90 Smart Quotes That Will Sharpen Your Wits

These smart quotes will make you look like the most intelligent person in the room.

Everybody loves a good quote, especially one that sounds smart and makes you look smarter when you quote it.

Quotes are great tools to use in conversation, especially when you’re trying to make a point.

A quote offers a second voice that validates your idea.

Quotes are usually famous because the person who said the quote phrased the idea in a way that was clear, concise, and memorable.

Thus, when you quote them, you make your argument stronger.

The smartest quotes use a little bit of humor to lighten the mood and reinforce a concept.

These smart quotes are not only intelligent, but are wise, humorous, and motivational as well.

Don’t forget to also check out these smart logic quotes to boost your brain Power.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration. 

Check out our entire collection of motivational quotes here. 

Smart quotes and sayings to inspire success

1. “A true friend overlooks your failures and tolerates your success!” – Doug Larson

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2. “All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.” – Adlai E. Stevenson

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3. “Computers and the internet have made us faster but they do not make us smarter.” — Steven Levi

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4. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” — Albert Einstein

5. Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” — Rosa Parks

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6. “A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being ‘frank’.” – Robert Heinlein

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7. “A true friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else.” – Len Wein

8. “A witty saying proves nothing.” – Voltaire

9. “Sometimes the questions are complicated, and the answers are simple.” — Dr. Seuss

10. “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” – William Shakespeare

11. “There are only two great tragedies in life: one is not getting what you want and the other is getting it.” — Oscar Wilde

12. “Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books.” — Julian Barnes

13. Holding onto your anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” — Buddha

Witty and smart quotes

14. “A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

15. “A grieving woman could sit alone on a jetty in the early morning. But not with a book in her hands.” – Pia Juul

16. “A painting is worth a thousand confused art-gallery visitors.” – Ljupka Cvetanova

17. “A person is wise if he listens to millions of advice and doesn’t implement any of it.” – Michael Bassey Johnson

18. “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” — Buddha

19. Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” — Albert Einstein

20. “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” — James Baldwin

21. “A word of kindness is seldom spoken in vain, while witty sayings are as easily lost as the pearls slipping from a broken string.” – George Dennison Prentice

22. “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

23. “Arguing with a fool proves there are two.” – Doris M. Smith

24. “Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no fibs.” – Oliver Goldsmith

25. “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” — Mark Twain

26. Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.” — Francis Bacon

Clever and smart quotes about life

27. “Don’t bother about genius. Don’t worry about being clever. Trust in hard work, perseverance, and determination.” — Frederick Treves

28. “Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed.” — Arthur Conan Doyle

29. “Being clever was when you looked at how things were and used the evidence to work out something new.” — Mark Haddon

30. A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discoverers are among them, as comets amongst the stars.” — Carl Von Linne

31. A man who correctly guesses a woman’s age may be smart, but he’s not very bright.” — Lucille Ball

32. Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” — Henry Ford

33. Where you start is not as important as where you finish.” — Zig Ziglar

34. “Creativity is the catalyst for brilliant accomplishments, but it is also the greatest obstacle.” — Scott Belsky

35. “Broken Irish is better than clever English.” — Irish Proverb

36. “Clever is when one is crafty enough to mistake your imagination for intelligence. Smart is when one assumes they are too educated to notice the difference.” — Kerry E. Wagner

37. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.” — Charlie Chaplin

Wise and smart quotes

38. “A person with a sharp tongue will eventually cut themselves.” – J. Robson Koenig

39. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” — Soren Kierkegaard

40. What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.” — Wayne Dyer

41. Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” — Lou Holtz

42. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” — William James

43. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” — Leo Buscaglia

Smart quotes to motivate you

44. “Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – Will Rogers

45. “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

46. “The best way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

47. “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” — Scott Hamilton

48. “Action will destroy your procrastination.” — Og Mandino

49. “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James

50. “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.” — Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Smart quotes on what sets intelligent people from the rest

51. “Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” – J.K. Rowling

52. “Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.” – Brandon Mull

53. “A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.” – Roy H. Williams

54. “Smart people focus on the right things.” – Jensen Huang

55. “A smart man only believes half of what he hears, a wise man knows which half.” – Jeff Cooper

56. “Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb about.” – Solomon Short

57. “Wherever smart people work, doors are unlocked.” – Steve Wozniak

58. An intelligent person hires people who are more intelligent than he is.” – Robert Kiyosaki

59. “Only dumb people try to impress smart people. Smart people just do what they do.” – Chris Rock

60. A wise girl knows her limits, a smart girl knows that she has none.” – Marilyn Monroe

Thought Provoking Smart Quotes

61. “Smart people always choose comfort over luxury” ― Celso Cukierkorn

62. “I’m lucky to have my dad in my life. He’s very brilliant, I think he’s really a smart man, and he’s a kind guy.” — Cody Horn

63. “I love smart and curious people. I value intelligence in my friends and relationships.” — Kerry Bishe

64. “If the work requires smart, talented, creative people, then more than anything, you want to enable folks on the team to create.” — Steven Sinofsky

65. “I’m so smart, I read and understand Hegel.” — Oscar Wilde

66. “Smart people duck when they hear the dread announcement ‘I’m going to be perfectly honest with you.” — Judith Martin

67. “It’s a big jump from smart to motherwit.” — Rita Mae Brown

68. “A smart girl is one who knows how to play tennis, golf, piano — and dumb.” — Marilyn Monroe

69. “He’s a smart man, so I am assuming he will do it.” — Michael Newdow

70. I was a smart kid and I was not understood by my parents.” — Woody Allen

Short Smart Quotes To Help You Build Your Future

71. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen Covey

72. “Watch your thoughts, they become words.” — Laozi

73. “If you think you can’t, you’re right.” — Carol Bartz

74. I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.” — Florence Nightingale

75. “Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” — Frank Jackson

76. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky

77. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay

78. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Will Durant

79. Action is the foundational key to all success.” — Pablo Picasso

80. “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” — Albert Einstein

Smart Quotes on Intelligence and Wisdom

81. “Life begets intelligence, intelligence begets smart matter and a singularity.” ― Charles Stross

82. “It’s not about how smart you are. It’s about your values.” ― Malcolm Gladwell

83. “If you want a team of smart, creative people to do extraordinary things, don’t put them in a drab, ordinary space.” ― Tom Kelley

84. “Take care of yourself. Eat well, rest, train hard and smart, make time to think and breathe. Be intentional with your time.” ― Kristin Armstrong

85. “Essentially, we humans live well enough and long enough, and are smart enough, to generate all sorts of stressful events purely in our heads.” ― Robert M. Sapolsky

86. “Life solves its problems with well-adapted designs, life-friendly chemistry and smart material and energy use.” ― Janine Benyus

87. “Work smart. Get things done. No nonsense. Move fast.” ― Susan Wojcicki

88. “Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational; the really smart ones acknowledge and address their irrationalities.” ― Dan Ariely

89. “I believe some people are just too damn smart to write fiction.” ― Harry Crews

90. No one can be as intellectually slothful as a really smart person.” ― Stephen King

Which smart quote is your favorite?

From smart quotes that motivate you to follow your dreams to witty quotes that offer advice in life, these smart quotes are great no matter what life lesson you need to learn.

Using these quotes in a friendly philosophical argument with a friend or during a presentation at work will make you seem more intelligent and will validate your perspective.

Reading famous smart quotes will also broaden your outlook and will help you see old ideas from a new point of view.

Did you enjoy these smart quotes and sayings?

Which quote is your favorite?

Let us know in the comments below.