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The man of genius whether as artist or thinker requires a mass of accidental variations to select from and a rigidly selective process of attention.

— Boris Sidis The Foundations of Normal and Abnormal Psychology (1914)

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Intelligence

More quotes by Boris Sidis

Human institutions depend for their existence and stability on the impulse of self-preservation and its close associate, — the fear instinct.

Nervous Ills their Cause and Cure (1922)

Not purpose but chance is at the heart of mental life.

The Foundations of Normal and Abnormal Psychology (1914)

The principle of recognition of evil under all its guises is at the basis of the true education of man.

Philistine and Genius (1919)

The general tendency of evolution is from structure to function, from bondage to freedom of the individual elements.

Multiple Personality: an Experimental Investigation into Human Individuality (1904)

Self-preservation is the central aim of all life-activities.

Nervous Ills their Cause and Cure (1922)

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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: Boris Sidis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.