The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.
— Chinua Achebe
Thrilling Clever Man quotations
Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
Do not correct a fool or he will hate you. Correct a wise man and he will appreciate you.
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
Fear is the destructive energy in man.
It withers the mind, it distorts thought, it leads to all kinds of extraordinarily clever and subtle theories, absurd superstitions, dogmas, and beliefs.
Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes.
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
What clever man has ever needed to commit a crime? Crime is the last resort of political half-wits.
Many clever men like you have trusted to civilization.
Many clever Babylonians, many clever Egyptians, many clever men at the end of Rome. Can you tell me, in a world that is flagrant with the failures of civilisation, what there is particularly immortal about yours?
Don't cry for a man who's left you--the next one may fall for your smile.
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute. The man who does not ask, is a fool for life.
All great events hang by a single thread.
The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything.
The students in your youth ministry don’t need your clever ideas and great programming skills. They need a living model—a man or woman of God who is passionate about his or her faith.
Tell me I'm clever, Tell me I'm kind, Tell me I'm talented, Tell me I'm cute, Tell me I'm sensitive, Graceful and wise, Tell me I'm perfect - But tell me the truth.
A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything.
Never have anything to do with an unlucky place, or an unlucky man.
I have seen many clever men, very clever men, who had not shoes to their feet. I never act with them. Their advice sounds very well, but they cannot get on themselves; and if they cannot do good to themselves, how can they do good to me?
Credulity is always a ridiculous, often a dangerous failing: it has made of many a clever man, a fool; and of many a good man, a knave.
This is a long tough road we have to travel.
The men that can do things are going to be sought out just as surely as the sun rises in the morning. Fake reputations, habits of glib and clever speech, and glittering surface performance are going to be discovered.
Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.
If you are clever enough to figure out what men want, you are either too wise to marry them or too intimidating for them to marry you.
To succeed in the world, it is much more necessary to possess the penetration to discern who is a fool, than to discover who is a clever man.
Clever men are impressed in their differences from their fellows.
Wise men are conscious of their resemblance to them.
Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.
I would prefer as friend a good man ignorant than one more clever who is evil too.
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them.
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise man grows it under his feet.
A clever, ugly man every now and then is successful with the ladies, but a handsome fool is irresistible.
No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.
If you want to test a man’s character give him power.
There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does.
A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
A man likes his wife to be just clever enough to appreciate his cleverness, and just stupid enough to admire it.
Words of comfort skillfully administered are the oldest therapy known to man.
Fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves.
The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.
Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show you a fool, a clever fool - perhaps - but a fool just the same.
The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.
I'm all alone. There has been no man in my life for several months now and although it would be nice to have a boyfriend, I can't just settle for anybody. The fact is I'm choosy, but mainly about a man's character. He has to be interesting, funny and clever. I don't even mind if he's not very good-looking.
The stone age was marked by man's clever use of crude tools;
the information age, to date, has been marked by man's crude use of clever tools.
So many, though reluctant to admit it. Shun clever men, and rather suffer fools.
Cleverly assorted scraps of spurious science are inculcated upon the children to prove necessity of law; obedience to the law is made a religion; moral goodness and the law of the masters are fused into one and the same divinity. The historical hero of the schoolroom is the man who obeys the law, and defends it against rebels.
I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things; and a most perplexing problem it is. Many men who are very clever - much cleverer than the discoverers - never originate anything.
