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All the means of action —
The shapeless masses, the materials —
Lie everywhere about us. What we need
Is the celestial fire to change the flint
Into transparent crystal, bright and clear.
That fire is genius!

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Spanish Student (1843)

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Intelligence

More quotes by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.

Kavanagh: A Tale (1849)

They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.

Thy fate is the common fate of all;
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Ballads and Other Poems (1842)

Music is the universal language of mankind — poetry their universal pastime and delight.

Outre-Mer (1835)

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

Kavanagh: A Tale (1849)

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Each of these private teachers who work for pay ... inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom.

Socrates

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël De l’Allemagne [Germany (1813)

Like every 'intellectual', a philosophy teacher is a petty bourgeois. When he opens his mouth, it is petty-bourgeois ideology that speaks: its resources and ruses are infinite.

Louis Althusser Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.