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Intelligence Quotes

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Intelligence Quotes

Push up your glasses, adjust those suspenders, and let's get going. Click on any intelligence quote below to see it in context and find out where it falls on Shmoop's pretentious scale. We'll give you details on who said it, when they said it, and in some cases, why on earth they thought it was okay to say it.

"Back and to the left."

Source: JFK | Speaker: Jim Garrison

"Be curious."

Source: Birthday Party Speech | Speaker: Stephen Hawking

"Being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble."

Source: The Lion King | Speaker: Mufasa

"Billions and billions."

Source: Carl Sagan | Speaker: Carl Sagan

"But it does move."

Source: Unknown | Speaker: Galileo Galilei

"Danger, Will Robinson!"

Source: Lost in Space | Speaker: The Robot

"Do not call for Black power or green power. Call for brain power."

Source: Campus Speeches, Quoted in the Chicago Tribune | Author: Barbara Jordan

"Don't cross the streams."

Source: Ghostbusters | Speaker: Egon Spengler

"Elementary, my dear Watson."

Source: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Speaker: Sherlock Holmes

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

Source: National Lampoon's Animal House | Speaker: Dean Vernon Wormer

"From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition."

Source: Frankenstein | Author: Mary Shelley

"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Source: Not verified | Speaker: Thomas Edison

"Give me but one firm spot on which to stand and I will move the earth."

Source: The Law of the Lever | Speaker: Archimedes

"Have a vision. Be demanding."

Source: It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership | Author: Colin Powell

"He's alive! Alive!"

Source: Frankenstein | Speaker: Dr. Henry Frankenstein

"Hello. IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

Source: The IT Crowd | Speaker: Roy Trenneman

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."

Source: The Remarkable Rocket | Author: Oscar Wilde

"I celebrate myself"

Source: "Song of Myself" | Author: Walt Whitman

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"

Source: Pride and Prejudice | Author: Jane Austen

"I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am."

Source: Green Eggs and Ham | Author: Dr. Seuss

"I do not wish any reward but to know I have done the right thing."

Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Author: Mark Twain

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."

Source: 1780 Letter | Author: John Adams

"I only know that I know nothing."

Source: Apology by Plato | Speaker: Socrates

"I think, therefore I am."

Source: Discourse on the Method | Author: René Descartes

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Source: Letter to Robert Hooke | Author: Sir Isaac Newton

"If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change."

Source: "Man in the Mirror" | Speaker: Michael Jackson

"In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."

Source: Furman v. Georgia | Author: Thurgood Marshall

"Is that your final answer?"

Source: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire | Speaker: Regis Philbin

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

Source: The Origin of the Species | Speaker: Charles Darwin

"It is written."

Source: Slumdog Millionaire | Speaker: Opening credits narration

"Just one more thing..."

Source: Columbo | Speaker: Lieutenant Columbo

"Just the facts, ma'am."

Source: Dragnet | Speaker: Sgt. Joe Friday

"Keep the change, ya filthy animal."

Source: Home Alone | Speaker: Kevin McCallister

"Kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is: never try."

Source: The Simpsons | Speaker: Homer Simpson

"Let's be careful out there."

Source: Hill Street Blues | Speaker: Sergeant Phil Esterhaus

"Makes me that much stronger"

Source: "Fighter" | Speaker: Christina Aguilera

"Mama says, "Stupid is as stupid does.""

Source: Forrest Gump | Speaker: Forrest Gump

"Man is the measure of all things."

Source: Truth | Author: Protagoras

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about…"

Source: Mysticism and Logic | Author: Bertrand Russell

"Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you."

Source: Game of Thrones | Speaker: Tyrion Lannister

"No arts; no letters; no society."

Source: Leviathan | Author: Thomas Hobbes

"Our deepest fear is not that we are weak. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."

Source: 1994 Inaugural Address | Speaker: Nelson Mandela

"Right is right, and wrong is wrong."

Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Author: Mark Twain

"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."

Source: The Fault in Our Stars | Author: John Green

"Survey says!"

Source: Family Feud | Speaker: Family Feud Hosts

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

Source: I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! | Author: Dr. Seuss

"The most savage controversies are about those matters as to which there is no good evidence either way."

Source: An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish | Author: Bertrand Russell

"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking."

Source: What is Called Thinking? | Author: Martin Heidegger

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Source: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan | Speaker: Spock

"The proof is in the pudding."

Source: Proverb | Speaker: Unknown

"The record shows I took the blows and did it my way."

Source: "My Way" | Speaker: Frank Sinatra

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."

Source: Diggers (The Bromeliad Trilogy) | Author: Terry Pratchett

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

Source: Unknown | Speaker: Albert Einstein

"The truth is...I am Iron Man."

Source: Iron Man | Speaker: Tony Stark

"There never was a good war, or a bad peace."

Source: 1783 Letter | Author: Benjamin Franklin

"There's a light on in the attic."

Source: A Light in the Attic | Author: Shel Silverstein

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it."

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle | Author: Henry Ford

"This is a man's world. But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl."

Source: It's a Man's Man's Man's World | Speaker: James Brown

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

Source: Psalm 118:24 | Author: The Psalmist

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."

Source: Misquote | Speaker: Alexander Hamilton

"Thoughts without content are empty."

Source: Critique of Pure Reason | Author: Immanuel Kant

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

Source: The Soul of Man Under Socialism | Author: Oscar Wilde

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart."

Source: Proverbs 3:5 | Author: King Solomon

"Two are better than one."

Source: Ecclesiastes 4:9 | Author: Ecclesiastes (Koheleth)

"We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep."

Source: The Scarlet Letter | Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

"We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice."

Source: "The Celebration of Negro History Week" in The Journal of Negro History | Author: Carter G. Woodson

"We speak student."

Source: Tagline | Author: Shmoop

"Well-behaved women rarely make history."

Source: Marilyn Monroe | Author: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

"What do they think I am, dumb or something? Why, I make more money than Calvin Coolidge! Put together!"

Source: Singin' in the Rain | Speaker: Lina Lamont

"What I do have is a particular set of skills."

Source: Taken | Speaker: Bryan Mills

"When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, "No, I went to films.""

Source: Interview with Andrew Walker of BBC News | Speaker: Quentin Tarantino

"With my brains and your looks, we could go places."

Source: The Postman Always Rings Twice | Speaker: Frank Chambers

"Words can be like X-Rays if you use them properly – they'll go through anything."

Source: Brave New World | Author: Aldous Huxley

"You are from New York; therefore, you are just naturally interesting."

Source: Girls | Speaker: Hannah Horvath

"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."

Source: 1946 Letter | Author: Albert Einstein

"You should never assume."

Source: The Odd Couple | Speaker: Felix Unger

"You want weapons. We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world."

Source: Doctor Who | Speaker: Tenth Doctor

"You're a heartbreaker."

Source: Heartbreaker | Speaker: Pat Benatar

"You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man."

Source: Body Heat | Speaker: Matty Walker