What is the line between intelligence and arrogance?

Question

I feel as I gain more wisdom, I tend to be more arrogant and cynical. I hate being rude and arrogant, but I'm also aggitated by ignorance, so I come off cynical and arrogant. So what is the line between intelligence or wisdom (you can pick one) and arrogance.

Answer 1

Arrogance comes in when you care more about the fact that you know something that others may not and even more about making sure others know you know it then the information itself.

You cannot assume that people know. Like Ben Franklin said, "Common sense is not so common". Even back in the 1700's, people understood that there is a disparity between those that educate themselves and those who are happy to just exists.

It is just the natural order of things. Find ways to humble yourself and learn to help bring others up to your level, don't dumb yourself down or lower the bar. Society does better with the majority population being more educated than less.

Answer 2

Intelligence and Arrogance don’t really belong in the same spectrum, so there can’t really be a “line” between them. Some incredibly stupid people can be as arrogant as they come.

Arrogance involves thinking of your own desires ahead of anyone else’s, and it can involve intellect, money, genealogy, or beer-drinking ability.

As a former National SIG Coordinator for American Mensa (see how arrogant that can sound?), I know something about intellect. Academia is something different, and many people can’t tell the difference. Academicians frequently “put on” arrogance to protect a fragile self-esteem. True intellectuals (Albert Einstein, Isaac Asimov, Robert Jarvik) are rarely arrogant, although being certain of a fact can often be mis-interpreted as arrogance.

Amy Vanderbilt once said that etiquette is nothing more than making the other person feel at ease. I like that definition, and would say that arrogance is the opposite of that, and requires absolutely no intelligence at all.

Answer 3

Arrogance doesn't have a whole lot to do with intelligence. It just means you think you know everything and you are better than other people, not that you are inherently intelligent or are gaining any wisdom from your reaping of knowledge. No wise person would be arrogant. The wise person is humble because he knows that knowledge is limitless.
This is not really intended to be insulting. It's a question of semantics, partly. You do seem to be taking a certain pride in your arrogance, the mark of a truly arrogant person. I just want to advise you that you will be taken more seriously in life and will go further in life if you tone it down. You do not have to suffer fools gladly but for those who are ignorant through no fault of their own , you should show patience and impart your own knwledge. What goes around, comes around.

Answer 4

My husband and son are both quite intelligent, so I have some practical experience with this subject.

When he was a teen, I found it necessary to tell my son that his being smart doesn't make me stupid. Just because he knew a lot of things I never learned didn't exclude the possibility that I might understand things he didn't yet know. The line between intelligence and arrogance is crossed when you forget that just because you have a lot of information and are usually right doesn't mean that others have no information or are automatically wrong.

Intelligence is the ability to gather information, understand, and apply it. One can be intelligent without being wise.

One can also be wise without being overly intelligent, but intelligence helps. One crosses into wisdom when one can evaluate and apply information without becoming arrogant.

Answer 5

Arrogance is where you think you are right and thinking that gives you some sort of superiority over others. Intelligence is knowing you are right, without having to remind others of it incessantly. That knowledge means you have less to feel insecure about so you don't need to necessarily make others feel lesser for not knowing. Yes arrogant people can be intelligent, but more often than not they have an inherent insecurity which detracts from that intelligence.

Answer 6

If you are feeling arrogant and cynical then you are not gaining in wisdom.

Intelligence, without wisdom, makes one arrogant and cynical because it makes one feel superior.

Wisdom, on the other hand, doesn't need.

The line, as you put it, is your mind.

Answer 7

Try to remember that you did not always know so much. Every person learns at a different rate and often at different times in their lives.
Intelligence and wisdom are two very different things. Intelligence is knowledge. Wisdom is common sense.

Answer 8

mmmm yes I believe so. Confidence is a positive attitude that is beneficial to ones self. Arrogance is a negative attitude that is detrimental. Confidence often results in success and is the ability to speak your mind without putting others down or criticizing them. The confident person is admired and loved. Arrogance often creates dislike and failure because it involves putting others down or judging them as "stupid" even to the point of saying so directly to their face. An arrogant person will always fail because they try to force others to conform to their way of thinking, often through mockery or violence. It is the arrogant man that screams at coworkers and beats his wife when he cant tolerate their imperfections/stupidity. No one will ever be as good as the arrogant person in their own eyes and therefore they treat others with disdain and hatred, which leads to failure at work and at home. They get fired from jobs, their wives leave them and their children hate them. Arrogance and narcissism are closely related personality disorders.

Answer 9

Learning is the line between intelligence and arrogance.... so long as you know there is more to learn and are therefore willing to learn, there is little likelihood of any arrogance.... once arrogance is embraced, the learning slows down and ultimately even stops.

Answer 10

There really is not a line between intelligence and arrogance but rather a line between confidence and arrogance. The more knowledge we gain the more confident we become. And as you stated, we also become less tolerant of other people's ignorance. I am however more irritated by lack of common sense than by stupidity or lack of knowledge. There are a lot of very intelligent people in this world that are so lacking in common sense that they are functional idiots.