The reason so few men can carry on a sensible and agreeable conversation is that there is hardly one but thinks more of what he himself intends to say than of what is being said to him by others. Sometimes even the cleverest and politest man only feigns attention, while we can see by his eyes that his mind has gone back to polish up his own remarks. He does not consider that the worst way to win over others is to talk for his own pleasure, and that the best conversationalist is he who listens with care and answers to the point.
Quotes about cleverest (13 Quotes)
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By being so long in the lowest form I gained an immense advantage over the cleverest boys . . . I got into my bones the essential structure of the normal British sentence - which is a noble thing.
If I ever felt inclined to be timid as I was going into a room full of people, I would say to myself, 'You're the cleverest member of one of the cleverest families in the cleverest class of the cleverest nation. . . why should you be frightened'
The great principle of Western society is that competition rules here as it rules in everything else. The best man - that is to say, the strongest and cleverest - is likely to get the best woman, in the sense of the most beautiful person.
Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.
The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.
To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so.
If it is true, as Baudelaire suggests, that the Devil's cleverest wile is to convince us that he does not exist, ... I now know that Satan is real. I have met it.
Today we frankly recognize that democracy can be no more than aspiration, and have rule not so much by the people as by the cleverest people not an aristocracy of birth, not a plutocracy of wealth, but a true meritocracy of talent.
Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised.
One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely anyone who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him. The cleverest and most complaisant people content themselves with merely showing an attentive countenance, while we can see in their eyes and minds a wandering from what is said to them, and an impatience to return to what they wish to say instead of reflecting that it is a bad method of pleasing or persuading others to be so studious of pleasing oneself and that listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be attained in conversation.
Alan Smith was given an opportunity to play for England and chose to play elsewhere. It's probably not the cleverest thing he's done.