"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" — Isaac Asimov
"He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier, and now is he turned orthography; his words are a very fantastical banquet—just so many strange dishes." — Benedick (in Much Ado About Nothing)
"If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?"
— Seymour Cray
"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."
— Paul Dirac
"Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language and forthwith it is something entirely different." — Goethe
"A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear." — Hamlet
"A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him." — Hamlet
"It is easy to be impressed by what one does not understand very well." — G. H. Hardy
"I love the emotional inclusiveness of music of the past and have grown weary of the intellectualization that has limited the expression and communicativeness of so much music in this century. I want everything to be included in music: soaring melody, consonance, tension, dissonance, drive, relaxation, color, strong harmony, and form—and for every possible emotion to be elicited actively by the passionate use of those elements." — A. J. Kernis
"I believe that my newly completed symphony will show the world that atonality and ugly dissonance at the price of giving up inspiration, form, expression, melody and beauty will result in ultimate disaster for the art of music." — E. W. Korngold
"It is backed like a weasel." — Polonius
"Much intellectual mediocrity can be and actually is concealed by some technique sufficiently recondite to discourage outside criticism." — George Sarton
"I trust you will soon be tired of the inferior melodies, especially those out of the new Italian operas; and of all vulgar ones." — Robert Schumann
"I do not know how many times I felt like giving up music completely and becoming an idiot—a role for which I have always had the greatest inclination. But the trouble was that I just had to compose." — Jean Sibelius