Flunking

The teacher pretended that algebra was a perfectly natural affair, to be taken for granted, whereas I didn't even know what numbers were. Mathematics classes became sheer terror and torture to me. I was so intimidated by my incomprehension that I did not dare to ask any questions. - Carl Jung

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. - Robert Heinlein

Intelligence

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. - C. Archie Danielson


Even if you're a teenager.

Perceiving Desires

There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of the century, or even of the decade, before it has done so itself. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

  Steve Jobs.

Radio Explained

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat. - Albert Einstein


Technology can be explained simply, no matter how smart you are.

Exams

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer. - Charles Caleb Colton


You don't have to be a genius to come up with tough questions.

Seeing and Doing

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are. - George Santayana 


I would add:
Creativity is seeing things as they might be.
Wisdom is seeing what ought to be.
Heroism is making things the way they ought to be.


(More posts on Intelligence) 

Education vs Intelligence - Guest Blog

You're not dumb, just under-educated - Lyle Wilson

When the old man tutors kids he always believes that the road to success can only be cleared by eliminating reasons (prejudice, intelligence) why you can't succeed. You or the people around you can always give you a perfect reason to fail.

Universal Symmetry

The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect. - Paul Valery 


Why not Paul? We are part of the universe - not separate from it.


(Other posts on Life) 

Competent Imagination

Competence is not the same thing as imagination. - Seth Godin


And to a certain extent they are mutually exclusive. It takes both kinds but when you find the one who has both - hire them.


(Other posts on Imagination)

Enlightened Enemies

"Lord, enlighten thou our enemies," prayed 19th century British economist and moral philosopher John Stuart Mill in his "Essay on Coleridge." "Sharpen their wits, give acuteness to their perceptions, and consecutiveness and clearness to their reasoning powers. We are in danger from their folly, not from their wisdom: their weakness is what fills us with apprehension, not their strength."

It is far more satisfying to prevail in a battle of wits than brawn.

Results of Failure

Skill is successfully walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Intelligence is not trying. -Anonymous

Intelligence is knowing the consequences of failure. There is a difference between failing with uncomfortable results and failing with lethal results.

Worldly Wisdom

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar. - Edward R. Murrow





Just because someone speaks with authority from some far away place does not make them wise. It may be that they are only (unfortunately) more influential.

Gospel Intelligence

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. - Bertrand Russell



Interesting observation. The question is "Why not?"