#lever

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing. ↗

— Henri Frederic Amiel

#everything #nothing #serviceable #sufficient

Lord Birkenhead is very clever but sometimes his brains go to his head. ↗

— Margot Asquith

#clever #go #head #his #lord

Can you be sure that others have not come before you and destroyed the pristine state of the native myth? Can you be sure that the natives are not humoring you or pulling your leg? Bronislaw Malinowski thought he had discovered a people in the Trobriant Islands who had not worked out the connection between sexual intercourse and childbirth. When asked how children were conceived, they supplied him with an elaborate mythic structure prominently featuring celestial intervention. Amazed, Malinowski objected that was not how it was done at all, and supplied them instead with the version so popular in the West today – including a nine-month gestation period. “Impossible,” replied the Melanesians. “Do you not see that woman over there with her six-month-old child? Her husband has been on an extended voyage to another island for two years.” Is it more likely that the Melanesians were ignorant of the begetting of children or that they were gently chiding Malinowski? If some peculiar-looking stranger came into my town and asked ME where babies came from, I’d certainly be tempted to tell him about storks and cabbages. Prescientific people are people. Individually they are as clever as we are. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#cleverness #myths #people #primitive #humor

Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes. ↗

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

#clever #hated #his #man #more

Take male strategies for success in the world. If you've got all the advantages, if you're attractive and clever and all of that, you will generally go for very high quality females. ↗

— Susan Blackmore

#attractive #clever #females #generally #go

Lots of people working in cryptography have no deep concern with real application issues. They are trying to discover things clever enough to write papers about. ↗

— Whitfield Diffie

#application #clever #concern #cryptography #deep

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest. ↗

— Napoleon Bonaparte

#interest #levers #men #moved #only

Cleverness is not wisdom. ↗

— Euripides

#cleverness

I grew up in a family of Republicans. And when I was 18 and registering to vote, my mom's only instruction was 'You just go in and pull the big Republican lever.' That's my welcome to adulthood. She's like, 'No, don't even read it. Just pull the Republican lever. ↗

— Tina Fey

#big #even #family #go #grew

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#back #clever #come #driver #hit