--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It is not true that a man's intellectual…" description: "\"It is not true that a man's intellectual power is, like the strength of a timber beam, to be measured by its weakest point.\" — George Eliot" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/george-eliot-84_beam_it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual_2201297.png" --- # It is not true that a man's intellectual power is, like… ![“It is not true that a man's intellectual power is, like the strength of a timber beam, to be measured by its weakest point.” quote by George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/george-eliot-84_beam_it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual_2201297.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/george-eliot-84_beam_it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual_2201297.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/george-eliot-84_beam_it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual_2201297.png) > “It is not true that a man's intellectual power is, like the strength of a timber beam, to be measured by its weakest point.” [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Intellectual strength isn’t measured by its weakest point, unlike a timber beam, suggesting resilience is holistic. **In simple terms:** Strength isn’t a single weak spot. Key Takeaway Assess overall resilience. Themes strength resilience assessment Mood analytical reflective Type philosophical motivational When to use this quote - leadership - team building - personal development Key Concepts philosophy psychology Questions to Reflect On - How do you evaluate overall strength? - What supports can mask weaknesses? A Different Perspective Weak points can still cause failure. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beam](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beam/) [Intellectual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intellectual/) [Intellectual Power](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intellectual-power-436445/) [Intelligence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intelligence/) [Man Intellectual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/man-intellectual-636177/) [Measured Weakest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/measured-weakest-4836763/) [Men](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/men/) [Strength](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/strength/) [Timber](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/timber/) [Weakest Point](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/weakest-point-497460/) ## Related quotes > [“If friendship is your weakest point than you are the strongest person in the world”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/if-friendship-is-your-weakest-point-than-you-are-the-strongest-person/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Iran is at its weakest point economically, strategically, militarily than in many years.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barack-obama/iran-is-at-its-weakest-point-economically-strategically-militarily/) [Barack Obama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barack-obama/) > [A pattern is either right or wrong...it is no stronger than its weakest point.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-morris/a-pattern-is-either-right-or-wrong-it-is-no-stronger-than-its-weakest/) [William Morris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-morris/) > [“The Universe always strikes at your weakest point because that’s what most needs strengthening.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-universe-always-strikes-at-your-weakest-point-because-that-s-what/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“The fact is that they always go after your weakest point - the wolves chase down the weakest sheep in the herd.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/the-fact-is-that-they-always-go-after-your-weakest-point-the-wolves/) [Haruki Murakami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haruki-murakami/) > [IF sIncere love is the weakEst poInt of your life , then you are thE fucked up pErson in The wOrlD...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-kamei/if-sincere-love-is-the-weakest-point-of-your-life-then-you-are-the/) [Bryan Kamei](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-kamei/) > [The weakest point is between the legs for a goalkeeper.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thibaut-courtois/the-weakest-point-is-between-the-legs-for-a-goalkeeper/) [Thibaut Courtois](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thibaut-courtois/) > [If frienship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-lincoln/if-frienship-is-your-weakest-point-then-you-are-the-strongest-person/) [Abraham Lincoln](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-lincoln/) > [The intellectual power, honesty, lucidity, courage, and disinterested love of the truth of the most gifted thinkers of the eighteenth century remain to this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isaiah-berlin/the-intellectual-power-honesty-lucidity-courage-and-disinterested/) [Isaiah Berlin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isaiah-berlin/) > [A new degree of intellectual power seems cheap at any price.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/a-new-degree-of-intellectual-power-seems-cheap-at-any-price/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [“There are many kinds of powers in the world — military power, power of the written word, intellectual power. We’ve tried and failed to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mata-amritanandamayi/there-are-many-kinds-of-powers-in-the-world-military-power-power-of/) [Mata Amritanandamayi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mata-amritanandamayi/) > [The intellectual power is never at rest; it is never satisfied with any comprehended truth, but ever proceeds on and on towards that truth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/giordano-bruno/the-intellectual-power-is-never-at-rest-it-is-never-satisfied-with/) [Giordano Bruno](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/giordano-bruno/) > [The intellectual power, through words and things, Went sounding on a dim and perilous way!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-wordsworth/the-intellectual-power-through-words-and-things-went-sounding-on-a/) [William Wordsworth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-wordsworth/) > [To be infatuated with the power of one's own intellect is an accident which seldom happens but to those who are remarkable for the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-wadsworth-longfellow/to-be-infatuated-with-the-power-of-one-s-own-intellect-is-an-accident/) [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wadsworth-longfellow/) > [“There are very few intellectual elites and those who think they are, are merely not and those who are not shows us the intellectual…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/santosh-kalwar/there-are-very-few-intellectual-elites-and-those-who-think-they-are/) [Santosh Kalwar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/santosh-kalwar/) ## More by George Eliot > [There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/there-are-various-orders-of-beauty-causing-men-to-make-fools-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-the-effect-of-her-being-on-those-around-her-was-incalculably/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Scepticismcan never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/scepticismcan-never-be-thoroughly-applied-else-life-would-come-to-a/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Under every guilty secret there is hidden a brood of guilty wishes, whose unwholesome infecting life is cherished by the darkness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/under-every-guilty-secret-there-is-hidden-a-brood-of-guilty-wishes/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [The most powerful movement of feeling with a liturgy is the prayer which seeks for nothing special, but is a yearning to escape from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/the-most-powerful-movement-of-feeling-with-a-liturgy-is-the-prayer/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [ “\[W\]e must learn to accommodate ourselves to the discovery that some of those cunningly-fashioned instruments called human souls have only a very limited range… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/w-e-must-learn-to-accommodate-ourselves-to-the-discovery-that-some-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“Mr. Casaubon had never had a strong bodily frame, and his soul was sensitive without being enthusiastic: it was too languid to thrill out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/mr-casaubon-had-never-had-a-strong-bodily-frame-and-his-soul-was/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“... she took her husband's jokes and joviality as patiently as everything else, considering that "men would be so", and viewing the stronger sex…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/she-took-her-husband-s-jokes-and-joviality-as-patiently-as-everything/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [What is opportunity to the man who can't use it? An unfecundated egg, which the waves of time wash away into nonentity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/what-is-opportunity-to-the-man-who-can-t-use-it-an-unfecundated-egg/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/and-of-course-men-know-best-about-everything-except-what-women-know/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“But let the wise be warned against too great readiness at explanation: it multiplies the sources of mistake, lengthening the sum for reckoners sure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-let-the-wise-be-warned-against-too-great-readiness-at-explanation/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“But any one watching keenly the stealthy convergence of human lots, sees a slow preparation of effects from one life on another, which tells…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-any-one-watching-keenly-the-stealthy-convergence-of-human-lots/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Perspective, as its inventor remarked, is a beautiful thing. What horrors of damp huts, where human beings languish, may not become picturesque through aerial…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/perspective-as-its-inventor-remarked-is-a-beautiful-thing-what/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“Sane people did what their neighbours did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/sane-people-did-what-their-neighbours-did-so-that-if-any-lunatics/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [even those who call themselves 'intimate' know very little about each other - hardly ever know just how a sorrow is felt, and hurt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/even-those-who-call-themselves-intimate-know-very-little-about-each/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) [Explore all 1,492 George Eliot quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) ## More Beam quotes > [I've said it before, good people are forced to do bad things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/angus-cloud/i-ve-said-it-before-good-people-are-forced-to-do-bad-things/) [Angus Cloud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/angus-cloud/) > [Letters crossing in the post, unfamiliar tunes heard three times in one day, the way that blows of fate descend upon the same bowed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fay-weldon/letters-crossing-in-the-post-unfamiliar-tunes-heard-three-times-in/) [Fay Weldon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fay-weldon/) > [At about 10 o'clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows and in and out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-steinbeck/at-about-10-o-clock-in-the-morning-the-sun-threw-a-bright-dust-laden/) [John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-steinbeck/) > [I was really interested in this ability for others to create virtual memories for us. In "The Cartographers" I explore this through Adam Woods,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-weinstein/i-was-really-interested-in-this-ability-for-others-to-create-virtual/) [Alexander Weinstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-weinstein/) > [Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the state. As the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-southey/order-is-the-sanity-of-the-mind-the-health-of-the-body-the-peace-of/) [Robert Southey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-southey/) > [“Sometimes good people do bad things.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-gilmore/sometimes-good-people-do-bad-things/) [Andrew Gilmore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-gilmore/) > [See with what force yon river's crystal stream Resists the weight of many a massy beam. To sink the wood the more we vainly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucretius/see-with-what-force-yon-river-s-crystal-stream-resists-the-weight-of/) [Lucretius](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucretius/) > [Let her alone,' said the enkanto, 'or I will curse you blind, lame, and worse.' The old man laughed. 'I'm a curse breaker, fool.'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/holly-black/let-her-alone-said-the-enkanto-or-i-will-curse-you-blind-lame-and/) [Holly Black](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/holly-black/) > [The closer the source of light is to a subject, the broader the beams are.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/conrad-hall/the-closer-the-source-of-light-is-to-a-subject-the-broader-the-beams/) [Conrad Hall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/conrad-hall/) > [Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sappho/raise-high-the-roof-beam-carpenters-like-ares-comes-the-bridegroom/) [Sappho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sappho/) > [I would love to see what's going to happen with science fiction with peoples' heads, because we still have people running around in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leslie-nielsen/i-would-love-to-see-what-s-going-to-happen-with-science-fiction-with/) [Leslie Nielsen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leslie-nielsen/) > [The House ...She lays her beams in music, In music everyone, To the cadence of the whirling world Which dances around the sun- That…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/the-house-she-lays-her-beams-in-music-in-music-everyone-to-the/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [Nothing to me is more distasteful than that entire complacency and satisfaction which beam in the countenances of a new married couple; in that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-lamb/nothing-to-me-is-more-distasteful-than-that-entire-complacency-and/) [Charles Lamb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-lamb/) > [“Bad people very often do one good thing.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emma-forrest/bad-people-very-often-do-one-good-thing/) [Emma Forrest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emma-forrest/) > [I had a constant fear, a constant little doubt in my mind: 'OK, I'm getting ready to do my standing back full on beam…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shawn-johnson/i-had-a-constant-fear-a-constant-little-doubt-in-my-mind-ok-i-m/) [Shawn Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shawn-johnson/) [Browse all 396 Beam quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beam/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It is not true that a man's intellectual power is, like the strength of a timber beam, to be measured by its weakest point.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "George Eliot" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual-power-is-like-the-strength/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Beam" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual-power-is-like-the-strength/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/george-eliot-84_beam_it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual_2201297.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/george-eliot-84_beam_it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual_2201297.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/george-eliot-84_beam_it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual_2201297.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It is not true that a man's intellectual power is, like the strength of a timber beam, to be measured by its…” — George Eliot", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "George Eliot", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "It is not true that a...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual-power-is-like-the-strength/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/it-is-not-true-that-a-man-s-intellectual-power-is-like-the-strength/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```