Quotes about stupidity

„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

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

—  George Carlin American stand-up comedian 1937 - 2008

„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, When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?

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

„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

„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, A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

„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, Mastery through Accomplishment

Source: Mastery through Accomplishment

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

—  John Grisham, book The Testament

Source: The Testament

„When you see a very beautiful face, it’s stunning, and you yourself become stupefied. So you project your own stupidity onto the person you’re looking at.“

—  Hedy Lamarr Austrian-American actress and co-inventor of an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping 1914 - 2000

Lisa Heiserman Perkins NYTimes http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/science/01angier.html?_r=0
About

„We all share the guilt. We went along with everything, and we half-took the Nazis seriously instead of saying "to hell with you and your stupid nonsense". I misled my soldiers into believing this rubbish. I feel utterly ashamed of myself. Perhaps we bear even more guilt than these uneducated animals.“

—  Dietrich von Choltitz German general 1894 - 1966

Quoted in History Channel 5-part series "The Wehrmacht" in the episode "The Crimes".

„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 Italian composer 1813 - 1901

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.

„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 American singer-songwriter 1969 - 2003

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

„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)

„No one thought about what kind of society we were building with such stupid decisions. People who could afford to educate their children in private schools were glad to see the government finally stop wasting their tax money, educating other people’s children. They seemed to think they lived on Mars. They imagined that a country filled with poor, uneducated, unemployable people somehow wouldn’t hurt them!“

—  Octavia E. Butler, book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents (1998), Chapter 20 (p. 404)

„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, Against Nature

Source: Against Nature

„Me, me, me…myself & I…oh no!!! Trapped in my stupid self!“

—  Robert Crumb American cartoonist 1943

From his sketchbook (28 March 1998), reproduced in The R. Crumb Handbook by Robert Crumb and Peter Poplaski (2005), p. 372
Context: What the hell is this?? Who can tell me?? Does anybody know?? How can I find out more about it?? One thing's sure: the human mind can't "know" it... why does one want to "know"?? Is it a quest for "freedom"? One no longer wishes to be a puppet dancing on the strings of... of what? Animal instincts?? Learned reflexes? Programmed behavior?? Ingrained habits of perception?? How limited are we by the experience of our senses, by our physical nature?? To be fully alive is a stupendous struggle! We want the rewards without the struggle--- ---a fatal error!... No such thing as an easy life! Everybody has a hard time... struggle or die! To find out what's really going on it's necessary to get around the ego.. an art requiring persistent and determined effort... Me, me, me... myself & I... oh no!!! Trapped in my stupid self!