Intelligence:

"Society sorts blatantly and quietly for intelligence in a thousand ways, but looking too directly at it feels like staring into the sun."

-----

Charles Murray:

"1. My closest friends are in the same ballpark intellectually as I am, for the obvious reasons that others have expressed. It is normal to like to be around people who get our jokes and have a lot of the same tastes and preferences.

2. But my life has included a rich tapestry of people, starting with the guys at the pool hall in Newton, Iowa and continuing through the last 34 years in a small town in rural Maryland, who I am smarter than (IQ-wise) and yet whose company I enjoy and whose virtues I admire. If I had stayed in the Harvard/MIT/DC bubble after age 18, I would have had a diminished life."