Quotes about stupidity (1621 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

“… sin is always far away, whether or not you are a Christian, whether or not you are a "morenista" or a "PRI" or whatever stupidity occurs to you.”

José Baroja book Sueño en Guadalajara y otros cuentos

“In democracy, wishing bad for an incoming government is like buying a gun, buying the bullets, loading it and wishing to be killed with it: sovereign dogmatic stupidity.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: 1480 AM Rock&Pop.

Democracy

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid one are full of confidence.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Variant: The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

Faith , People , Confidence , Problem

“And so being young and dipped in folly, I fell in love with melancholy.”

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) American author, poet, editor and literary critic

Love

“The problem is that everybody treats teenagers like they're stupid.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician

Problem

“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”

Hedy Lamarr (1914–2000) Austrian-American actress and co-inventor of an early technique for spread spectrum communications and freq…

As quoted in The Stars (1962) by Richard Schickel

Funny , Girl

“Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.”

Aristophanés (-448–-386 BC) Athenian playwright of Old Comedy

Fictional attribution in the movie The Emperor's Club (2002), given by Kevin Kline (as William Hundert); also attributed to Diogenes, without sources; no published occurrences of this statement prior to the movie have been located in any of the Aristophanes Plays or Fragments.
Misattributed
Source: IMDb, "Memorable quotes for The Emperor's Club" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283530/quotes, Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com
Source: Two pages attributing it to Diogenes: http://www.prohibitionists.org/Background/Party_Platform/quickquotes/QQ-education.htm http://www.ryanbalton.com/funstuff/forb_seniorquotes.htm

Youth , Age , Education

“Correct." Kekrops sounded bitter, like he regretted his decision. "My people were the original Athenians--the gemini."
"Like your zodiac sign?" Percy asked. "I'm a Leo."
"No, stupid," Leo said. "I'm a Leo. You're a Percy.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Variant: Correct." Kekrops sounded bitter, like he regretted his decision. "My people were the original Athenians--the gemini."
"Like your zodiac sign?" Percy asked. "I'm a Leo."
"No, stupid. "I'm a Leo. You're a Percy.
Source: The Blood of Olympus

People , Decision

“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Fish

“Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

“But courage which goes against military expediency is stupidity, or, if it is insisted upon by a commander, irresponsibility.”

Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) German field marshal of World War II

Ch XVI : The Great Retreat, p. 347.
The Rommel Papers (1953)

Courage

“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand.”

Bertrand Russell book A History of Western Philosophy

Source: 1940s, A History of Western Philosophy (1945)

Understanding

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

People

“We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

“If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn't have a job if he was any smarter. ”

John Gotti (1940–2002) American crime boss

Back To Work , Thinking

“That’s the best thing about being dead. It’s like being stupid. It’s only painful for others.”

Ricky Gervais (1961) English comedian, actor, director, producer, musician, writer, and former radio presenter

Pain , Dead

“With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid, and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Song lyrics, Nevermind (1991)

Feeling , Light

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Often paraphrased as "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
Compare: "One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision." B. Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951). Compare also: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming (1919).
See also: Dunning-Kruger effect, Historical Antecedents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect#Historical_antecedents.
1930s, Mortals and Others (1931-35)

World , Intelligence

“Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Death , Universe

“What if it lines up like it did in the Trojan War… Athena versus Poseidon?"
"I don't know. But I just know that I'll be fighting next to you."
"Why?"
"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

War , Question , Fight

“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Variant: Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

People

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Source: 1960s, Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 4 : Love in action, Sct. 3

World , Sincerity

“Hitler decided that. I thought it was stupid because I believed that first we had to defeat England.”

Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader

To Leon Goldensohn, about attacking the Soviets (15 March 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)

“People call me stupid for treating you like a queen, but I dont even worry `cause you`re my unforeseen.
And I hope that you`ll be with me, if only in my dreams. But here you are next to me and you`re glad, or so it seems.”

Alexander Rybak (1986) Norwegian singer, actor, violinist, composer, pianist

"Funny Little World" (2009).

People , Dreams , Hope

“Turtles don't feel, stupid," said Jem.

"Were you ever a turtle, huh?”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Feeling

“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Cited as an example of "What Mark Twain Didn't Say" in Mark Twain by Geoffrey C. Ward, et al.
Misattributed
Variant: It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Appearance

“I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Fashion , Fraud

“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.”

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian psychiatrist

"Personal Conduct" http://books.google.com/books?id=IYOcAQAAQBAJ&q=%22The+stupid+neither+forgive+nor+forget+the+na%C3%AFve+forgive+and+forget+the+wise+forgive+but+do+not+forget%22&pg=PA177#v=onepage, p. 51. http://openlibrary.org/works/OL15151528W/The_Second_Sin
The Second Sin (1973)

Wise , Life , Forgiveness , Forgetting

“I've always believed that a person is smart. It's people that are stupid.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Source: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

People , Personality

“Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi

Source: Mastery through Accomplishment

Life , Personality

“Love… no such thing.

Whatever it is that binds families and married couples together, that's not love. That's stupidity or selfishness or fear. Love doesn't exist.

Self interest exists, attachment based on personal gain exists, complacency exists. But not love. Love has to be reinvented, that’s certain.”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

Love , Fear , Family , Personality

“If I had to tell you how humans made their way to Earth, it would go like this: In the beginning, there was nothing at all but the moon and the sun. And the moon wanted to come out during the day, but there was something so much brighter that seemed to fill up all those hours. The moon grew hungry, thinner and thinner, until she was just a slice of herself, and her tips were as sharp as a knife. By accident, because that is the way most things happen, she poked a hole in the night and out spilled a million stars, like a fountain of tears.

Horrified, the moon tried to swallow them up. And sometimes this worked, because she got fatter and rounder.. But mostly it didn't, because there were just so many. The stars kept coming, until they made the sky so bright that the sun got jealous. He invited the stars to his side of the world, where it was always bright. What he didn't tell them, though, was that in the daytime, they'd never be seen. So the stupid ones leaped from the sky to the ground, and they froze under the weight of their own foolishness.

The moon did her best. She carved each of these blocks of sorrow into a man or a woman. She spent the rest of her time watching out so that her other stars wouldn't fall. She spent the rest of her time holding onto whatever scraps she had left.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

World , Way , Star , Tear

“The biggest thing has been realizing how much people really do love the early Sabbath music. People have said it in the past but I've never really believed them before. I remember years ago when Metallica opened up for me, I went backstage and they were playing old Black Sabbath albums and I thought they were taking the piss! They said, 'No, we really love Sabbath.' I couldn't see that at the time--because towards the end of my time with Sabbath 20 years ago I thought what we were doing was boring and stupid, because we were boring and stupid, totally sick of what we were doing and totally out of our brains with drink or drugs when we were playing it.”

Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter

Launch.com, November 2, 2000

Love , People , Music , Drink

“God is not stupid. Don't make excuses before Him. God will not make excuses, even though man may cause damage to His promise. You must take that degree of responsibility too.”

Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) Korean religious leader

The Way of God's Will Chapter 1-5. Tradition, Official Business, and Responsibility http://www.unification.org/ucbooks/WofGW/wogw1-05.htm Translated 1980.

God

“The world will not end. This is ridiculous. I think it's like 2000. It's a great trick to do business and earn lots of money because stupid people hoard things. This is a stimulator of the economy.”

Ronnie Radke (1983) American singer

In an interview with the magazine Alt Press http://www.fallinginreverse.com.br/2012/06/entrevista-com-ronnie-radke-na-alt-press.html

Money , People , World , Business

“You don't learn anything in school. It's just a waste of time. You lug around books and all and do homework. They give too much homework. You shouldn't be doing homework. Nobody's interested in it. The teachers are stupid. They shouldn't have any women in there. They don't know how to teach. And they shouldn't make anyone go to school. You don't want to go, you don't go, that's all. It's ridiculous. I don't remember one thing I learned in school. I don't listen to weakies. My two and a half years in Erasmus High I wasted. I didn't like the whole thing. You have to mix with all those stupid kids. The teachers are even stupider than the kids. They talk down to the kids. Half of them are crazy. If they'd have let me, I would have quit before I was sixteen.”

Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer

1960s, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master (1961)

Women , Books , School , Learning

“The good news is that no one can sincerely admit to be stupid in life.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Sincerity , Life

“I can't live where I want to, I can't go where I want to go, I can't do what I want to, I can't even say what I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to.”

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) American artist

Fools , Painting

“Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Books, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (2004)
Source: When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?

Funny , For women , For Men , Women

“This is probably the advantage of being stupid. Stupid people just do. We tend to overthink. If we could eliminate the “over” and just think, then we could do, too. Only we’d be smarter doers because we’d be thinkers.”

Sarah Strohmeyer Smart Girls Get What They Want

Source: Smart Girls Get What They Want

People , Thinking

“Blessed are the forgetful; for they get over their stupidities, too.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Beyond Good and Evil

Variant: Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.
Source: Beyond Good and Evil

Forgetting

“Many wise words are spoken in jest, but they don't compare with the number of stupid words spoken in earnest.”

Sam Levenson (1911–1980) American journalist

“No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Não há nenhuma ideia inteligente que possa ganhar aceitação geral sem ser misturada antes com um pouco de estupidez.
The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 104

Intelligence , Idea

“Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: Война и мир

Confidence , Self-confidence

“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

“which is better - to be born stupid into an intelligent society or intelligent into an insane one?”

Aldous Huxley book Island

Source: Island

Intelligence

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Source: Time Enough for Love (1973)

“I don't get high, but sometimes I wish I did. That way, when I messed up in life I would have an excuse. But right now there's no rehab for stupidity.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

Life , Way

“I'm not stupid. I know everybody thinks I am. I just don't like answering their questions.”

Louis Sachar book Holes

Source: Holes

Question , Thinking

“Smart people sometimes get stupid, but stupid people never get smart.”

Don Winslow (1953) American writer

People

“I'm not very good at handling stupid people. I must admit.”

John Lydon book Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs

Source: Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs

People

“It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Source: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Courage

“Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.”

Margaret Atwood book Surfacing

Source: Surfacing

Evil

“Either I've turned stupid, or life's turned hard.”

Tamora Pierce Lioness Rampant

Source: Lioness Rampant

Life

“We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Fear

“Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful -- just stupid.)”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Source: Time Enough for Love

People , Hurt

“Annabeth's face, her blond hair and gray eyes, the way she laughed, threw her arms around him, and gave him a kiss whenever he did something stupid.
She must have kissed me a lot, Percy thought.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Way , Kiss

“Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Intelligence

“In fact the only thing that I don't like about Whisky, is that if I take the merest sip of the stuff, it sends a sharp pain from the back of my left eyeball down to the tip of my right elbow, and I begin to walk in a very special way, bumping into people and snarling at the furniture. I have therefore learned to turn my attention to other tipples. Margaritas, I'm very fond of, but they make me buy very stupid things. When ever I've had a few margaritas I always wake up in the morning with a sense of dread as to what I will find downstairs. The worst was a 6ft long pencil and a 2ft wide India rubber that I had shipped over from New York, as a result of one injudicious binge.”

Douglas Adams book The Salmon of Doubt

The Salmon of Doubt (2002)

Pain , People , Way , Sense

“In 1919 I woke up famous. I'd never guessed it. If I'd known I was famous, I'd have stolen away and wept. I was stupid. I was supposed to be intelligent. I was sensitive and very dumb.”

Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French fashion designer

As quoted in Coco Chanel : Her Life, Her Secrets (1971), p. 95
In 1919 I woke up famous and with a new friend who was to give its full meaning to my success.
Statement to Salvador Dalí, about herself and her friendship with Misia Sert, as quoted in The Persistence of Memory : A Biography of Dali (1992) by Meredith Etherington-Smith

Intelligence

“Gambling is a kind of tax: a tax on stupidity. A tax on greed. Some money changes hands at random, but the net cash flow always goes one way - to the Government, to the casino operators, to the bookies, to the crime syndicates. If you ever do win, you won't have won against them. They'll still be getting their share. You'll have won against all the penniless losers, that's all.”

Greg Egan book Eugene

Eugene
Fiction, Axiomatic (1995)

Money , Way , Change

“We keep falling into the same ditches, you know? I mean, we learn more and more about the physical universe, more about our own bodies, more technology, but somehow, down through history, we go on building empires of one kind or another, then destroying them in one way or another. We go on having stupid wars that we justify and get passionate about, but in the end, all they do is kill huge numbers of people, maim others, impoverish still more, spread disease and hunger, and set the stage for the next war. And when we look at all of that in history, we just shrug our shoulders and say, well, that’s the way things are. That’s the way things always have been.”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 20 (p. 392)

Hunger , War , People , Disease

“Balthasar of Waldshit has fallen into prison here - a man not merely irreverent and unlearned, but even empty. Learn the sum of the matter. When he came to Zurich our Council fearing lest he should cause a commotion ordered him to be taken into custody. Since, however, he had once in freakishness of disposition and fatuity, lurked out in Waldshut against our Council, of which place he, by the gods, was a guardian [i. e., he has pastor there], until the stupid fellow disunited and destroyed everything, it was determined that I should discuss with him in a friendly manner the baptising of infants and Catabaptists, as he earnestly begged first from prison and afterwards from custody. I met the fellow and rendered him mute as a fish. The next day he recited a recantation in the presence of certain Councillors appointed for the purpose [which recantation when repeated to the Two Hundred it was ordered should be publicly made Therefore having started to write it in the city, he gave it to the Council with his own hand, with all its silliness, as he promised. At length he denied that he had changed his opinion, although he had done so before a Swiss tribunal, which with us is a capital offence, affirming that his signature had been extorted from him by terror, which was most untrue].
The council was so unwilling that force should be used on him that when the Emperor or Ferdinand twice asked that the fellow be given to him it refused the request. Indeed he was not taken prisoner that he might suffer the penalty of his boldness in the baptismal matter, but to prevent his causing in secret some confusion, a thing he delighted to do. Then he angered the Council; for there were present most upright Councillors who had witnessed his most explicit and unconstrained withdrawal, and had refused to hand to him over to the cruelty of the Emperor, helping themselves with my aid. The next day he was thrust back into prison and tortured. It is clear that the man had become a sport for demons, so he recanted not frankly as he had promised, nay he said that he entertained no other opinions than those taught by me, execrated the error and obstinacy of the Catabaptists, repeated this three times when stretched on the racks, and bewailed his misery and the wrath of God which in this affair was so unkind. Behold what wantonness! Than these men there is nothing more foolhardy, deceptive infamous - for I cannot tell you what they devise in Abtzell - and shameless. Tomorrow or next day the case will come up.”

Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches

Letter to Capito, January 1, 1526 (Staehelin, Briefe ausder Reformationseit, p. 20), ibid, p. 249-250

Men , God , Secret , Fear

“Question is, are you bozos smart enough to feel stupid?”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Berzerk"
2010s, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)

Feeling , Question

“If we let fashion, love of innovation, and an alleged scientific spirit tempt us to surrender the native quality of our own art, the free natural certainty of our work and perception, our bright golden light, then we are simply being stupid and senseless.”

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) Italian composer

Si rinunci per moda, per smania di novità, per affettazione di scienza, si rinneghi l'arte nostra, il nostro istinto, quel nostro fare sicuro spontaneo naturale sensibile abbagliante di luce, è assurdo e stupido.
Letter to Clarina Maffei, April 20, 1878, cited from Franco Abbiati Giuseppe Verdi (Milano: Ricordi, 1959) vol. 4, p. 79; translation from Franz Werfel and Paul Stefan (eds.), Edward Downes (trans.) Verdi: The Man in His Letters (New York: L. B. Fischer, 1942) p. 345.

Love , Art , Fashion , Nature

“There is a word very commonly used these days: "anti-communism." It's a very stupid word, badly put together. It makes it appear as though communism were something original, something basic, something fundamental. Therefore, it is taken as the point of departure, and anti-communism is defined in relation to communism. Here is why I say that this word was poorly selected, that it was put together by people who do not understand etymology: the primary, the eternal concept is humanity. And communism is anti-humanity. Whoever says "anti-communism" is saying, in effect, anti-anti-humanity. A poor construction. So we should say: that which is against communism is for humanity. Not to accept, to reject this inhuman Communist ideology is simply to be a human being. It isn't being a member of a party.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Speech in Washington D.C., June 30, 1975; Solzhenitsyn: The Voice of Freedom http://www.archive.org/details/SolzhenitsynTheVoiceOfFreedom, p. 30.

People , Communication , Departure , Understanding

“Here's a song I made up while I was watching Xena the Warrior Princess with the sound off. It's a fact. I had a secret crush on Xena. It was a secret to me too. I wouldn't admit it. She's pretty fuckin' tough. She has a good yell… she kills the stupid gladiators with the log-trap. Release the log-trap! She releases the log-trap and they all get… crushed. They'd all wanna be with her if they could, but unfortunately they're not on her side. It's a lot better with the sound off. Really, it is. And the song didn't have anything to do with Xena… but… I was about half a bottle through Jameson's… if that makes any sense.”

Elliott Smith (1969–2003) American singer-songwriter

before playing "Between the Bars" at a concert in 1996. http://www.archive.org/details/esmith2006-09-25..flacf.

Secret , Sense , Princess

“Translated: Human stupidity is international.”

Kurt Tucholský (1890–1935) German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer

Die menschliche Dummheit ist international.
"Hégésippe Simon" http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Tucholsky,+Kurt/Werke/1931/H%C3%A9g%C3%A9sippe+Simon (1931); also in Schnipsel, published 1973, p. 102.

“The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Quote, attributed to Picasso in: Jean Cocteau (1932), Opium: The Diary of an Addict. p. 63
Quotes, 1930's

World

“It is said that heaven does not create one man above or below another man. Any existing distinction between the wise and the stupid, between the rich and the poor, comes down to a matter of education.”

Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901) Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist who founded Keio University

Gakumon no Susume [An Encouragement of Learning] (1872–1876).

Education

“"What really is the point of trying to teach anything to anybody?"
This question seemed to provoke a murmur of sympathetic approval from up and down the table.
Richard continued, "What I mean is that if you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else. That forces you to sort it out in your mind. And the more slow and dim-witted your pupil, the more you have to break things down into more and more simple ideas. And that's really the essence of programming. By the time you've sorted out a complicated idea into little steps that even a stupid machine can deal with, you've learned something about it yourself."”

Douglas Adams book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)

Way , Idea , Understanding , Question

“One artist sees himself as the creator of an independent spiritual world; he hoists onto his shoulders the task of creating this world, of peopling it and of bearing the all-embracing responsibility for it; but he crumples beneath it, for a mortal genius is not capable of bearing such a burden. Just as man in general, having declared himself the centre of existence, has not succeeded in creating a balanced spiritual system. And if misfortune overtakes him, he casts the blame upon the age-long disharmony of the world, upon the complexity of today's ruptured soul, or upon the stupidity of the public.
Another artist, recognizing a higher power above, gladly works as a humble apprentice beneath God's heaven; then, however, his responsbility for everything that is written or drawn, for the souls which perceive his work, is more exacting than ever. But, in return, it is not he who has created this world, not he who directs it, there is no doubt as to its foundations; the artist has merely to be more keenly aware than others of the harmony of the world, of the beauty and ugliness of the human contribution to it, and to communicate this acutely to his fellow-men. And in misfortune, and even at the depths of existence — in destitution, in prison, in sickness — his sense of stable harmony never deserts him.
But all the irrationality of art, its dazzling turns, its unpredictable discoveries, its shattering influence on human beings — they are too full of magic to be exhausted by this artist's vision of the world, by his artistic conception or by the work of his unworthy fingers.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Nobel lecture (1970)

Men , God , People , Age

“I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor the savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. I do not content myself with consulting authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions, and choose that which seems to me the soundest. But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others.”

Mikhail Bakunin book God and the State

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)
Context: Does it follow that I reject all authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or engineer. For such or such special knowledge I apply to such or such a savant. But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor the savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. I do not content myself with consulting authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions, and choose that which seems to me the soundest. But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others.

Faith , Intelligence , Question , Knowledge

“I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Rolling Stone (1976)
1970s
Context: I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright... Or maybe "stupid" is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I... And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots.

People , World , Peace , Personality

“Stupidity is not my strong point.”

Paul Valéry book Monsieur Teste

Variant translations:
Stupidity is not my strong suit.
Monsieur Teste (1919)
Context: Stupidity is not my strong point. I have seen many persons; I have visited several countries; I have taken part in various enterprises without liking them; I have eaten nearly every day; I have had women. I can now recall a few hundred faces, two or three great spectacles, and the substance of perhaps twenty books. I have not retained the best nor the worst of these things: what could stay with me did.

Strong

“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.

God

“This concept of one world-ism, everything blended and smoothed out to this mediocre norm that everybody downgrades themselves to be is stupid.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

"My Pet Theory" on the second disc of the twin CD version
The MOFO Project/Object (2006)
Context: The '60s was really stupid … It was a type of merchandising, Americans had this hideous weakness, they had this desire to be OK, fun guys and gals, and they haven't come to terms with the reality of the situation: we were not created equal. Some people can do carpentry, some people can do mathematics, some people are brain surgeons and some people are winos and that's the way it is, and we're not all the same. This concept of one world-ism, everything blended and smoothed out to this mediocre norm that everybody downgrades themselves to be is stupid. The '60s was merchandised to the public at large... My pet theory about the '60s is that there is a sinister plot behind it... The lessons learnt in the '60s about merchandising stupidity to the American public on a large scale have been used over and over again since that time.

World

“Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid. ”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

Life

“I concluded that women are flawed. There is something mentally wrong with the way their brains are wired, as if they haven’t evolved from animal-like thinking. They are incapable of reason or thinking rationally. They are like animals, completely controlled by their primal, depraved emotions and impulses. That is why they are attracted to barbaric, wild, beast-like men. They are beasts themselves. Beasts should not be able to have any rights in a civilized society. If their wickedness is not contained, the whole of humanity will be held back from advancement to a more civilized state. Women should not have the right to choose who to mate with. That choice should be made for them by civilized men of intelligence. If women had the freedom to choose which men to mate with, like they do today, they would breed with stupid, degenerate men, which would only produce stupid, degenerate offspring. This in turn would hinder the advancement of humanity. Not only hinder it, but devolve humanity completely. Women are like a plague that must be quarantined. When I came to this brilliant, pefect revelation, I felt like everything was now clear to me, in a bitter, twisted way. I am one of the few people on this world who has the intelligence to see this. I am like a god, and my purpose is to exact ultimate Retribution on all of the impurities I see in the world.”

Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer

My Twisted World (2014), 19-22, UC Santa Barbara, Building to Violence

God , Freedom , Intelligence , People

“Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart — one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Black Cat

Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgement, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?
The Black Cat (1843)

Soul , Time , Heart

“And I still won't grow up, I'm a grown-ass kid
Swear I should be locked up for stupid shit that I did
But I'm a champion, so I turned tragedy to triumph
Make music that's fire, spit my soul through the wire.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Through the Wire
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)

Soul , Music

“I have always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Way

“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 16: Ideas Which Have Become Obsolete, p. 158
Source: 1950s, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951)

Democracy , Nature , Thinking

“Already, he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity.”

Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848–1907) French novelist and art critic

Source: Against Nature

Dreams , Solitude

“In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

World

“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Motivation

“I have sought you out to cure me.'
'To cure you of what?'
'Of this cursed affliction.'
'I cannot cure stupidity.'
Scapegrace frowned.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Affliction

“If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.”

John Grisham book The Testament

Source: The Testament

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

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

Intelligence , Hell

“He was stupid. If I killed everyone who was stupid, I wouldn't have time to sleep.”

Tamora Pierce In the Hand of the Goddess

Source: In the Hand of the Goddess

Sleep , Time

“Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Source: The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989), p. 239; this may be derived from a similar observation by Harlan Ellison which is sometimes misattributed to Zappa: "The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."

Universe

“There’s a really stupid saying: When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. Well, I have a better saying: When life hands you a lemon, shove that lemon up its stupid butt.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Oh My Goth

Life