It's Better To Be Kind Than Intelligent.
Created | Updated Aug 16, 2003
When I die, if consciousness and memory persists, I would be very disappointed if those who knew me remembered me only as an intelligent man; but I would be very pleased if they remembered me as a kind one. Of course we all need our ego's caressed gently from time to time, and I would prefer to be remembered as both, but given a choice, I'll take kindness over intelligence every time. Why?
Intelligence in its pure state, is a measure of clarity of thought, it has no soul, and certainly no heart. While it is true intelligent people created many of the wonderful gadgets of modern life, planes, cars, busses, in transportation; heart monitors, X-Ray machines in hospitals etc; they also created the nuclear bomb. Intelligence is pure reasoning power without any moralistic checks, it simply is. It is therefore left to the kind ones to give us charity, and the blood donations the hospitals will use.
If everyone were intelligent, society would quickly grind to a halt, because there would be no-one sweeping the streets, cleaning the toilets or baking the bread. We would be all thinking about the future too much to eat today. However, if everyone were kind, what a wonderful place we could all share! It seems that society only needs a few intelligent people to keep it going, but it will never be able to get enough kind ones, no matter how many it has.
Intelligence in its pure state, is a measure of clarity of thought, it has no soul, and certainly no heart. While it is true intelligent people created many of the wonderful gadgets of modern life, planes, cars, busses, in transportation; heart monitors, X-Ray machines in hospitals etc; they also created the nuclear bomb. Intelligence is pure reasoning power without any moralistic checks, it simply is. It is therefore left to the kind ones to give us charity, and the blood donations the hospitals will use.
If everyone were intelligent, society would quickly grind to a halt, because there would be no-one sweeping the streets, cleaning the toilets or baking the bread. We would be all thinking about the future too much to eat today. However, if everyone were kind, what a wonderful place we could all share! It seems that society only needs a few intelligent people to keep it going, but it will never be able to get enough kind ones, no matter how many it has.
