“Stupidity mistook itself for intelligence, whereas intelligence knew its own stupidity.”

—  Jonathan Franzen , book Purity

Source: Purity

Last update Jan. 20, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Stupidity mistook itself for intelligence, whereas intelligence knew its own stupidity." by Jonathan Franzen?
Jonathan Franzen photo
Jonathan Franzen 50
novelist 1959

Related quotes

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
John Derbyshire photo

“The fact is that political stupidity is a special kind of stupidity, not well correlated with intelligence, or with other varieties of stupidity.”

John Derbyshire (1945) writer

Source: Derb Quotes https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/derb-quotes-john-derbyshire/, National Review, November 20, 2003.

Aldous Huxley photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Military intelligence was as nothing to military stupidity.”

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Diplomatic Immunity (2002), Chapter 2 (p. 32)

“There are only two races on this planet — the intelligent and the stupid.”

John Fowles (1926–2005) British writer

As quoted in Daily Telegraph (15 August 1991)

Democritus photo
Arsène Wenger photo

“When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

On José Mourinho, (November 2005) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/4398238.stm
Context: He's out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful. When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent.

Blaise Pascal photo

“I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
Jack London photo

“Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.”

The Star Rover
Variant: Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel

Related topics