"Be smarter than other people, just don't tell them so"
About this Quote
The line lands like a pocket-sized field guide to status: win the game, but don’t announce you’re playing it. H. Jackson Brown, Jr., a self-help author whose work trades in practical social wisdom, isn’t celebrating deceit so much as diagnosing a basic fact of group life: intelligence is only half a virtue; the other half is social fluency. The smartest person in the room can still lose the room.
The intent is tactical humility. “Be smarter” is an exhortation toward competence, vigilance, maybe even quiet ambition. The kicker - “just don’t tell them so” - acknowledges that people rarely hate being outperformed as much as they hate being made to feel outperformed. Openly claiming superior intelligence triggers the social immune system: resentment, skepticism, and the desire to cut the braggart down to size. Brown’s advice treats ego as a volatile chemical. Handle carefully, keep the label off.
Subtextually, it’s also a critique of how intelligence gets socially priced. Merit isn’t measured in a vacuum; it’s negotiated in relationships, workplaces, and families where likability and trust are currencies. The quote flatters the reader (you can be smarter) while warning against the oldest self-sabotage: needing credit more than results.
Context matters: Brown rose in an era when self-help became mass-market etiquette for modern life, translating hard truths into memorizable rules. This one survives because it’s less about IQ than about power: real advantage often looks like restraint.
The intent is tactical humility. “Be smarter” is an exhortation toward competence, vigilance, maybe even quiet ambition. The kicker - “just don’t tell them so” - acknowledges that people rarely hate being outperformed as much as they hate being made to feel outperformed. Openly claiming superior intelligence triggers the social immune system: resentment, skepticism, and the desire to cut the braggart down to size. Brown’s advice treats ego as a volatile chemical. Handle carefully, keep the label off.
Subtextually, it’s also a critique of how intelligence gets socially priced. Merit isn’t measured in a vacuum; it’s negotiated in relationships, workplaces, and families where likability and trust are currencies. The quote flatters the reader (you can be smarter) while warning against the oldest self-sabotage: needing credit more than results.
Context matters: Brown rose in an era when self-help became mass-market etiquette for modern life, translating hard truths into memorizable rules. This one survives because it’s less about IQ than about power: real advantage often looks like restraint.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Jackson Brown, Jr.
Add to List
