"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down"
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Bradbury frames intellect as a killjoy not because he’s anti-thinking, but because he understands what the intellect does best: it audits risk. Run the numbers on love, friendship, or any creative enterprise and you’ll find plenty of reasons to abstain. The line lands because it flatters a suspicion many people carry quietly - that rationality, unchecked, becomes a kind of spiritual austerity, mistaking caution for wisdom.
The real target isn’t intelligence; it’s cynicism dressed up as intelligence. “If we listened to our intellect” is a sly misdirection, suggesting that the mind has one voice when it actually has competing ones: curiosity, fear, pride, control. Cynicism is the voice that calls itself “realism” so it doesn’t have to admit it’s afraid. Bradbury punctures that posture with “Well, that’s nonsense,” a blunt reset that reads like a storyteller refusing to let the plot die of overanalysis.
Then comes the metaphor that reveals his context as a writer of speculative worlds: jump off cliffs, build wings on the way down. It’s not a sermon about recklessness; it’s an argument for iterative courage. You commit first, you improvise second. That’s how books get written, relationships deepen, careers happen. Bradbury’s subtext is practical: creation is always a delayed proof. You can’t think your way into certainty because certainty is usually the prize you get after you’ve already leapt.
The real target isn’t intelligence; it’s cynicism dressed up as intelligence. “If we listened to our intellect” is a sly misdirection, suggesting that the mind has one voice when it actually has competing ones: curiosity, fear, pride, control. Cynicism is the voice that calls itself “realism” so it doesn’t have to admit it’s afraid. Bradbury punctures that posture with “Well, that’s nonsense,” a blunt reset that reads like a storyteller refusing to let the plot die of overanalysis.
Then comes the metaphor that reveals his context as a writer of speculative worlds: jump off cliffs, build wings on the way down. It’s not a sermon about recklessness; it’s an argument for iterative courage. You commit first, you improvise second. That’s how books get written, relationships deepen, careers happen. Bradbury’s subtext is practical: creation is always a delayed proof. You can’t think your way into certainty because certainty is usually the prize you get after you’ve already leapt.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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