Only ignorance excuses stupidity

We know that the war against intelligence is always waged in the name of common sense.

But the compulsive overachievement of today’s elite college students – the sense that they need to keep running as fast as they can – is not the only thing that keeps them from forming the...

I’ve always loved science fiction. I think the smartest writers are science fiction writers dealing with major things.” – Associated Press interview, 12-7-11

Intelligence is often worshiped, even when that intelligence allows unfathomable injustice and suffering to occur under its smart watch.

Some years ago I read a book that brought Einstein’s theory of relativity down to an eighth grade level. This convinced me that any subject can be made easy. In other words, always beware of...

Yet human intelligence has another force, too: the sense of urgency that gives human smarts their drive. Perhaps our intelligence is not just ended by our mortality; to a great degree, it is our mortality.

But I am a just man, even to my enemy—and I will acknowledge, beforehand, that they are cleverer brains than I thought them.

Be intelligent, but know it is better to be kind than smart.

If this is a smart world then I want to be stupid.

And pity–people who inspire it in you are actually very powerful people. To get someone else to take care of you, to feel sorry for you–that takes a lot of strength, smarts, manipulation. Very powerful...

Do not be a stupid, unless someone is paying you to be.

It’s always good to be underestimated.