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Anime and Manga
"You've earned your victory, Xingke. I should have killed you first. You're as good a tactician as I am and as strong a warrior as Suzaku. One could say the heavens blessed you twice."
— Lelouch Lamperouge, Code Geass
Comic Books
"Years ago, God in one of his darker moods crammed much of the world's spite and cunning into a quarter-ton sack of flesh and named it Wilson Fisk."
—Matt Murdock, Daredevil
"I made it by being tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties! And I made it square!"
— Scrooge McDuck, Disney Ducks Comic Universe
Fan Works
"Did you honestly think that I would face a God in combat without possessing some kind of an edge? How naïve. I'm not considered the most dangerous being in the universe because of my incredible strength and cruelty… but because I'm the smartest and the wisest of all the tyrants, with a Class 20 intellect and over a hundred million years of experience under my belt. The amount of knowledge that I've accumulated in my lifetime is insurmountable."
— Varax, Dragonball Z: Legacies
"Zhang was thankful that he never relied on stereotypes to define the people he met, because for all of Asterion's resemblance to a top-heavy brute, his eyes were quick and possessed a level of cunning that spoke of a clever mind."
— Mente Materia, Stardust
Oh, you think you’re so smart, pushing me into a plant? Well, the joke is on you, because the poison ivy bit only works if you’re allergic to urushiol! Which I’m not!
Film — Live-Action
"For years, I'd been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of. But then I started looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together, and now look at me! Best of both worlds."
— Professor Hulk, Avengers: Endgame
"Bane, to me, is something we haven’t dealt with in the films. We wanted to do something very different in this film. He’s a primarily physical villain, he’s a classic movie monster in a way — but with a terrific brain."
Literature
"...which is in direct contradiction to what I learned in business college.
For those of you to whom this last tidbit of knowledge comes as a surprise, I would hasten to point out that I have indeed attended higher learnin' institutes, as that is the only way to obtain the master's type degree that I possess. If perchance you wonder, as some do, why a person with such credentials should choose the line of work that I have to pursue, my reasons are twofold:
First-us, I am a social type who perfers workin' with people; and second, I find my sensitive nature is repelled by the ruthlessness necessitated by bein' an upper management type. I simply do not have it in me to mess up people's lives with layoffs and plant shut-downs and the like. Rather, I find it far more sociable to break an occasional leg or two or perhaps rearrange a face a little than to live with the more long-term damage inflicted by upper management for the good of their respective companies. Therefore, as I am indeed presented with the enviable position of havin' a choice in career paths, I have traditionally opted to be an order taker rather than an order giver. It's a cleaner way to make a livin'."
For those of you to whom this last tidbit of knowledge comes as a surprise, I would hasten to point out that I have indeed attended higher learnin' institutes, as that is the only way to obtain the master's type degree that I possess. If perchance you wonder, as some do, why a person with such credentials should choose the line of work that I have to pursue, my reasons are twofold:
First-us, I am a social type who perfers workin' with people; and second, I find my sensitive nature is repelled by the ruthlessness necessitated by bein' an upper management type. I simply do not have it in me to mess up people's lives with layoffs and plant shut-downs and the like. Rather, I find it far more sociable to break an occasional leg or two or perhaps rearrange a face a little than to live with the more long-term damage inflicted by upper management for the good of their respective companies. Therefore, as I am indeed presented with the enviable position of havin' a choice in career paths, I have traditionally opted to be an order taker rather than an order giver. It's a cleaner way to make a livin'."
— Guido, M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link
Live-Action TV
"If I'm going to start a house, I need brains and muscle. You have both."
— Boba Fett to Fennec Shand, The Book of Boba Fett
Video Games
"Given enough time, any man can master their body. With enough knowledge, any man can become wise. It's a true warrior who can master both."
— Emperor Yoshiro, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Bane: I will snap you like a twig.
Scarecrow: If your mind doesn't break first.
Bane: My mind is my strongest muscle!
Scarecrow: If your mind doesn't break first.
Bane: My mind is my strongest muscle!
"I match your strength. You cannot match my intellect!"
The Heavy: I went to Soviet College of Mines, Farms, and Science. I have PhD in Russian Literature.
Tycho: Do you use that in your line of work?
The Heavy: ...More than you think.
Tycho: Do you use that in your line of work?
The Heavy: ...More than you think.
"Why the puzzled stare, <name>? Expecting me to speak like an uncouth ruffian merely because I am an ogre?"
— Draz'Zilb, World of Warcraft
Lon'qu: Scholar or soldier. Most men pick one and stick with it.
Robin: Then I will be the first man to pick both.
Robin: Then I will be the first man to pick both.
"Might matched only by my wisdom!"
— Chaos Lord of Tzeentch, Total War: Warhammer III
Webcomics
"A big pile of spells isn't enough when the other guy has a big pile of spells AND the strength to crush your windpipe with my bare phalanges."
— Xykon, The Order of the Stick
Vaarsuvius: Bah!! You are clearly only hiring me because I intimidated you intellectually, to the point where your masculine pride requires you to establish your dominance over my superior mind.
Roy: Maybe. Or maybe I'm hiring you because I require the creation of a managed spherical energy release with a thermal signature no less than 1850° Kelvin, which can be manifested at specific X, Y, and Z coordinates from verbal cues. I require this specific temperature because it is the minimum level at which necrotized epidermis has been proven to combust and I have reason to believe that my mission will require the incapacitation of multiple post-organic hostiles.
Vaarsuvius: So... you need Fireball spells to toast the undead you expect to fight?
Roy: Did I stutter?
Vaarsuvius: ... A pleasure to serve under you, sir.
Roy: Maybe. Or maybe I'm hiring you because I require the creation of a managed spherical energy release with a thermal signature no less than 1850° Kelvin, which can be manifested at specific X, Y, and Z coordinates from verbal cues. I require this specific temperature because it is the minimum level at which necrotized epidermis has been proven to combust and I have reason to believe that my mission will require the incapacitation of multiple post-organic hostiles.
Vaarsuvius: So... you need Fireball spells to toast the undead you expect to fight?
Roy: Did I stutter?
Vaarsuvius: ... A pleasure to serve under you, sir.
Breadbun: I'm sorry. Being a powerful barbarian woman, you probably don't care about any of this...
Saurkraut: Saurkraut has master's degrees in liberal arts and finance. Saurkraut slayed many men to pay for it herself and admires Breadbun for doing the same.
Breadbun: ...I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover.
Saurkraut: Indubitably.
Saurkraut: Saurkraut has master's degrees in liberal arts and finance. Saurkraut slayed many men to pay for it herself and admires Breadbun for doing the same.
Breadbun: ...I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover.
Saurkraut: Indubitably.
Web Original
"As it turns out, this towering blond monster who casually told Sylvester Stallone, 'I will break you', could have, in fact, probably calculated the amount of effort (in force pounds per square inch and Joules expenditure) needed to do just that in his head."
"Prepare for your eyes to stand out on stalks as Sisko kicks seven shades of hell out of a Klingon as if he is venting all of his frustration at the situation out with every punch. Whilst he is often portrayed as a thoughtful man, Sisko is really a man of action and when his heckles are up he is more terrifying than Kirk, Picard, Archer and Janeway put together. I would not want to be on the wrong end of that fist."
strejdaking: Okay, but seriously, it irrationally upsets me both comic book adaptations of Scarlet Citadel change the dialogue so that Conan doesn’t casually say "genealogy" in a sentence.
prokopetz: I would literally pay money for a Conan the Barbarian adaptation where he’s as inconguously [sic] well-spoken as he is in the source material.
prokopetz: I would literally pay money for a Conan the Barbarian adaptation where he’s as inconguously [sic] well-spoken as he is in the source material.
Solomon: Remember, Sol has a PhD.
GIR177: He's the living embodiment of the "buff guy typing on laptop" meme.
GIR177: He's the living embodiment of the "buff guy typing on laptop" meme.
Web Video
"I'm a physics-crunching badass. I'm the complete package."
The Hulk: Hulk smart.
Iron Man: Of course you are buddy. I know you're not stupid...
The Hulk: Hulk has PHD.
Iron Man: What?
The Hulk: Hulk nuclear physicist in spare time.
Iron Man: Of course you are buddy. I know you're not stupid...
The Hulk: Hulk has PHD.
Iron Man: What?
The Hulk: Hulk nuclear physicist in spare time.
— Solid jj, "The Avengers Interview Hulk"
Western Animation
"I was the champion of the pits of Kaon not only due to my savage might... but also my cunning!"
— Megatron, Transformers: Prime
Miscellaneous
"Civilize the mind and make savage the body."
— Chinese saying
"The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."
—Thucydides
