“Honesty always sounds like impudence to the vain and stupid.”

Stone Tables (1997)

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Orson Scott Card586

American science fiction novelist 1951

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“Satiation, like any state of vitality, always contains a degree of impudence, and that impudence emerges first and foremost when the sated man instructs the hungry one.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

Letter to A.S. Suvorin (October 20, 1891)
Letters

“Most men are rather stupid, and most of those who are not stupid are, consequently, rather vain.”

A.E. Housman (1859–1936) English classical scholar and poet

"The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism", a lecture delivered on August 4, 1921

“Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Variant: Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 26, “Lanre Turned” (p. 203)
Context: “All stories are true,” Skarpi said. “But this one really happened, if that’s what you mean.” He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. “More or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.”

“Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.”

Friedrich Schiller The Maid of Orleans

Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans) (1801), Act III, sc. vi (as translated by Anna Swanwick)
Variants of the most commonly quoted portion:
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
Against stupidity the gods themselves labor in vain.
Against stupidity the gods themselves fight unvictorious
Against stupidity even the gods contend in vain.
Against stupidity gods themselves contend in vain.
With stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.
Context: Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield!
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason,
Resplendent daughter of the head divine,
Wise foundress of the system of the world,
Guide of the stars, who art thou then if thou,
Bound to the tail of folly's uncurbed steed,
Must, vainly shrieking with the drunken crowd,
Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss.
Accursed, who striveth after noble ends,
And with deliberate wisdom forms his plans!
To the fool-king belongs the world.

“Let's stay young forever. Young, stupid, and pretty. Sounds like a plan, don't you think?”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

“The thing about smart mother fuckers is that sometimes, they sound like crazy mother fuckers to stupid mother fuckers…”

Robert Kirkman (1978) American comic book writer

Source: The Walking Dead, Vol. 09: Here We Remain

“The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you cannot comprehend them.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Les plus beaux mots du monde ne sont que de vains sons, si on ne les comprend pas. <br class="br">Series I : Propos de rentrée: la terre et la langue http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Propos_de_rentr%C3%A9e_:_la_terre_et_la_langue <br class="br">The Literary Life (1888-1892)