“The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool!”
Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills
Three and—an Extra.
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)
La passion fait souvent un fou du plus habile homme, et rend souvent les plus sots habiles.
Variant translation: Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever.
Maxim 6.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool!”
Rudyard Kipling book Plain Tales from the Hills
Three and—an Extra.
Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist
F 69
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)
“No Jew was ever fool enough to turn Christian unless he was a clever man.”
Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) British writer
Children of the Ghetto (1892), bk. 1, ch. 7.
“Sometimes one must be base in order not to be tricked by a clever man.”
François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Il suffit quelquefois d'être grossier pour n'être pas trompé par un habile homme.
Maxim 129.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention
Letter to the Committee of Merchants in London (6 June 1766) http://www.virginia1774.org/GMMerchants.html
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838) French diplomat
Reported in, C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. (1917).
“They hate you if you're clever, and they despise a fool.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
"Working Class Hero"
Lyrics, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)