Smart People Quotes

I've always wanted to be an expert on tadpoles; I've always fancied being a tadpole expert. It's a wonderful life if you become an experty tadpoleous, as they are known in the trade. You get invited out to all the smart parties and social gatherings. When smart people are making out their lists for the dinner parties, they say, 'Now, who can we have to make up the ten? A tadpole expert would be very nice. He could sit next to Lady Sonia. ~ Peter Cook

My father and mother are both very smart people and I always felt I was a little short of the mark. So I would compensate with a character like Logan Cale. He's wearing glasses, he's in a wheelchair, he's a computer genius. He's very far away from who I am, but I really wanted to play roles where I'd be taken seriously. ~ Michael Weatherly

By sort of combining the research of a lot of smart people, I came up with an equation for dread [dread=uncontrollability+unfamiliarity+imaginability+suffering+scale of destruction+unfairness]. The dread equation is a simplification, but it's a way to explain why we fear something so much when it is so unlikely. Part of it is the lack of control. That's why we're more scared of plane crashes than car crashes even though we know rationally which is more dangerous. ~ Amanda Ripley

Apart from anything else, I got to work with Jennifer Lawrence. She's a lovely girl. I know people often say things like that in interviews, but she really is. While she may be young, she doesn't feel at all precocious. Instead, she's smart and funny and terrific at connecting with people. She just blew me away. ~ Julianne Moore

Answer my question: Why do smart people tend to be stupid?" "Because we think we know better. We think that our intellect affords us special privileges and lets us beat the odds. That's why talented mathematicians try to defraud casinos and young brilliant mages make bargains with forces beyond their control. ~ Jeaniene Frost

The ability to listen to smart people who disagree with you is a rare talent - but a president should have it. ~ Anonymous

Hey, Geekoid!" yelled Duncan Dougal, "Why do you read so much? Don't you know how to watch TV? ~ Bruce Coville

nobody ever said smart people had to be sane, and nobody ever said that intelligence has to be paired with wisdom. ~ Yasmine Galenorn

Always trust yerself, lass. There's not a soul in this world that has a heart like yers. Plenty o' smart people here, aye, but logic ain't always the best way to a decision. Can ye remember that? -Alban Dewberry ~ E.S. Lowell

There's a difference between a clever person and a smart one. Smart people make their own ways, and clever people use their minds to usurp opportunities to walk on the paths made by others. ~ Waheed Ibne Musa

When Roy began to pace, smart people hid. ~ Madeline Pryce A.K.A. FAyth Devlin

When the world is predictable you need smart people.
When the world is unpredictable you need adaptable people. ~ Henry Mintzberg

Some BuzzFeed articles are written by smart people who use complete sentences. Some of the disposable lists are witty and appear to have taken some effort to put together. ~ Alex Pareene

Not enough attention is paid to the negative side of fashion. Great effort is exerted to make people look smart, but somebody should face the fact that a lot of people never will be smart, and that they should be given some assistance in maintaining their fascinating dowdiness. ~ Robertson Davies

Sometimes I get this gut feeling about people - maybe I sense a hidden agenda or that they care for the money more than the message. I wish that I'd listen to that feeling instead of waiting for the truth to rear its ugly head. I'm a smart girl. I'm loyal. But sometimes I'm too loyal. I'm not loyal enough to myself. ~ Lady Gaga

Some PhD physicists write software or work for hedge funds, but physics still has a problem with having very smart people but not enough opportunities. ~ Stuart J. Russell

I told my daughter that terrorists would love to attack Washington, but we, unlike the French, are an ocean away from Syria, that lots of smart people are working very hard to stop the terrorists, and that the terrorists are not very sophisticated. ~ Dana Milbank

I recognize that many physicists are smarter than I am-most of them theoretical physicists. A lot of smart people have gone into theoretical physics, therefore the field is extremely competitive. I console myself with the thought that although they may be smarter and may be deeper thinkers than I am, I have broader interests than they have. ~ Linus Pauling

Life is a sewer and we are all but swimmers within it. Smart people do the backstroke. (In other words you gotta have a giggle.) ~ Stephen B. Pearl

Where religion clashes with science is that religion makes smart people do stupid things. ~ P.Z. Myers

Religion is about having the right answers, and some of their answers are right ... but i am about the process that takes you to the living answer ... it will change you from the inside. there are a lot of smart people who are able to say a lot of right things from their brain because they have been told what the right answers are, but they don't know me at all. ~ Wm. Paul Young

I would argue that's because we had a bunch of smart people running around here. They were coming in and working very hard and many of them had left jobs in which they made significantly more money. ~ John Hickenlooper

No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people. ~ Sam Altman

Socially smart people have always mocked the threateningly mobile, and anti-branding is a central strand of high-end status conflict now. ~ Peter York

In the real world, very smart people fail and mediocre people rise. Part of what makes people fail or succeed are skills that have nothing to do with IQ. Also, the idea that intelligence can be gauged by an IQ test is erroneous. ~ Camille Paglia

Everybody thought Barack Obama was going to [inspire people] when he came to Washington, but, you know, the Senate seems like the place where smart people go to die. ~ Jon Stewart

Smart people will see opportunities in their failure. Others will their failure as an opportunity not to try. (Annelise Lords) ~ Annelise Lords

I've met some smart people doing security work in the government, and they're starting to reach out to a broader audience, which I think is a good thing. ~ Jeff Moss

The future is going to require really smart people. What we think are crises today probably will be no big deal, and we have no idea what will really be crises in the future. ~ Dean Kamen

Smart people have the brains, but stupid people have the balls ~ Ana Saez Gonzalez

The shareholders who financed the risk taking had no real understanding of what the risk takers were doing, and, as the risk taking grew ever more complex, their understanding diminished. All that was clear was that the profits to be had from smart people making complicated bets overwhelmed anything that could be had from servicing customers, or allocating capital to productive enterprise. ~ Michael Lewis

Maybe you can't relate to people that well now, but you will in time. You have to be present, though. You have to forget yourself and take in the layers of experience that are buzzing around you. The smart people around you will tolerate some awkwardness for the sake of knowing someone else who's smart and interesting. But if you don't know who you are and what you're all about, if you're ashamed and distracted by the nervous noise in your head, you won't be able to take part in the beauty of the world around you. ~ Heather Havrilesky

The problem with smart people is that they like to be right and sometimes will defend ideas to the death rather than admit they're wrong... Until they come face to face with someone who is tenacious enough to dissect their logic, and resilient enough to endure the thinly veiled intellectual abuse they dish out during debate, they're never forced to question their ability to defend bad ideas. ~ Scott Berkun

We will need smart people who can figure out how to save what we need to save and let the rest fade away. ~ John Palfrey

Writing is not something you can do or you can't. It's not even something that 'other people do' or 'for smart people only' or even 'for people who finished school and went to University'. Nonsense. Anyone can do it. But no-one can do it straight off the bat. Like plastering, brain surgery or assembling truck engines, you have to do a bit of training - get your hands dirty - and make some mistakes. ~ Jasper Fforde

The question is not why fools fall in love. It is expected of them. When "smart" people fall in love - that's the problem. ~ Jessica Zafra

My parents both left school at 14, but my parents are incredibly smart, successful, thoughtful people. So one of the lessons I learned from my parents is that the fancy degree is just a foot in the door, and there are a lot of very smart people out there who don't necessarily have the fancy degrees. And given the opportunity, they can do amazing things. ~ Harry West

If smart people are parodying it, that's a sure sign that some less smart people are believing it. ~ David Levithan

The hedge fund known as "Long Term Capital Management" collapsed last fall through overconfidence in its highly leveraged methods, despite I.Q.'s of its principals that must have averaged 160. Smart people aren't exempt from professional disasters from overconfidence. Often, they just run aground in the more difficult voyages they choose, relying on their self-appraisals that they have superior talents and methods. ~ Charlie Munger

The idiot was not a lot of thinking, which is an important move on. Smart people mostly think, consequently never stepped ~ Bob Sadino

Some of the same self-certified smart people, who preached about mushroom clouds and weapons of mass destruction, are once again trying to stampede us into war. They seem to think only with their guns. To those who want to shoot first and ask questions later in Iraq, I join in a firm 'No!' We've been there and done that, and America is still paying for their past failure. ~ Lloyd Doggett

Obscenities ... I think a lot of dumb people do it because they can't think of what they want to say and they're frustrated. A lot of smart people do it to pretend they aren't very smart - want to be just one of the boys. ~ Andy Rooney

We all have brains and we're all really smart people, but the underlying reality is that we're really just animals and sometimes animal instinct takes over your capability to really think things through. ~ Cristian Machado

I have surrounded myself with very smart people. ~ Dolly Parton

Dear lady, ... dear gentleman, reader, [it's] not right ... to put down this writer on his writing ... And I'll tell you why, too: it hurts, that's why.... People try to understand why writers commit suicide by jumping off boats or by alcoholism or by being heroic continuously or by rope or gun or drug or knife or water, and ... I can tell you straight out, ... it is reading slurring remarks about their writing that drives writers to the grave. Dirty remarks passed by ... dirty but damned nicely educated and very highly-paid ladies and gentlemen have the effect of killing writers. Yes, that's right. Dirty words ... in slick paper magazines read by smart people do assassinate writers. ... And boy let me tell you I am all for it, even when by some ... misunderstanding the dirty words are directed to me rather than to the party really deserving them. Accidents happen, dear clever reviewer or critic, and let it not be said that William Saroyan is one not to see a situation from the point of view of the other party, ... and I shall be the first to defend your right to be critical and even sarcastic, knowing full well that it is not about me and my writing, although my name is by mistake taken in vain by you. ... But go on, go on, do your good clever writing, every one of you, I am home, your are home, and we are each of us not yet on Variety's Necrology list, so if we can't take it, who can? ~ William Saroyan

Resting my head on his shoulder, my gaze turns back to the horizon. "How did you get so smart? Did you, like, eat smart people's brains?"

"Well, if I did, you'd certainly be safe from me. ~ L.A. Fiore

Smart people underestimate the ordinarity of ordinary people. ~ Yukihiro Matsumoto

Oftentimes, actors are looked at as court jesters. They are not looked at as deep-thinking, smart people who do many other things or have gifts in other areas. ~ Goldie Hawn

Government usually doesn't work. It doesn't work because it is political. People who are wise, good, smart, skillful, or hardworking don't need politics, they have jobs. The difference between the political process and an honest life is the difference between parading around waving picket signs while hollering catcalls in front of the White House and getting up in the morning to go make a living. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

A lot of secular, modern people claim to be disillusioned whenever they learn that any smart person is religious. That's applicable to Newton as it is to any other religious smart person ~ Neal Stephenson

I've had smarter people around me all my life, but I haven't run into one yet that can outwork me. And if they can't outwork you, then smarts aren't going to do them much good. ~ Woody Hayes

My father certainly believed that one could make a living outside of an office, as he did. And that if I didn't want to work for other people, there wasn't any reason why I had to. He conveyed that very strongly to my sister and I - that smart people can make their own livings. ~ Amy Bloom

Even smart people spend their money on stupid stuff. ~ Steve Repak

I was forced to confront my own prejudice. I had come to the farm with the unarticulated belief that concrete things were for dumb people and abstract things were for smart people. I thought the physical world - the trades - was the place you ended up if you weren't bright or ambitious enough to handle a white-collar job. Did I really think that a person with a genius for fixing engines, or for building, or for husbanding cows, was less brilliant than a person who writes ad copy or interprets the law? Apparently I did, though it amazes me now. ~ Kristin Kimball

The problem with most smart people is that they are too dumb to distinguish necessity from luxury, that's why despite having the resources to deal with real problems that cause misery to humanity, they keep wasting those resources on pompous dreams. And you can have first-hand experience with such stupidity if you visit any CES event. Whether it is smart toilet or smart underwear, there is no end to intellectual, wealthy and pompous stupidity. Silicon Valley is no longer the valley of innovators who solve problems, it has turned into the valley of resourceful stupidity. They are a bunch of people wasting resources on creating products that do nothing more than fuel the predominant neurosis of consumerism. ~ Abhijit Naskar

I always enjoy coming to Israel. Israelis are warm, they're energetic people. Forthright. Very smart. I always like smart people. They're nice people, you know. Aggressive, and I respect that aggressiveness because you need it in their situation. ~ Robert De Niro

I somehow got the idea that oak floors were located exclusively in New York City. This came chiefly from watching Woody Allen movies. I wanted to live someplace that looked like Mia Farrow's apartment in 'Hannah and Her Sisters' (little did I know that it was Mia Farrow's apartment). To me, this kind of space did not connote wealth. These were places where paint was peeling and the rugs were frayed, places where smart people sat around drinking gin and tonics, having interesting conversations, and living, according to my logic, in an authentic way. ~ Meghan Daum

All you need do is listen to very smart people and sift out the ideas that are unworthy or implausible, and I wouldn't pretend for a moment that I hadn't made lots of mistakes and there are companies, perhaps, that we had been investors in. ~ Michael Moritz

I want everybody to be smart. As smart as they can be. A world of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in. ~ Garson Kanin

You treat a kid with respect and as an adult you talk to them as if they're smart people. But you don't throw at them the trappings of adulthood and you know, the darker stuff. ~ Dave Eggers

You don't learn from smart people,
you learn from idiots.
Watch what they do, and then don't do it! ~ Rudolf Wanderone

The single most important thing a city can do is provide a community where interesting, smart people want to live with their families. ~ Malcolm Gladwell

I have great people, smart people that are around me and we love the challenge. I guess it's like climbing a mountain or building a building. It's a challenge but you love every challenge that it brings or presents itself. ~ Ice Cube

I always value people's opinions. I think a lot of people are really smart people, and when people say something, they do it for a reason. ~ Harald Zwart

Smart people make good choices. They dig science and say 'no' to the invasion of sovereign nations for the pleasure of corporations. ~ Henry Rollins

One of these suburbs is actually named Stalingrad, which goes to show that the French have learned nothing about politics since they guillotined all the smart people in 1793. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I lack formal education. So I'm left with the feeling that I'm smarter than everyone around me but that if I ever got around really smart people - people who went to universities and drank wine and spoke Latin - that they'd be bored as hell by me. It's a lonely way to go through life. ~ Gillian Flynn

A clever person can tell them the truth in a way that they want to hear. ~ T.J. Kirk

I guess even smart students gossips just like regular people. ~ Vann Chow

We live in a blatantly corrupt world and smart people engage in the wise practice of risk management. ~ Steven Magee

I try to create some stupid entertainment for really smart people that they don't feel too stupid watching. In 'Xanadu,' the biggest laugh was a reference to Achilles. ~ Douglas Carter Beane

John McCain, who once called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson 'forces of evil', has now come out for teaching intelligent design. That is sad, when smart people have to pretend to be so dumb to get elected. ~ Bill Maher

I read books and talked to people. I mean that's kind of how one learns anything. There's lots of great books out there & lots of smart people. ~ Elon Musk

I hate to say this, but at the time, (late 70's) it was like the smart people liked punk and the dumb people liked Journey. ~ Howie Klein

Musk has talked about having more kids, and it's on this subject that he delivers some controversial philosophizing vis-à-vis the creator of Beavis and Butt-head. "There's this point that Mike Judge makes in Idiocracy, which is like smart people, you know, should at least sustain their numbers," Musk said. "Like, if it's a negative Darwinian vector, then obviously that's not a good thing. It should be at least neutral. But if each successive generation of smart people has fewer kids, that's probably bad, too. I mean, Europe, Japan, Russia, China are all headed for demographic implosion. And the fact of the matter is that basically the wealthier - basically wealth, education, and being secular are all indicative of low birth rate. They all correlate with low birth rate. I'm not saying like only smart people should have kids. I'm just saying that smart people should have kids as well. They should at least maintain - at least be a replacement rate. And the fact of the matter is that I notice that a lot of really smart women have zero or one kid. You're like, 'Wow, that's probably not good. ~ Ashlee Vance

They are 1% rich because they aren't 99% dumb ~ Piyush Negi

The people who built Silicon Valley were engineers. They learned business, they learned a lot of different things, but they had a real belief that humans, if they worked hard with other creative, smart people, could solve most of humankind's problems. I believe that very much. ~ Steve Jobs

Nothing. It's just that most smart people are perfect shits. ~ Benjamin Alire Saenz

Think of all the smart people made stupid by flaws of character. The finest watch isn't fine long when used as a hammer. ~ James Richardson

Smart people learn from everything and everyone,
Average people from their experiences,
Stupid people already have all the answers. ~ Socrates

If you want to compete in bioinformatics, first you need to compete for really smart people. You need really smart people who understand how to manipulate nanomolecules. ~ Juan Enriquez

I loved working with him [Justin Chadwick]. He was very smart in how he assembled the people around him and had a crew that he knew very well. He was very comfortable on the set and I never felt that I was working with a first-time filmmaker. ~ Eric Bana

If you're really successful at bullshitting, it means you're not hanging around enough people smarter than you. ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

In pursuit of happiness, smart people often end up dumbing down themselves. ~ Erol Ozan

I love reading religious authors. Especially in the sort of circle I move in, people tend to be more secular, and I love reading books by just really smart people of religious faith. It's always a really cool perspective. ~ Mallory Ortberg

Smart People no think about a bad past or what can happen, but look for a good future to reprobate the happen things and clear it with a smile. ~ Jan Jansen

Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others. ~ Brandon Mull

Of course smart people know a lot and can therefore accomplish more than others less gifted. But hire them not for the knowledge they possess, but for the things they don't yet know. ~ Eric Schmidt

Congress is full of good, decent, smart people who have devoted their lives to public service. ~ Jonathan Haidt

Why do smart people exist, if not to figure out convoluted problems? ~ Mikhail Bulgakov

I was an incredibly misanthrope. I couldn't relate to people my age, and I'm not sure why, as I wasn't particularly smart or interesting ~ Laura Marling

The investigation of consciousness has come to be regarded suspiciously by most smart people and by most scientists. That's a legacy that began with the Inquisition, which considered non-Christian spiritual inquiry as blasphemous. ~ David O. Russell

In our culture, we have smart people and then we have the hot people. And the hot people have all the sex, and the smart people don't. ~ Mark Haskell Smith

It's smart to have a set of younger actors. People don't always want to look at me. They want to look at other people. ~ Bruce Campbell

Gabi, I was noticing, was a very forgiving person. I've noticed that sometimes smart people aren't. They're more interested in being right, being on top, and they think that means crushing the competition with their huge brains. But Gabi didn't need to put others down to raise herself up. Interesting. ~ Carlos Hernandez, Sal And Gabi Break The Universe

If you put good people around you, I guess you're smart. You learn from them and that makes you a better coach. ~ Tony DiCicco

To my mind there are not enough things that show the Nazis as human, as smart people, charismatic people, who are not inhuman naturally. But who are able to be fantastically inhuman when they choose to be. ~ Martin Freeman

Oh, I know a lot of people struggle, wondering is there really a God. They sit and think and worry over it all their life. The good Lord had to make smart people but I don't think he did them any favors because it seems the smart ones start questioning things from the get go. But I never did. I'm one of the lucky ones. I thank God every night, my brain is just perfect for me, not too dumb, not too bright. ~ Fannie Flagg

Laugh heals smart people, but it insults the stupid ones. ~ Jan Werich

I'm smart enough to know to work with smart people. ~ Idina Menzel