intellect quotes

Of these two literatures [French and German], as of the intellect of Europe in general, the main effort, for now many years, has beena critical effort; the endeavours, in all branches of knowledgetheology, philosophy, history, art, sciencetoseethe object as initself it really is.

- Matthew Arnold
On Translating Homer, lecture 2.

I care not whether a man isgood or evil; all that I care Is whether he is a wise man or a fool.Go! put off Holiness, And put on intellect, or my thunderous hammer shall drive thee, To wrath which thou condemnest, till thou obey my voice.

-William Blake
c.1804^1807  Jerusalem, plate 91.

I scorched my intellect into a cinder of stolidity.

-Jane Baillie ne  e Jane Baillie Welsh Carlyle
Quoted in  Alexander Carlyle (ed) New Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle (1903),'Mrs Carlyle's Notebook'.

The Democratic Intellect.

- George Elder Davie
  Title of book.

A pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

- Charles Lamb
  Of puns. Last Essays of Elia,'Popular Fallacies', no.9.

When we say 'science' we can either mean any manipulation of the inventive and organizing power of the human intellect: or we can mean such an extremely different thing as the religion of science, the vulgarized derivativefromthispureactivitymanipulated bya sortof priestcraft into a great religious and political weapon.

-Jose Lezama Lima
  The Art of Being Ruled.

O bom era ter uma intelige"  ncia e na‹  o entender. Era uma be"  n c° a‹  o estranha como a de ter loucura sem ser doida. Era um desinteresse manso em rela c° a‹  o a'  s coisas ditas do intelecto, uma do c° ura de estupidez. What was good was to have intelligence and yet not understand. It was a strange blessing like experiencing madness without being mad. It was a gentle lack of interest with respect to the so-called things of the intellect, a sweet stupidity.

- Clarice Lispector
  Uma  Aprendizagem ou O Livro dos Prazeres, 'Luminesce"  ncia' (translated as  An  Apprenticeship or TheBook of Delights,1986).

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.

- Susan Sontag
  In The Evergreen Review, Dec.

The march of intellect.

- Robert Southey
  Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, no.14.

In vita itaque apprime utile est, intellectum seu Rationem, quantum possumus, perficere, et in hoc uno summa hominis felicitas seu beatitudo consistit; quippe beatitudo nihil aliud est, quam ipsa animi acquiescentia quae ex Dei intuitiva cognitione oritur. It is therefore extrememly useful in life to perfect as much as we can the intellect or reason, and of this alone doesthegreatest happiness or blessedness of man exist: for blessedness is nothing else than satisfaction of mind which arises from the intuitive knowledge of God.

- Baruch also known as Benedict de Spinoza Spinoza
  Ethics, bk.4, appendix.

   A merely great intellect can produce great prose, but not poetry, not one line.

- (Philip) Edward Thomas
  Letter to Gordon Bottomley, 26 Feb.

   I now speak of the sex in general. Many individuals have more sense than their male relatives; and†some women govern their husbands without degrading themselves, because intellect will always govern.

- Mary also known as Mrs Godwin Wollstonecraft
  AVindication of the Rights ofWoman, introduction.

One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can. Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things: We murder to dissect. Enough of science and of art; Close up those barren leaves; Come forth and bring with you a heart That watches and receives.

-William Wordsworth
  'TheTablesTurned', stanzas 6^8.

When Pearse summoned Cuchulain to his side, What stalked through the Post Office? What intellect, What calculation, number, measurement, replied? We Irish, born into that ancient sect But thrown upon this filthy modern tide And by its formless spawning fury wrecked, Climb to our proper dark, that we may trace The lineaments of a plummet-measured face.

-W(illiam) B(utler) Yeats
  'The Statues', stanza 4. Collected in Last Poems (1939).