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Smart Quotes

On sharp minds, quick wit, and looking clever.

This set leans playful and observational, from a comedian describing brilliant college roommates to a dry one-liner about thrones and humility. For related wit, see Like.

I never took my SAT's. I never applied to college. I moved right out here and jumped into the thick of things. Whether that was the smart move or not, I'm sitting here talking to you now, so it paid...

Quotes by Scott Foley

I love collaborating with other really smart, incredible people.

Quotes by Scooter Braun

Remind people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense. This makes you look smart.

Quotes by Scott Adams

I don't worry about what everyone wants to see. I make movies that please a writer, director and myself. I always think there are enough people smart as me and sensitive as me.

Quotes by Saul Zaentz

In the digital world, content has the tendency to lose value, especially on smart devices. We finally found solutions to the problem. We will not merely port games developed for our dedicated systems to smart devices just as they are...

Quotes by Satoru Iwata

Even before the advent of smart devices, we employed touchscreens for our games with Nintendo DS, and we also adopted accelerometers for our Wii Remotes faster than smart devices did.

Quotes by Satoru Iwata

The Republican Party would be really smart to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible.

Quotes by Sarah Palin

I know it sounds weird, but my definition of 'sexy' has changed as I've gotten older. And being smart and informed makes me feel sexier than any outfit.

Quotes by Sarah Shahi

The American people elected somebody who's tough, who is smart, and who is a fighter. It's Donald Trump. And I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that he fights fire with fire.

Quotes by Sarah Huckabee Sanders

I think it's because it's so different and it takes risks. Plus, it's really smart humor. It gives the audience credit in terms of not needing to tell them when to laugh. I love that about the show. There's no...

Quotes by Sarah Chalke

I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likable female private investigator, and that's how VI came to life.

Quotes by Sara Paretsky

One of the things I've learned is people are smart, and they understand what should be done. They understand what the challenges are, but they're not always able to have their voices heard.

Quotes by Sandra E. Peterson

When you're a liar, a person of low moral fortitude, really any explanation you need to be true can be true. Especially if you're smart enough. You can figure out a way to justify anything.

Quotes by Samuel Witwer

I feel many times we do all the hard work, but in the absence of smart work, we do not get the desired results.

Quotes by Sandeep Singh

I grew up with plenty of smart people. They would beat me at chess; they could solve brain teasers before I could, but then they would struggle in algebra. These were incredibly smart people who simply did not have the...

Quotes by Sal Khan

I live in quite a smart home. I built it from scratch, so I thought of everything… a lot of my doors are automatic; the whole house is voice-activated.

Quotes by Rylan Clark-Neal

When I dropped out of school at 19 to start my first job in Hollywood, I didn't know anything, and I had no idea where I'd end up. Thankfully, I was attached to some smart and forgiving people who let...

Quotes by Ryan Holiday

We only have so much energy for our work, for our relationships, for ourselves. A smart person understands this and guards it carefully. Meanwhile, idiots focus on marginal productivity hacks and gains while they leak out energy each passing day.

Quotes by Ryan Holiday

If you ask most smart or successful people where they learned their craft, they will not talk to you about their time in school. It's always a mentor, a particularly transformative job, or a period of experimentation or trial and...

Quotes by Ryan Holiday

The world of TV debates is antiquated. What looked smart and modern in 1960, with Kennedy versus Nixon, looks quaint and over-rehearsed between Obama and Romney. We need a new format; even if we have the same moderators and candidates,...

Quotes by Ruzwana Bashir

Frequently Asked Questions

What angle do these "smart" quotes take?
They look at "smart" from a few angles — sizing someone up by comparison, admiring roommates' intelligence, quoting an anonymous wise saying, and describing how something can look smart on the surface.
Is there a quote comparing someone's intelligence to a child's?
Yes — one quote compares a public figure, Slobodan Milosevic, saying he "was just as smart as a five-year-old," and adds that "Five-year-olds have an uncanny way of getting into your psyche, your self-esteem." It's presented here exactly as that speaker's own comparison.
Is there a quote about living with smart people?
There is. One speaker recalls living with "Harvard MD/PhD students" who "were so smart," while joking that their own role in the house was being "the funny one."
Is there a quote quoting someone else's wisdom?
Yes — one line begins, "Some smart man once said that on the most exalted throne in the world, we are seated on nothing but our own arse," passing along a saying about humility. Find more on our Great quotes page.
Is there a quote about things that look smart but aren't necessarily better?
Yes. One quote observes that virtual relationships "look smart and clean, feel easy to use," when compared with "the heavy, slow-moving, messy real stuff" of real relationships. Browse more on our Good, Like, and Love quotes pages.

One quote pushes back on things that only look smart on the surface, contrasting polished appearances with something more genuine underneath. See also Good and Great.