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I think the best thing he ever said was at a commencement speech. This one I could never forget. Smartness is a gift, kindness is a choice.(paraphrased)
by anuragramdasan 13y ago
I think the best thing he ever said was at a commencement speech. This one I could never forget.
Smartness is a gift, kindness is a choice.(paraphrased)
- untilHellbanned 13y agothink both are choices if you consider the context in which people commonly compare each other's "smartness
- Alterlife 13y agoIt depends on how you define 'smartness'. If it means intelligence (which is what I think it means in this context), I do believe it is not yet possible to "choose" to be born free of debilitating mental conditions.
- untilHellbanned 13y agodiagnosable mental illness/impairments is not the common context in which people compare each other's "smartness"
- mseebach 13y agoThat's pedantry. To the extend smartness is a choice, it's not something you can decide to do from day to day. Being nice very much is.
- Timmmmbob 13y agoIs it? I mean obviously you can choose to be nice or nasty, but maybe in the same way that obese people can choose to exercise and eat healthily. Some people are definitely nicer than others by default.
- Malician 13y agoI would say that the context of the sentence ("is a gift") makes it clear that he is talking about biological predisposition to intelligence - for example, working memory size, and not, say, whether you've spent lots of time doing interesting things and learning useful information.