#clever

Can you be sure that others have not come before you and destroyed the pristine state of the native myth? Can you be sure that the natives are not humoring you or pulling your leg? Bronislaw Malinowski thought he had discovered a people in the Trobriant Islands who had not worked out the connection between sexual intercourse and childbirth. When asked how children were conceived, they supplied him with an elaborate mythic structure prominently featuring celestial intervention. Amazed, Malinowski objected that was not how it was done at all, and supplied them instead with the version so popular in the West today – including a nine-month gestation period. “Impossible,” replied the Melanesians. “Do you not see that woman over there with her six-month-old child? Her husband has been on an extended voyage to another island for two years.” Is it more likely that the Melanesians were ignorant of the begetting of children or that they were gently chiding Malinowski? If some peculiar-looking stranger came into my town and asked ME where babies came from, I’d certainly be tempted to tell him about storks and cabbages. Prescientific people are people. Individually they are as clever as we are. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#cleverness #myths #people #primitive #humor

Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes. ↗

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

#clever #hated #his #man #more

The thing is, comedy's gone in a weird direction. People are really into ironic comedy and fakeness and cleverness. ↗

— Louis C. K.

#comedy #direction #gone #into #ironic

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

#cleverest #fool #himself #in my opinion #least

It has always seemed slightly uncomfortable, the idea of politicised musicians. Very few of them are clever enough to do it; if they're good at the political side, the music side suffers, and vice versa. ↗

— Robert Smith

#clever #enough #few #good #idea

What clever man has ever needed to commit a crime? Crime is the last resort of political half-wits. ↗

— Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

#clever man #commit #crime #ever #half-wits

Voldemort is playing a very clever game. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion. Remaining masked has created confusion, uncertainty, and fear. ↗

— J.K. Rowling

#fear #death

Civilization begins with distillation ↗

— William Faulkner

#clever #faulkner #funny #funny

Quite a lot is a large amount but quite a few is also a large amount. ↗

— Teresa Monachino

#funny #teresa-monachino #wordplay #words-fail-me #funny

His father was an ass and he is an ass. I imagine sooner than I should like I shall be playing uncle to a litter of asses. ↗

— T.A. Miles

#clever #dry-humor #fantasy #uncle #wit