Intelligent Sounding Quotes & Sayings

Good players want to be coached ... Great players want to be told the truth — Doc Rivers

They rounded a corner in thunder and siren, with concussion of tires, with scream of rubber with a shift of kerosene bulk in the glittery brass tank, like the food in the stomach of a giant, with Montag's fingers jolting off the silver rail, swinging into cold space, with the wind tearing his hair back from his head, with the wind whistling in his teeth, and him all the while thinking of the women, the chaff women in his parlor tonight, with the kernels blown out from under them by a neon wind, and his silly damned reading of a book to them. — Ray Bradbury

When members of the London Poetry Society asked Browning to interpret a particularly difficult passage of Sordello, he read it twice, frowned, then admitted, "When I wrote that, God and I knew what I meant, but now God alone knows."
Rather than risk sounding dense, readers, colleagues, and critics who can't figure out what a writer is trying to say but think it sounds intelligent will typically resort to calling such work "daring," "provocative," or "complex." An unholy alliance of writers and readers is at work here. — Ralph Keyes

Well, sounding wise wasn't difficult. It was a lot easier than being intelligent, actually, since you didn't have to say anything surprising or come up with any new insights. You just let your brain's pattern-matching software complete the cliche, using whatever Deep Wisdom you'd stored previously. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

I'm a socially concerned citizen of India. I have strong views on issues of social and political relevance. But it's very difficult to voice it in an intelligent manner without it sounding contrived. Because people think you're saying or doing all this as a PR exercise, not from your heart. — Sonam Kapoor

I was pretty sure I would never have to worry about finding the right guy. I thought it would happen for me the way it happened for my parents and for my grandparents. They got to the right age, they found the right person, they got married, they had kids. — Rainbow Rowell

Beginning today, set an intention and a relentless focus on living your life as the greatest person you can be, in all situations. Demand that you demonstrate a strength of character in such a way that you find pride in who you are, and that others see you as a role model. — Brendon Burchard

If you would serve your brother it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you. Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are two tendencies in all our war talk ... The first is to boast, if not of ourselves and our deeds, at least of our army, our corps, our regiments. The other is to find fault with, to criticize, to censure, to condemn others. If there is a victory, we gained it and must have the credit of it. If there is a failure, it was the fault of the other fellow,
he must be blamed for it. — Rutherford B. Hayes

Every single morning you wake up with the opportunity to be yourself, or be the idea of someone else. For me it is all about ... my favourite mantra is: "You do you. I do me. They do they." — Shailene Woodley

Minerva considered herself a reasonably intelligent person, but good heavens ... handsome men made her stupid. She grew so flustered around them, never knew where to look or what to say. The reply meant to be witty and clever would come out sounding bitter or lame. Sometimes a teasing remark from Lord Payne's quarter quelled her into dumb silence altogether. Only days later, while she was banging away at a cliff face with a rock hammer, would the perfect retort spring to mind. — Tessa Dare

And so was Luria, whose words now came back to me: 'A man does not consist of memory alone. He has feeling, will, sensibility, moral being ... It is here ... you may touch him, and see a profound change.' Memory, mental activity, mind alone, could not hold him; but moral attention and action could hold him completely. — Oliver Sacks

I didn't know then that this was just part of DC, that everyone was always looking ahead to the next step, peeking around to see what other people were doing, calculating the next move. — Jennifer Close

I'd seen Rex pull this ruse before. The trick is to employ diplomatic-sounding generalities to cover his near-total ignorance. You'd think that any reasonably intelligent person would see right through it, but Rex's uncanny confidence can be downright unnerving. To be honest, I'm not entirely certain he realizes it's a ruse. He may just be deluded enough to think that he really does understand what's going on, and somehow he manages to extend that delusion to include those in the immediate vicinity. As the originator of the delusion, he then becomes a sort of expert guide to those lost in its fog. — Robert Kroese

Were she not aware that he was more than a man who could make plants grow. And — Laurie R. King

focus on one cake. Each and every cake had its own personality. If you ignored a cake's personality the cake would ignore you. It'll be a rude, boring cake. I avoided making rude cake. These days, I avoided making cake, period. But if I had to do it, I made great cake. Fun cake. Cake with big dreams, difficult to ignore. Special cake. "Are you finished with the — Penny Reid

A wicked conscience mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy thoughts. — William Shakespeare

(E)very version of time is real, but none of them is complete. — Deepak Chopra

When a mortal man breaks a people, it is always blamed on the gods. — S.M. White