"The study of intelligence is not an isolated academic topic; our intelligence has social consequences. We want our leaders to be intelligent, and exhibit concern if we think they are not. There were politically motivated attacks on the intelligence of Presidents Lincoln, Truman, Harding, and Ford. Seri¬ ous concerns about mental competence"

“Testing is not confined to the educational system. Volunteers for the United States military services must obtain passing scores on a test of general mental competence, the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT).”

“Concerns about intelligence are not confined to concerns about our leaders. Our school systems use cognitive tests to stream high school students into different pro¬ grams. Colleges use cognitive tests to screen applicants for higher education programs. These tests are never called “intelligence tests,” but they correlate highly with them.”

“Homer and Shakespeare lived in very different times, more than two thousand years apart, but they both captured the same idea; we are not all equally intelligent. I suspect that anyone who has failed to notice this is somewhat out of touch with the species.”