#lever

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing. ↗

— Henri Frederic Amiel

#everything #nothing #serviceable #sufficient

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

When you argue with your inferiors, you convince them of only one thing: they are as clever as you. ↗

— Irving Layton

#clever #convince #inferiors #one thing #only

I had to think about ankle torsion, where the screws are on the ski, how that affects the forces going into the ski and how the ski bends, your leverage points. It was a challenge. I was having the greatest time, making the mistakes, crashing. ↗

— Bode Miller

#affects #ankle #bends #challenge #crashing

Too clever is dumb. ↗

— Ogden Nash

#dumb #too

Clever people master life; the wise illuminate it and create fresh difficulties. ↗

— Emil Nolde

#clever people #create #difficulties #fresh #illuminate

Bush is very clever. When the debate should have been about the deterioration of our cities and the lack of action by government, he sent in his idiot to make an outrageous statement about Murphy Brown. ↗

— Tim Robbins

#action #been #brown #bush #cities

What clever man has ever needed to commit a crime? Crime is the last resort of political half-wits. ↗

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

#clever man #commit #crime #ever #half-wits

I like my relationships like I like my eggs. Over easy. ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#eggs #funny #relationships #witty #witty

I like to spoon after I fork. ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#fork #funny #humor #spoon #witty