Intellectual Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old intellectual quotes, intellectual sayings, and intellectual proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death. Albert Einstein
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. Albert Camus
Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play. Immanuel Kant
Intellectual passion drives out sensuality. Leonardo da Vinci
No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort. Theodore Roosevelt
Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers. Janis Joplin
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot. Mark Twain
An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them. Albert Einstein
The man was such an intellectual he was of almost no use. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
The job of intellectuals is to come up with ideas, and all we've been producing is footnotes. Theodore H. White
Intellectuals are judged not by their morals, but by the quality of their ideas, which are rarely reducible to simple verdicts of truth or falsity, if only because banalities are by definition accurate. Perry Anderson
What never fails inside the mind of an intellectual never works outside the confines of his head. The world’s stubborn refusal to vindicate the intellectual’s theories serves as proof of humanity’s irrationality, not his own. Daniel J. Flynn
There is nothing that an intellectual less likes to change than his mind, or a politician his policy. Theodore Dalrymple
Intellectuals are a pretty unique species all by themselves, given to advocating things out of sheer brazenness that they could not themselves stomach if they were ushered in to witness the scene. Matthew Scully
Intellectuals cannot find the bottom (base) of the faith. It is not possible to do both together, to remain afloat and (also) measure the ocean depth at the same time. Dada Bhagwan
The thing intellectuals understand least is themselves. Marty Rubin
A wise man's goal shouldn't be to say something profound, but to say something useful. Criss Jami
The intellectual is constantly betrayed by his vanity. God-like, he blandly assumes that he can express everything in words; whereas the things one loves, lives, and dies for are not, in the last analysis, completely expressible in words. Anne Morrow Lindbergh
We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect. John Kenneth Galbraith
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Samuel Johnson
One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.. William Lyon Phelps
The intellectual activity of those without power is always characterized as non-intellectual. Paulo Freire
Only the thinking man lives his life, the thoughtless man's life passes him by. Marie Ebner-Eschenbach
To be free is of the essence of every intellectual being. Jacques Maritain
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. Eleanor Roosevelt
Intellectuals are not defined according to the jobs they do, but [by] the manner in which they act, the way they see themselves, and the values that they uphold. Frank Furedi
Intellectuals are rarely successful as leaders. They are so trapped in their ideals that they cannot venture out in the real world to win and lead. Awdhesh Singh
Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values; that is to say, their own ideas and other people's values. Gerald Brenan
It's the intellectual who transforms the concept of the world into the problem of meaning. Max Weber