'... sapience implies purpose.' (LW)
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He knew how she felt. It was the way he felt himself, sometimes if he woke in the small hours, at three a.m., a time when the world seemed empty and stripped of comforting illusion. A time when you knew you were a mote, transient and fragile in a vast universe, a candle flame in an empty hall. Luckily the sun always came up, people stirred, and you got on with stuff that distracted you from the reality.
The problem for Roberta Golding was that she was too smart to be distracted. For her, it was three a.m. all the time. (LW) 'The nice thing about artificial intelligence is that at least it's better than artificial stupidity.' (LW)
You need time for big and complicated new concepts to shake themselves down in your brain slowly, without damaging what is already there. (LE)
‘But smart has to have a depth as well as a length. Some smart brushes over a problem. And some smart grinds exceedingly slow, like the mills of God, and it grinds fine, and when it comes up with an answer, it has been tested.’ (LE)
'I was unfortunately born clever, miss, and I've learned that sometimes it's not such a good idea to be all that clever.' (ISWM)
'Sometimes what is legal isn't what is right, and sometimes it needs a witch to tell the difference. And sometimes a copper too, if you have the right kind of copper. Clever people know this. Stupid people don't. And the trouble is, stupid people can be oh so clever.' (ISWM)
People often didn't stop to think. They thought as they went along. Sometimes it was a good idea. Just to stop moving, in case you moved the wrong way. (ISWM)
She couldn't tell if he had really come to his senses, because the man had so few of them at the best of times, it was hard to know if he had any at all. (ISWM)
'Don't be smart be clever.' (UA)
'The female mind is certainly a devious one, my lord.'
Vetinari looked at his secretary in surprise. 'Well, of course it is. It has to deal with the male one.' (UA) … a man could be dogmatic, and that was all right, or he could be stupid, and no harm done, but stupid and dogmatic at the same time was too much … (UA)
'Smart is only a polished version of dumb. Try intelligence. It will surely see you through'. (UA)
'Cunning: artful, sly, deceptive, shrewd, astute, cute, on the ball and, indeed, arch. A word for any praise and every prejudice. Cunning… is a cunning word.' (UA)
'… they ranged in size from unpleasantly large to disgustingly small, had about the same level of culture as yoghurt and spent their time picking their own noses and missing.' (UA)
Glenda and Juliet sat side by side, rocking gently to the sway, lost in their thoughts. At least Glenda was, Juliet could get lost in half a thought, if that. (UA)
The last thing she wanted was to see her friend getting ideas in her head. There was such a lot of room in there for them to bounce around and do damage. (UA)
Space he thought. That was the trouble. It was never like this on worlds with everlastingly cloudy skies. But once humans saw all that space, their brains expanded to try and fill it up. (DWCN)
'Are they intelligent?’ said Snibril.
‘Together they are. Individually, they’re stupid. Hah! The opposite of us, really.' (CP) 'Cunning can do duty for thought up to a point, and then you die.' (MM)
'My aunts say I’m too clever by half.’
‘Glad tae hear it,’ said Rob Anybody, ‘cuz that’s much better than bein’ too stupid by three-quarters!' (W) ... the wonderful thing about intelligent life, they have discovered, is that with some care it can be persuaded to destroy itself. (DW)
His fellow wizards weren’t stupid, but you had to be careful to shape ideas to fit the holes in their heads. (DW)
'So don’t any of you go thinking you can be artful about this, because when it comes to cunning, I am Mister Fox.' (MR)
That's the trouble with a brain: it thinks more than you sometimes want it too. (WFM)
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The world has lost Sir Terry, and it's so much the poorer for that. Vale Sir Terry. Categories
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