„I swear, talking to you is like talking to a really good-looking and mildly stupid brick wall.“
— Derek Landy Irish children's writer 1974
Source: Death Bringer
Quotes about stupidity
A collection of quotes on the topic of stupidity.
Related topicsTotal 1558 quotes stupidity, filter:
„The problem is that everybody treats teenagers like they're stupid.“
— Johnny Depp American actor, film producer, and musician 1963
„Cause when a guy does something stupid once, well that’s because he’s a guy. But if he does the same stupid thing twice, that’s usually to impress some girl.“
— Dr. Seuss American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books 1904 - 1991
„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)
„Many wise words are spoken in jest, but they don't compare with the number of stupid words spoken in earnest.“
— Sam Levenson American journalist 1911 - 1980
„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 American stand-up comedian 1937 - 2008
Books, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (2004)
Source: When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?
„Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.“
— George Carlin American stand-up comedian 1937 - 2008
„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 French Decadent and Symbolist poet 1854 - 1891
Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat
„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.
„It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful.“
— Anton LaVey Founder of the Church of Satan, author of the Satanic Bible 1930 - 1997
The Nine Satanic Sins (1987)
„The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid one are full of confidence.“
— Charles Bukowski American writer 1920 - 1994
Variant: The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
„Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.“
— Hedy Lamarr Austrian-American actress and co-inventor of an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping 1914 - 2000
As quoted in The Stars (1962) by Richard Schickel
„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
„But courage which goes against military expediency is stupidity, or, if it is insisted upon by a commander, irresponsibility.“
— Erwin Rommel German field marshal of World War II 1891 - 1944
Ch XVI : The Great Retreat, p. 347.
„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 leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches 1484 - 1531
Letter to Capito, January 1, 1526 (Staehelin, Briefe ausder Reformationseit, p. 20), ibid, p. 249-250
„Smart people sometimes get stupid, but stupid people never get smart.“
— Don Winslow American writer 1953
„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 Indian Sufi 1882 - 1927
Source: Mastery through Accomplishment
„If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.“
— John Grisham, book The Testament
Source: The Testament