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It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one's intelligence.

— George Orwell

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Intelligence

More quotes by George Orwell

England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality.

The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

Within certain limits, it is actually true that the less money you have, the less you worry.

Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)

I have the most evil memories of Spain, but I have very few bad memories of Spaniards.

Homage to Catalonia (1938)

The fallacy is to believe that under a dictatorial government you can be free inside.

As I Please (1943)

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