I not only use all the brains I have, but all that I can borrow. Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good. The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds. Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
Johnson, The Rambler , 1750-2 All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man. A man is not necessarily intelligent because he has plenty of ideas, any more than he is a good general because he has plenty of soldiers. If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Patience is genius.