“I know, I'm an idiot!" Leo moaned. "A brilliant idiot, but still an idiot.”
Source: The Demigod Diaries
“If we accept the Greek's definition of the idiot as an altogether private man, then we must conclude that many American citizens are now idiots. And I should not be surprised, although I don't know, if there were some such idiots even in Germany.”
"Structure of Power in America", The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 9 (March 1958).
1950s
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C. Wright Mills 55
American sociologist 1916–1962Related quotes
“The word “idiot” comes from a Greek root meaning private person.”
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941)<!-- as quoted in [http://books.google.mk/books?id=5G1XAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16 Khatru Symposium: Women in Science Fiction (1975; 1993) by Jeanne Gomoll -->
Context: The word “idiot” comes from a Greek root meaning private person. Idiocy is the female defect: intent on their private lives, women follow their fate through a darkness deep as that cast by malformed cells in the brain. It is no worse than the male defect, which is lunacy: men are so obsessed by public affairs that they see the world as by moonlight, which shows the outlines of every object but not the details indicative of their nature.
“One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party.”
Franz Kafka
(1883–1924) author
Was written in a slightly different way by Leo Longanesi in Italian, above form has been attributed to Kafka without evidence.
Misattributed
Source: One Idiot Is One Idiot. Two Idiots Are Two Idiots. Ten Thousand Idiots Are a Political Party, Quote Investigator, 2021-10-08 https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/10/08/idiots/,
“If I decide to be an idiot, then I’ll be an idiot on my own accord.”
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685–1750) German late baroque era composer
“"You're in the jungle, now. There are no rules." "Of course there are. Don't be an idiot."”
Nick Rostu and Mace windu on Jungle Rules, p. 206
Shatterpoint (2004)
“I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet.”
Stanisław Lem
(1921–2006) Polish science fiction author
Source: Istanbul: Memories and the City
“Oh, what idiots we all have been. This is just as it must be.”
Niels Bohr
(1885–1962) Danish physicist
In response to Frisch & Meitner's explanation of nuclear fission, as quoted in The Physicists - A generation that changed the world (1981) by C.P.Snow, p. 96