Compilation of Clever Quotes from Famous and Influential People

Sometimes we come across some sayings and quotes that teach us a thing or two about life. In fact, some of these sayings and quotes are quite clever that they literally sum up our life.

And, remember, they are not called clever quotes just because they came from famous and influential people, but because they give you the right and perfect idea of living in a few sentences.

80 Clever Quotes from Famous and Influential People

1. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” — Albert Einstein

2. “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” — Steve Jobs

3. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” — George Bernard Shaw

4. “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” — Theodore Roosevelt

5. “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” — The Dalai Lama

6. “I can is 100 times more important than IQ.” — Albert Einstein

7. “If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run then walk. If you can’t walk then crawl. But whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

8. “Why worry? If you’ve done the very best you can, worrying won’t make it any better.” — Walt Disney

9. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle

10. “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” — Albert Einstein

11. “A good speech should be like a woman’s skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.” — Winston S. Churchill

12. “Always forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.” — Robert Kennedy

13. “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.” — Albert Einstein

14. “Gentleness doesn’t get work done unless you happen to be a hen laying eggs.” — Coco Chanel

15. “A man who fears to suffer is already suffering from what he fears.” — Michel de Montaigne

16. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.” — Dwight Eisenhower

17. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” — Oscar Wilde

18. “If we only knew how many times our seemingly clever comment cut straight into the heart of the person with whom we have just spoken, it is we who would bleed.” — Guy Finley

19. “If you tell the truth, you won’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain

20. “I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed.” — William Shakespeare

21. “Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back.” — Oscar Wilde

22. “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” — Abraham Lincoln

23. “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.” — Albert Einstein

24. “A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.” — Mario Puzo

25. “The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” — Mark Twain

26. “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” — Abraham Lincoln

27. “It’s okay if some people don’t like you. Not everybody has good taste.” — Mr. Morero

28. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” — Dr. Seuss

29. “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” — Aristotle

30. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

31. “You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.” — Naguib Mahfouz

32. “If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.” — Katharine Hepburn

33. “Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” — Winston Churchill

34. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” — Charles Darwin

35. “The elevator to success is out of order, you’ll have to use the stairs, one step at a time.” — Hoe Girard

36. “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” — Neil DeGrasse Tyson

37. “Love me or hate me, both are in my favor. If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart. If you hate me, I’ll always be on your mind.” — William Shakespeare

38. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

39. “I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” — Benjamin Franklin

40. “Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.” — Howard Aiken

41. “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” — Salvador Dali

42. “A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” — Albert Einstein

43. “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.” — Abraham Lincoln

44. “The best revenge is massive success.” — Frank Sinatra

45. “What makes you different or weird— that’s your strength.” — Meryl Steep

46. “I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is a garbage man or the president of the University.” — Albert Einstein

47. “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” — Henry David Thoreau

48. “Be sure you put your feet in the right place. Then stand firm.” — Abraham Lincoln

49. “How do we change the world? On random act of kindness at a time.” — Morgan Freeman

50. “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” — Oscar Wilde

51. “People will love you. People will hate you. And none of it will have anything to do with you.” — Abraham Hicks

52. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing— that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar

53. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.” — Oscar Wilde

54. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou

55. “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” — Albert Einstein

56. “Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

57. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou

58. “Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.” — Abraham Lincoln

59. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” — Ayn Rand

60. “Money is numbers and numbers never end. If it takes money to be happy, your search for happiness will never end.” — Robert Nesta Marley

61. “Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called WHINING.” — Teddy Roosevelt

62. “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” — Albert Einstein

63. “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” — Robin Williams

64. “You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.” — Buddha

65. “When you repeat a mistake, it is not a mistake anymore: It is a decision.” — Paulo Coelho

66. “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” — Winston Churchill

67. “If people are good only because they fear punishment and hope for a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” — Albert Einstein

68. “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” — Charles Bukowski

69. “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” — C. S. Lewis

70. “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” — Albert Einstein

71. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill

72. “Whatever makes you weird is probably your greatest asset.” — Joss Wheddon

73. “Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.” — Charles Bukowski

74. “To thrive in life, you need three bones: A wishbone; a backbone; and a funny bone.” — Reba McEntire

75. “You were wild once. Don’t let them tame you.” — Isadora Duncan

76. “The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.” — Alexandra K. Trenfor

77. “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” — Mahatma Gandhi

78. “Arguing with a fool proves there are two.” — Doris M. Smith

79. “To ignore evil is to become accomplice to it.” — MLK

80. “You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry.” — Abraham Lincoln

Final Thoughts

These clever quotes from famous and influential people are really quite effective in transferring inspiration and motivation because of their directness and shortness.

The simple and vivid use of language that is based on everyday scenarios makes them really easy to understand and remember. Not only are they thought-provoking, they are also plain funny and refreshing.

Do you like this collection of clever quotes? Feel free to share them with your friends and family! Want to see how clever you are? Then take a real IQ test and see how you score.