Julie Ann Walker

Know how to garnish food so that it is more appealing to the eye and even more flavorful than before. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

The length of your education is less important than its breadth, and the length of your life is less important than its depth. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Know about the appeals process, especially in the case of the most serious crimes. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

He was like an idiot savant without the savant part. ~ Robert Kroese

We cannot get away from the infinite. It stares us in the face whether we look at atoms or stars, or at the becauses behind the becauses, stretching back through eternity. Flat-earth science has no more use for it than the flat-earth theologians had in the Dark Ages; but a true science of life must let infinity in, and never lose sight of it. In two earlier books I have tried to show that throughout the ages the great innovators in the history of science had always been aware of the transparency of phenomena towards a different order of reality, of the ubiquitous presence of the ghost in the machine -even such a simple machine as a magnetic compass or a Leyden jar. Once a scientist loses the sense of mystery, he can be an excellent technician, but he ceases to be a savant. ~ Arthur Koestler

Know the official post office abbreviations for all 50 states without having to consult a list. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Geometry is beautifully logical, and it teaches you how to think and prove that things are so, step by step by step. Proofs are excellent lessons in reasoning. Without logic and reasoning, you are dependent on jumping to conclusions or - worse - having empty opinions. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Know how to behave at a buffet. Take a clean plate for a second helping. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to sneeze without sounding ridiculous. That means neither stifling yourself or spraying your immediate vicinity. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

When our spelling is perfect, it's invisible. But when it's flawed, it prompts strong negative associations. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be in the habit of experimenting with your clothing so that you don't get stuck for life with a self-image developed over the course of high school. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Einstein's remark on the limitlessness of human stupidity is made even more disturbing by the discovery that infinity comes in different sizes. Answering 'How much stupider?' or trying to measure the minimal idiocy bounded by an IQ test are mysteries which are themselves infinitely less alarming than simply attempting to tally the anti-savant population. One can count all the natural idiots (they're the same as the even number of idiots – twice as many), but the number of real idiots continues forever: all the counting idiots (finger reckoners) plus all the fractional idiots (geniuses on a bad day) plus all the irrational idiots (they go on and on and on) add up to a world in which the approaching upper limit of our set of natural resources has its complement in the inexhaustible lower limit of our set of mental ones. ~ Bauvard

Though I thoroughly enjoyed playing crime branch officer Gautam Savant, it drained a lot out of me, too. It shook my faith in myself, as I explored my hidden side and wondered if I was just acting or using the character as an excuse to vent my mean side. ~ Randeep Hooda

Skill is successfully walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Intelligence is not trying. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Be able to blow out a dinner candle without sending wax flying across the table. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

It is for you now, gentlemen, whose mission and character are the proclamation of the truth, it is for you to instruct the people, and to tell them for what they ought to hope and what they ought to fear. The people, incapable as yet of sound judgment as to what is best for them, applaud indiscriminately the most opposite ideas, provided that in them they get a taste of flattery: to them the laws of thought are like the confines of the possible; to-day they can no more distinguish between a savant and a sophist, than formerly they could tell a physician from a sorcerer. 'Inconsiderately accepting, gathering together, and accumulating everything that is new, regarding all reports as true and indubitable, at the breath or ring of novelty they assemble like bees at the sound of a basin. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Know how to drive safely when it's raining or when it's snowing. The two conditions are different. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

The mind will say this forever. But I mostly fish rivers these dayas. In so doing, movement becomes stasis, flux is the constant, and everything flows around, through, and beyond me, escaping ungrasped, unnamed, and unscathed. The river's clean escape does not prevent belief in its reality. On the contrary, there is nothing I love more than the feel of a wholeness sliding toward, around, and past me while I stand like an idiot savant in its midst, focusing on tiny, idiot-savantic bits of what is so beautiful to me, and so close, yet so wondrously ungraspable. ~ David James Duncan

An act of justice closes the book on a misdeed; an act of vengeance writes one of its own ~ Marilyn Vos Savant