Quotes about stupidity
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“I have seldom known a man cunning with his brush who was not simple with his tongue; or, indeed, any skill in particular that was not allied to general stupidity.”

Thomas Hardy book The Hand of Ethelberta

The Hand of Ethelberta (1876), ch. 20

“Violet: You are being unbearable, with a U!
Klaus: And YOU are being stupid, with an S!
Sunny: Aget! (meaning "Please stop fighting!")”

Daniel Handler book The Wide Window

The Wide Window (2000)

Fight

“Neither force, nor argument, nor opinion," said Merlyn with the deepest sincerity, "are thinking. Argument is only a display of mental force, a sort of fencing with points in order to gain a victory, not for truth. Opinions are the blind alleys of lazy or of stupid men, who are unable to think. If ever a true politician really thinks a subject out dispassionately, even Homo stultus will be compelled to accept his findings in the end. Opinion can never stand beside truth. At present, however, Homo impoliticus is content either to argue with opinions or to fight with his fists, instead of waiting for the truth in his head. It will take a million years, before the mass of men can be called political animals.”

T. H. White book The Book of Merlyn

The Book of Merlyn (1977)

Men, Truth, Thinking, Waiting

“Keep stupid, keep crazy. Knowledge begins with wonder. Success as a scientist is based on keen curiosity. If one wants to enjoy academic life, I would recommend him or her to be different.”

Ryōji Noyori (1938) Japanese chemist

Ryōji Noyori (2018) cited in " Diverse culture, free environment keys for Nobel prizes: Nobel winner http://focustaiwan.tw/news/ast/201805090001.aspx" on Focus Taiwan, 9 May 2018.

Life, Knowledge, Success

“I, like every other stupid American, assumed the kangaroos would meet us at the airport and they would want to hug us as much as we wanted to hug them. … [In Sydney's zoo] I did find out about the koalas and how eucalyptus makes them high and why they sleep all day. They're little druggies.”

Kristen Bell (1980) American actress

On her impressions of Australia, as quoted in "US Star Disappointed no Kangaroos at airport", in The Sydney Morning Herald (15 October 2009) http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/us-star-disappointed-no-kangaroos-at-aussie-airport-20091015-gyw5.html

Sleep

“Exactly what useful work did those stockbrokers do to gain their enormous wealth, other than to exploit the people who work in industry, to take their money away and to make no useful contribution to society? Does the hon. Gentleman think that the working people of London are so stupid as not to realise that stockbrokers are parasites?”

Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician

Question http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1988/jul/12/inequalities-in-london in the House of Commons (12 July 1988). 1980s

Money, People, Thinking, Wealth

“Equally striking is the fact that racial anti-Semitism was not taken seriously even by the great majority of Nazis. ‘It is just a catchword to attract voters’ was a standing phrase which everybody repeated and believed, and that I took it seriously was more than once regarded as definite proof of my stupidity and gullibility.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1930s- 1950s, The End of Economic Man (1939), p. 17

“At least we’ll hear less about corn subsidies and Corinthians II, or is it Two Corinthians? Discuss. No, don’t! Stupid, stupid people. Again, that’s Trump talking, not me. He uses that word to describe nearly everyone not named Donald J. Trump. He’s presented no governing philosophy, no policy details, nothing resembling even-keeled judgment. He’s running a combustible celebrity feud fest, and you love it.”

Timothy Egan (1954) American writer

How Stupid Is Iowa? (2016)

Love, People

“The eighteenth-century polymath Thomas Young was the last person to have read all the books published in his lifetime. That means that he would've read all the Shakespeare and all the Greek and Roman classics and all the theology and all the philosophy and all the science. But the same man today, a man who had read all the books published today, would've had to've read all Dan Brown's novels, two volumes of Chris Moyles' autobiography, The World According to Clarkson by Jeremy Clarkson, The World according to Clarkson II by Jeremy Clarkson, The World according to Clarkson III by Jeremy Clarkson… his mind would be awash with bad metaphors and unsustainable, reactionary opinion; one long anecdote about the time that Comedy Dave put a pound coin in the urinal. In short, the man who had read everything published today would be more stupid than a man who had read nothing. That's not a good state of affairs.”

Stewart Lee (1968) English stand-up comedian, writer, director and musician

Series 1 Episode 1: "Toilet Books"

Books, World, Science, Time

“One of the most obvious facts about grown-ups, to a child, is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child. The child has not yet had the chance to know what it is like to be a grownup; he believes, even, that being a grownup is a mistake he will never make—when he grows up he will keep on being a child, a big child with power. So the child and grownup live in mutual love, misunderstanding, and distaste. Children shout and play and cry and want candy; grownups say Ssh! and work and scold and want steak. There is no disputing tastes as contradictory as these. It is not just Mowgli who was raised by a couple of wolves; any child is raised by a couple of grownups. Father and Mother may be nearer and dearer than anyone will ever be again—still, they are members of a different species. God is, I suppose, what our parents were; certainly the ogre of the stories is so huge, so powerful, and so stupid because that is the way a grownup looks to a child.
Grownups forget or cannot believe that they seem even more unreasonable to children than children seem to them.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“An Unread Book’, pp. 51–52
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)

Love, God, Children, Way

“It is said that the public is stupid. That's why those who hold it in contempt never dare to offer it something original.”

Isidore Isou (1925–2007) Romanian-born French poet, film critic and visual artist

Venom and Eternity (1951), Chapter II

“I envy stupidity, stupidity is eternal.”

Nélson Rodrigues (1912–1980) Brazilian writer and playwright

"Flor de Obsessão: as 1000 melhores frases de Nelson Rodrigues" - Published by Companhia das Letras, 1992 ISBN 8571646678, 9788571646674

Envy

“[Roosevelt] was always… finding new victims to loot and new followers to reward, flouting common sense, and boldly denying its existence, demonstrating by his anti-logic that two and two made five, promising larger and larger slices of the moon. His career will greatly engage historians, if any good ones ever appear in America, but it will be of even more interest to psychologists. He was the first American to penetrate to the real depths of vulgar stupidity. He never made the mistake of overestimating the intelligence of the American mob. He was its unparalleled professor.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

April 15, 1945
1940s–present, The Diary of H.L. Mencken (1989)

Intelligence, Sense, Appearance

““What kind of stupid tale is that, when we just have to look at each other to know it isn’t true?”
“It has problems, I admit.””

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987), Chapter 10.

Problem

“I didn't mean you were stupid. It's just that you're not logical, which isn't the same thing at all.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

Amédée from Amédée or How to Get Rid of It (1954)

“Love makes us do stupid things.”

Chetan Bhagat book Revolution 2020

Revolution 2020 (2011)

Love

“The truth of matter is, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, brothers and sisters, religion has it very much its own way in this country of ours. It's in the pledge of allegiance, thanks to a stupid intervention of President Eisenhower; it's on the money, it's in the opening of Congress every day, it's at the National Prayer Breakfast, it's when the delinquent president summons his advisors and his spiritual team in order to fend off what should have been inevitable, it's when Al Gore can't bring himself to criticize a decision of the Oklahoma school board, and it's high time that that situation was reversed and we developed a proper immunity to it, and made sure that religion can only be self-inflicted.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

2000s, 2000, "Hostility Of America to Religion" (2000)

Money, Truth, School, Religion

“My mum taught me how to read before I went to kindergarden, I always thought that being able to read provided lightness, help to dispel darkness, ignorance and stupidity.”

Michael Moore (1954) American filmmaker, author, social critic, and liberal activist

Interview while promoting Capitalism : A Love Story (March 2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2tJg91hsU 2010

Light, Reading, Help

“Some of the colonizers do understand and quickly retreat, while some, because they are stupid, continue colonizing others, increasing the suffering, deaths, injuries, defeat and humiliation. The people colonized by Abyssinia will be free. Eritrea will be free, and they cannot refuse to let them be free. Western Somalia will be free, and they cannot refuse to grant it freedom. The numerous Abo will be free because this is history, and no one can prevent the sunshine from reaching us.”

Siad Barre (1919–1995) Head of State of Somalia

Mogadiscio Domestic Service in Somali http://www.biyokulule.com/1978_coup.htm, 0448 GMT (1 May 1978).

Death, People, History, Understanding

“All my life I've known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid, to let them go ahead?”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Conversation with Theodore C. Sorensen concerning the Bay of Pigs Invasion; as quoted in Sorensen's Kennedy (1965), p. 309.
Attributed

Life, Dependency

“That's one of the most stupid questions I've heard. I'll go with Mascherano.”

Alex Ferguson (1941) Scottish footballer and manager

When asked, after losing the UEFA Champions League final against Barcelona, which Barcelona's talent he would sign for the next season in case he would have a blank cheque. Sbnation.com (27 May 2011) http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2011/5/28/2195275/champions-league-2011-barcelona-manchester-united]

Question

“I still do politics but I do it behind the scenes now. So that's still my passion. It's what I believe most strongly in, and I love that. Do I miss being in elective politics? Sometimes. This show is fun to do, my American show, and it's obviously silly, sometimes stupid. It gives me a good living and I enjoy it but I'm not passionate about it like I am about politics.”

Jerry Springer (1944) American television presenter, former lawyer, politician, news presenter, actor, and musician

Chatshow Net http://www.chatshow.com/Interviews/interview.aspx?interviewID=23 interview with Lara Lewington 07/13/01

Love, Passion

“It's everybody, I mean. Everything everybody does is so — I don't know — not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and — sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way.”

Jerome David Salinger book Franny and Zooey

Franny and Zooey (1961), Franny (1955)

Sadness, Way, Parting

“…it is widely but wrongly believed that Beavis and Butt-Head celebrates its characters, and applauds their sublime lack of values, taste and intelligence. I've never thought so. I believe Mike Judge would rather die than share a taxi ride to the airport with his characters — that for him, B&B function like Dilbert's co-workers in the Scott Adams universe. They are a target for his anger against the rising tide of stupidity.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beavis-and-butt-head-do-america-1996 of Beavis and Butthead Do America (20 December 1996) Reviews, Three star reviews

Intelligence, Universe, Anger

“The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.”

Clive Staples Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia

The Magician's Nephew (1955), Ch. 10: The First Joke and Other Matters
The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956)

“Software people seem to have a love-hate relationship with metrics. On one hand, they despise and distrust anything that sounds or looks like a measurement. They are quick to point out the "flaws" in the arguments of anyone who talks about measuring software products, software processes, and (especially) software people. On the other hand, these same people seem to have no problems identifying which programming language is the best, the stupid things that managers do to "ruin" projects, and who's methodology works in what situations.”

Edward V. Berard

Edward V. Berard (1998) " Metrics for object-oriented software engineering http://www.ipipan.gda.pl/~marek/objects/TOA/moose.html." The Object Agency, Inc.

Love, Hate, People, Problem

““But of course, you don’t believe in the existence of sin, do you?”
“I believe in the existence of reckless stupidity,” Rashmika replied.”

Alastair Reynolds book Absolution Gap

Source: Absolution Gap (2003), Chapter 20 (p. 288)

“Communism was not the crazy fantasy of a few fanatics, nor the result of human stupidity and baseness; it was a real, very real part of the history of the twentieth century, and we cannot understand this history of ours without understanding communism. We cannot get rid of this specter by saying it was just “human stupidity,” or “human corruptibility.” The specter is stronger than the spells we cast on it. It might come back to life.”

Leszek Kolakowski (1927–2009) Philosopher, historian of ideas

Introduction to My Correct Views on Everything

Life, History, Communication, Understanding

“The people of your world became so stupid and rude that my companions and I no longer enjoyed teaching them. You must surely have heard of us: we were called oracles, nymphs, spirits, fairies, household gods, lemures, larvas, lamias, sprites, water-nymphs, incubi, shades, spirits of the dead, specters and ghosts.”

Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) French novelist, dramatist, scientist and duelist

Sun-being to Cyrano
The Other World (1657)

God, People, World, Water

“Do not sit dumb in company; it will be ascribed either to pride, cunning, or stupidity: give your opinion modestly, but freely; hear that of others with candour; and ever endeavour to find out, and to communicate truth.”

James Burgh (1714–1775) British politician

The Dignity of Human Nature (1754)

Truth, Communication

“I can't be frustrated at you because you’re stupid but I can be mad at you because you’re evil.”

Rachel Maddow (1973) American journalist

The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, March 2009 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29676733/12

Evil, Madness

“On a highway in a moving automobile. I wasn't driving. It worked out quite well, but I don't know how it did. I was young and stupid.”

Charisma Carpenter (1970) actress

"The Dirty Dozen: Charisma Carpenter" http://www.playboy.com/sex/d12/charismacarpenter/02.html, Playboy.com, p. 2 (accessed 2006-04-30) When asked what was the strangest place she had sex.

“It is characteristic of the Oxford school of criticism to understand these [metaphysical] fallacies as logical non sequiturs—as though philosophers throughout the centuries had been, for reasons unknown, just a bit too stupid to discover the elementary flaws in their arguments. The truth of the matter is that elementary logical mistakes are quite rare in the history of philosophy; what appear to be errors in logic to minds disencumbered of questions that have been uncritically dismissed as “meaningless” are usually caused by semblances, unavoidable for beings whose whole existence is determined by appearance. Hence, In our context the only relevant question is whether the semblances are inauthentic or authentic ones, whether they are caused by dogmatic beliefs and arbitrary assumptions, mere mirages that disappear upon closer inspection, or whether they are inherent in the paradoxical condition of a living being that, though itself part of the world of appearances, is in possession of a faculty, the ability to think, that permits the mind to withdraw from the world without ever being able to leave it or transcend it.”

Hannah Arendt book The Life of the Mind

Source: The Life of the Mind (1971/1978), p. 45.

Truth, World, School, Error

“If we’re being told to do stupid or cruel things, then it is morally correct to disobey.”

Martin Firrell (1963) British artist and activist

Quoted in the documentary Art in a Word by Vera Baghiroli, qoob tv (22 July 2008).

“Let's face it: there are few things in this world more stupid than dancing. Except break dancing, which pirates and lumber jacks would agree is awesome. Other than that, dancing makes me envy cripples.”

Maddox (1978) American internet writer

The Best Page in the Universe

World, Dance, Envy

“I then made some observations to the general on the beautiful weather we were having, and the satisfaction I experienced at seeing him in a position requiring so much judgment and forbearance, and that our co-operation so far had been of such a pleasant nature that I should always look back to this time with the most delightful recollections, as there could not by any possibility be any mis-understanding between the army and navy, their duties being so distinct from each other, and the only chance of their clashing would be through the stupid blunder of an irresponsible officer.”

David Dixon Porter (1813–1891) United States Navy admiral

Source: 1880s, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (1885), pp. 256–257

Beauty, Understanding, Nature, Chance

“You don’t stop caring, champ. You still care about that little girl whose underpants you saw in kindergarten. Once you care, you always care. That’s how stupid we are.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

Rabbit is Rich (1981)

Girl

“I dislike it when instead of saying Jew they say Hebrew or Israelite, or Semite, I do not like it and why should a Negro want to be called colored. Why should we want to lose being a Negro… I have stated that a noun to me is a stupid thing, if you know a thing and its name why bother about it but you have to know its name to talk about it. Well its name is Negro if it is a Negro and Jew if it is a Jew and both of them are nice strong names and so let us keep them.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Source: Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch. 4

Color, Strong

“When a war breaks out, people say: "It's too stupid; it can't last long." But though the war may well be "too stupid," that doesn't prevent its lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.”

Albert Camus book The Plague

The Plague (1947)

War, People, Way

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. Know-it-alls in the school system do not lose one dime or one hour's sleep if their bright ideas turn out to be all wrong, or even disastrous, for the child.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Wake up, Parents http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell081800.asp, Jewish World Review, 18 August 2000. 2000s

People, School, Way, Imagination

“France isn't France anymore. We're not going. And so many people are saying that. Look at what's going on with Germany. Look at what's happening with Germany. Look at the crime; look at the problems. We have enough problems in our country right now. We don't need additional problems, folks. We don't need additional problems. And for all we know, this could be the great Trojan Horse. This could be. We don't know who these people are. … We have to get smart, folks. We don't need the problems — and we've already got those problems, just so you understand. Because they're coming into the country, they're being put where nobody even knows where they are. It's like, if I were the enemy, I would say, I can't believe they're that stupid. They're taking my people and they're putting them all over the place, because you have great military right here.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2016, August, Speech at rally in Wilmington, North Carolina (August 9, 2016)

People, Understanding, Problem, Horse

“A hero is a goddam stupid thing to have in the first place and a general block to anything you might wanta accomplish on your own.”

Lester Bangs (1948–1982) American music critic and journalist

"Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves" (March 1975), p. 173
Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (1988)

““They say that they’re a punishment on godly people for allowing sin to walk the earth unanswered—”
“Who is this ‘they’ you’re always referring to?” Stanton glared at Rose, his eyes gleaming with unhidden malice. “Your mongoloid Aunt Kindy? Your drunken Uncle Sal? Or are you talking about the slack-jawed hacks who bang out those dime novels for a bottle of whiskey and the price of a flophouse?”
Rose stared at him, her mouth open in astonishment. But Stanton pressed on, his voice flat and awful.
“Or maybe you’re just using the word ‘they’ as so many pea-brained idiots use it, as a cowardly rhetorical device, an excuse to say the things you really believe without giving anyone the chance to judge you for the narrow-minded, stupid creature you are.””

M. K. Hobson book The Native Star

Source: The Native Star (2010), Chapter 15, “Ososolyeh” (pp. 211-212)

People, Chance

“I found out that Hollywood is more crooked, dumber, crueler, stupider than all the books I've read about it. They didn't go deeply enough into how it lacks art, and soul, and heart— how it's really a piece of crap. There are too many hands directing, there're too many fingers in the pot, and they're all kind of ignorant about what they're doing. They're greedy, and they're vicious. So you don't get much of a movie.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Interview included in the documentary Bukowski: Born Into This. Discussing the movie adaptation of Barfly and his novel Hollywood.
Interviews

Books, Art, Soul, Reading

“On the one hand I did think the war was less than righteous. On the other hand I love my country. And I valued my life in a small town and my friends and family. So I wrestled with what was, for me, at least, more torturous and devastating and emotionally painful than anything that happened in Vietnam. Do you go off and kill people if you're not pretty sure it's right? And if your nation isn't pretty sure it's right? If there isn't some consensus, do you do that? In the end, I just capitulated, and one day I got on a bus with some other recent graduates, and we went over to Sioux Falls about sixty miles away, and raised our hands and went into the Army. But it wasn't a decision; it was a forfeiture of a decision. It was letting my body go, turning a switch in my conscience, just turning it off, so it wouldn't be barking at me saying, "You're doing a bad and evil and stupid and unpatriotic thing."”

Tim O'Brien (1946) American novelist

from the companion book, p. 318
From The Vietnam War (2017)

Love, Life, Pain, War

“I kid the Republicans, with love. I feel bad for them. They got nobody for next time. Who are they gonna run? Sarah Palin, reading off her hand. Did you see that? You saw this? She wrote "tax cuts" on her hand. A Republican so stupid she has to be reminded of the one thing– Tax cuts! This is like if you saw the coyote's paw and it said "Road Runner".”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

But I'm Not Wrong (2010)

Love, Feeling, Time, Reading

“What wise or stupid thing can man conceive
That was not thought of in ages long ago?”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe book Faust

Act II, The Gothic Chamber
Faust, Part 2 (1832)

Age

““Look at me closely, amigo,” said my dad. “Here is a hundred-dollar bill just to start with. Thirty dollars of this is for you to put in your own pocket right now. Capiche?” The bartender’s whole attitude changed. Suddenly he wasn’t tired anymore. “Yes, mi general, entiendo!” he said. “Good, and give another twenty to the chef in back and ten to the dishwasher. That leaves forty for my son and me to drink and eat a little something.” “But of course!” said the barkeeper. “The whole place is open for you! Which tequila would you like?” he added anxiously. “Herradura, and a couple of Modelo cervezas.” “I like Dos Equis,” I said. “The dark one.” “Okay,” said my dad, “one Modelo and one dark Dos Equis.” The bartender was flying, moving, truly enjoying the whole show. My dad winked at me. “Like I always say, to tip after the meal is stupid. Tip first and big, and the whole world changes.””

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Crazy Loco Love: A Memoir (2008)

World, Drink, Change, Flying

“tt>#else /*! STDSTDIO */ /* The big, slow, and stupid way */

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

str.c.
Source code, Other files

Way

“Everything depends on our succeeding in making the government firm and keeping it firm; whether it pleases us or not, there is nothing else and whoever can, should help. Who is unable to do so, or cannot bring himself to do it, should at least not disturb. But that is done by stupid newspaper articles which publicize the many weaknesses and ridiculous traits of the republic. That is also done by resolutions and speeches against the military decrees which emanate from the officers' side. It is very easy to say 'This is unheard of', and then to do nothing; it is very difficult to try to find usable timber among the ruins. Politics is the art of the possible, not what is desirable. My world looks different from that of to-day; but I will try and help that the two of us and another few Germans can live in the world of the future. To achieve this will be difficult enough, if it can be achieved.”

Hans von Seeckt (1866–1936) German general

Letter to Mrs Seeckt (12 February 1919), quoted in F. L. Carsten, The Reichswehr and Politics 1918 to 1933 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), pp. 31-32.

World, Art, Future, Help

“If one were to bring ten of the wisest men in the world together and ask them what was the most stupid thing in existence, they would not be able to discover anything so stupid as astrology.”

David Hilbert (1862–1943) German prominent mathematician

Quoted in Comic Sections (1993) by Desmond MacHale

Men, World

“It is so hard for an evolutionary biologist to write about extinction caused by human stupidity. […] Let me then float an unconventional plea, the inverse of the usual argument. […] The extinction of Partula is unfair to Partula. That is the conventional argument, and I do not challenge its primacy. But we need a humanistic ecology as well, both for the practical reason that people will always touch people more than snails do or can, and for the moral reason that humans are legitimately the measure of all ethical questions—for these are our issues, not nature's.”

Stephen Jay Gould book Eight Little Piggies

"Unenchanted Evening", p. 39
Eight Little Piggies (1993)

People, Question, Nature

“O, how I choke in uttering my disgrace!
Thinking I her embraced whom I did seek,
A mountain hard I found I did embrace.
Overgrown with trees and bushes nothing sleek.
Thus (grappling with a mountain face to face,
Which I stood pressing for her angel's cheek)
I was no man: no but a stupid block
And grew unto a rock another rock.”

Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet

Stanza 56 (tr. Richard Fanshawe); spoken by Adamastor.
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto V

Angels, Mountain, Thinking, Tree

“They told me that everybody must think of his future and what is more that everybody did. Then I found that they were right: I looked round me among those who believed as they and I did, and couldn't find a single one who was willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of his belief. For a little while perhaps they were prepared to sacrifice something, but when their personal dreams of the future came into conflict with their faith, they chose the dream. Those who had the luck to be officials came off best. They had no need to renounce their faith, it cooled off a bit perhaps, but they had no need to renounce it; not was there any need for them to renounce for dream of their personal happiness, for officials with cold faith can get as far as they like. So I soon stopped sacrificing everything for my faith, because anyone sacrifices everything all by himself is just stupid.”

Stig Dagerman book A Burnt Child

Source: A Burnt Child (1948), p. 202

Happiness, Faith, Dreams, Thinking

“Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. 'This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. 'I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. 'Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

Statement in the Wall Street Journal, Salman Rushdie: ‘I Stand With Charlie Hebdo, as We All Must’ http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/01/07/salman-rushdie-i-stand-with-charlie-hebdo-as-we-all-must/ (7 January 2015)

Fear, Religion, Art, Idea

“…I am a stupid, stupid man. I am a very, very dumb person. I…" [laughs in self-deprication] "He has an Auchenai Soulpriest! Why would you do that?! What is wrong with you?!”

TotalBiscuit (1984–2018) British game commentator

Hearthstone series, Randuin 2 Electric Boogaloo (January 13, 2015)

Personality

“What fascinates me is the fear of terrorism in Poland while people die everyday on the roads – and on an annual scale there are thousands of people who lose their lives in a very stupid way.”

Tomasz Vetulani (1965) Polish artist

There is no threat. Weapons and colour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqfjr78Pyfs, video, Galeria Olympia, 23 November 2017 (in Polish)

People, Fear, Way

“What a duty it is to cultivate a pleasant manner! how many a meeting does it make cheerful which would otherwise have been stupid and formal! We do not mean by this the mere routine of polite observance, but we mean that general cheerfulness which, like the sunshine lights up whatever it touches, that attention to others which discovers what subject is most likely to interest them, and that information which, ready for use, is easily laid under contribution by the habit of turning all resources to immediate employ. In short, a really pleasant manner grows out of benevolence, which can be as much shown in a small courtesy as in a great service.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836)

Light

“Angry people are stupid people.”

Donald Miller (1971) American writer

Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000, Harvest House Publishers)

People

“Anonymity is no excuse for stupidity.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

c. 1948, p. 54
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)

“Speakers' nerves affect them in various ways. Some tremble, some become frenzied. I lose all confidence, and suffer from a leaden oppression that makes me wonder why I ever agreed to speak at all; the Tomb and the Conqueror Worm seem preferable to delivering the stupid and piffling speech I have so carefully prepared.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

One Half of Robertson Davies (1989).

Way, Confidence, Suffering

“"Take that stupid grin off your face," he said. "You're putting me off."
"Sorry." I adopted a hideous expression of malady and woe.
"That's not much better."”

Jonathan Stroud book The Amulet of Samarkand

The Amulet of Samarkand (2003)

“How does so much [false news] get into the American newspapers, even the good ones? Is it because journalists, as a class, are habitual liars, and prefer what is not true to what is true? I don't think it is. Rather, it is because journalists are, in the main, extremely stupid, sentimental and credulous fellows -- because nothing is easier than to fool them -- because the majority of them lack the sharp intelligence that the proper discharge of their duties demands.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Prejudices: A Selection, p. 220
1920s

Fools, Intelligence, Thinking, Falseness

“Well they are very frightening for me because their stupidity is so flat. You look into the eyes of a chicken and you lose yourself in a completely flat, frightening stupidity. They are like a great metaphor for me… I kind of love chicken, but they frighten me more than any other animal.”

Werner Herzog (1942) German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director

About chickens, on the Signs of Life (1968) DVD audio commentary (2005).

Love, Animals

“It's all about politics, and it's stupid.”

Brownie Mary (1922–1999) American medical cannabis activist

Hubert, Cynthia. (1994, September 4). "Underground Club a Hit with Medical Pot Users". The Sacramento Bee, p. A1.

“I hate whales. I hate them. I can’t stand those stupid, blubbery, floating around, self-indulgent smug-faced krill-eating fat jerks with all their sycophantic hippie save-the- planet peacenik eco-terrorist generation X-er groupies. Greenpeace? Get a job!”

Arthur M. Jolly (1969) American writer

Ishmael
Moby (No Last Name Given) (2014)

Hate, Jerk

“I recalled when I worked in the woods
and the bars of Madras, Oregon.
That short-haired joy and roughness—
America—your stupidity.
I could almost love you again.”

Gary Snyder (1930) American poet

I Went into the Maverick Bar, from No Nature; New and Selected Poems (1992)

Love, Joy

“The philosopher … subjects experience to his critical judgment, and this contains a value judgment — namely, that freedom from toil is preferable to toil, and an intelligent life is preferable to a stupid life. It so happened that philosophy was born with these values. Scientific thought had to break this union of value judgment and analysis, for it became increasingly clear that the philosophic values did not guide the organisation of society.”

Herbert Marcuse book One-Dimensional Man

Source: One-Dimensional Man (1964), p. 126

Life, Intelligence, Freedom

“Bob Forestier had pretended for so many years to be a gentleman that in the end, forgetting that it was all a fake, he had found himself driven to act as in that stupid, conventional brain of his he thought a gentleman must act. No longer knowing the difference between sham and real, he had sacrificed his life to a spurious heroism.”

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer

"The lion's skin", p. 283
Short Stories, Collected short stories 1

Life, Forgetting

“Do you know,” said Maclaren, “there is one sin which is punished with unfailing certainty, and must therefore be the deadliest sin in all time. Stupidity.”

Poul Anderson book The Enemy Stars

Source: The Enemy Stars (1959), Chapter 8 (pp. 62-63)

Time

“There was something about such reflex stupidity that never failed to irritate him.”

Gregory Benford book Timescape

Source: Timescape (1980), Chapter 17 (p. 231)

“Europeans think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own, as their representative American, someone (Michael Moore) who actually embodies all of those qualities.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Scarborough Country on MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5013506, (2004-05-18: On Michael Moore 2000s, 2004

Thinking

“A desert's a stupid place to put a river.”

Paolo Bacigalupi (1972) American science fiction and fantasy writer

"The Tamarisk Hunter", High Country, 26 June 2006

“I do know enough about economics — and so do you — to understand that the 'stimulus program' of Barack Obama and his ravenous parasitic hordes, supposedly designed to 'repair' America's broken economy, reveals him to be unimaginably stupid, gibberingly insane, or simply the biggest, most barefaced criminal thug ever to occupy the White House.
And that's saying a lot.”

L. Neil Smith (1946) American writer

"A Little Austrian Flea," http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle508-20090301-04.html 1 March 2009.

Understanding, Housing

“I strongly object to the fact that this stupid operation in the Ardennes is sometimes called the 'Rundstedt Offensive'. This is a complete misnomer. I had nothing to do with it. It came to me as an order complete to the last detail. Hitler had even written on the plan in his own handwriting "not to be altered."”

Gerd von Rundstedt (1875–1953) German Field Marshal during World War II

Quoted in "Churchill and Hitler: Essays on the Political-Military Direction of Total War" - Page 194 - by David Jablonsky - History - 1994

“If there is one thing more than another in this whole accursed tissue of false society, which makes me angry, it is the asinine stupidity which with the true phlegm of impenetrable dullness says, "Why don't the women leave!" Will you tell me where they will go and what they shall do? When the State, the legislators, has given to itself, the politicians, the utter and absolute control of the opportunity to live; when, through this precious monopoly, already the market of labor is so overstocked that workmen and workwomen are cutting each others' throats for the dear privilege of serving their lords; when girls are shipped from Boston to the south and north, shipped in carloads, like cattle, to fill the dives of New Orleans or the lumber-camp hells of my own state…”

Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) American anarchist writer and feminist

Sex Slavery (1890)

Women, Girl, Hell, Falseness

“Sokolov put the odds at 100 percent that Peter would, sooner or later, do something stupid and cause enormous trouble. Peter would do this because he believed he was clever and because he thought only of himself. It would be safer to take him out and shoot him now, but disposing of the body would be difficult and the shock of it would probably disturb the equilibrium of Zula.”

Neal Stephenson book Reamde

Day 2
Reamde (2011), Part I: Nine Dragons

“Intellect had run up against emotion. My conscience told me to run, yet some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came to, stupidly, was a sense of shame. Hot, stupid shame. I did not want people to think badly of me.”

Tim O'Brien book The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried (1990), On the Rainy River

War, People, Thinking, Sense

“I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth around” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.”

Robert A. Hall (1946) American politician

I'm Tired (February 19, 2009)

Money, People, Wealth

“it is true that you may fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all the time, but you can not fool all of the people all the time… dogs, on the other hand, with them all you need to do is flick your wrist and they run off looking for some stupid tennis ball.”

Darby Conley (1970) American cartoonist

famous cat quotes
Bucky Katt's Big Book of fun, page 114
Bucky Katt

People, Dogs, Fools, Quotes

“The world," he resumed after a short pause, "has no faith in any man's conversion; it never forgets what he was, it never believes him anything better, it is an inexorable and stupid judge.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Uncle Silas

Source: Uncle Silas (1864), Ch. 47

World, Faith, Forgetting

“Well, er, it wasn't, er, it wasn't very stupid, I can tell you that. [In response to the interviewer suggesting that his tweeting that there were tapes was a smart tactic]”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Trump interviewed by Ainsley Earhardt on Fox & Friends http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/06/23/trump-comey-tapes-tweet-mueller-probe-fox-friends-interview (23 June 2017) 2010s, 2017, June

“I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.”

Jerome David Salinger book The Catcher in the Rye

Source: The Catcher in the Rye (1951), Chapter 10

Love, Girl, Hell, Time

“I am not speaking, obviously, to the laughing hyenas who enjoy seeing images of the wreckage and snicker good–it–serves–the–Americans–right. I am speaking to those who, though not stupid or evil, are wallowing in prudence and doubt. And to them I say: "Wake up, people. Wake up!!" Intimidated as you are by your fear of going against the current—that is, appearing racist (a word which is entirely inapt as we are speaking not about a race but about a religion)—you don’t understand or don’t want to understand that a reverse–Crusade is in progress. Accustomed as you are to the double–cross, blinded as you are by myopia, you don’t understand or don’t want to understand that a war of religion is in progress. Desired and declared by a fringe of that religion, perhaps, but a war of religion nonetheless. A war which they call Jihad. Holy War. A war that might not seek to conquer our territory, but that certainly seeks to conquer our souls. That seeks the disappearance of our freedom and our civilization. That seeks to annihilate our way of living and dying, our way of praying or not praying, our way of eating and drinking and dressing and entertaining and informing ourselves. You don’t understand or don’t want to understand that if we don’t oppose them, if we don’t defend ourselves, if we don’t fight, the Jihad will win. And it will destroy the world that for better or worse we’ve managed to build, to change, to improve, to render a little more intelligent, that is to say, less bigoted—or even not bigoted at all. And with that it will destroy our culture, our art, our science, our morals, our values, our pleasures… Christ! Don’t you realize that the Osama Bin Ladens feel authorized to kill you and your children because you drink wine or beer, because you don’t wear your beard long or a chador, because you go to the theater or the movies, because you listen to music and sing pop songs, because you dance in discos or at home, because you watch TV, wear miniskirts or short–shorts, because you go naked or half naked to the beach or the pool, because you *** when you want and where you want and who you want? Don’t you even care about that, you fools? I am an atheist, thank God. And I have no intention of letting myself be killed for it.”

Oriana Fallaci book The Rage and the Pride

"Rage and the Pride">Oriana Fallaci - The Rage and the Pride http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rage-Pride-Oriana-Fallaci/dp/084782599X - Universe Publishing; Intl edition, 2002, ISBN 9780847825998

God, War, Children, People

“2555. When thou shewest Respect to any one, see that thy Submissions be proportionable to the Homage thou owest him. There is Stupidity and Pride in doing too little; but in over acting of it, there is Abjection and Hypocrisy.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)

“I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek —
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Let America Be America Again (1935)

Dogs, Hope, Fools

“When authoritarianism is no longer necessary to protect the welfare of the people, I will be the first to move for its dismantling. But the easy, casual wave of the hand dismissing the dangers that confront the worsening world situation and us is not for me. It is for those who insist that I dismantle martial law against my best judgment but, legally and morally, cannot be held liable for any Kampuchean-like tragedy that would be fall our people if I followed their advice. But I would be liable. I would be called all kinds of names. I would be called stupid, naïve and obstinate. History and our people would hold me accountable not only perhaps for lack of wisdom, but for lack of courage if I followed such advice.”

Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989) former President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986

Remarks at the inauguration of the Philippines Columbian Association's New Clubhouse Complex, Plaza Dilao, Manila (14 December 1979)
1965

Wisdom, People, World, Law

“You ride in a limousine the first time, it’s a big thrill but after that it’s just a stupid car.”

Bruce Springsteen (1949) American singer and songwriter

Bruce Springsteen Talking

Cars, Time

“Who's an Aryan? And what are these lower peoples anyway? Well, Hitler taught that the blond-haired, blue-eyed Norwegians were close to pure Aryan. Did you follow all of that? The blond-haired, blue-eyed Norwegian. And he thought the Germans were mostly Aryan? The Mediterranean's are slightly Aryan. Slavics are half Aryan, half ape. Orientals are slightly ape. The black Africans are mostly ape and the Jews are close to pure ape. Hitler killed the Jews because of his evolution thinking. We fought a really big war, probably a 100 million people died in World War II altogether because of that stupid theory. It's not just dumb, folks, it's dangerous.”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Creation seminars (2003-2005), The dangers of evolution

War, People, World, Thinking

“Philosophy is the art of saying something incredibly stupid and making it sound incredibly intelligent.”

Piero Scaruffi (1955) Italian writer

Piero Scaruffi quotes (as selected by his readers) http://www.scaruffi.com/quotes.html

Art, Intelligence

“A stupid lie is one that can never make itself believed.”

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist

Lie

“There is little danger that any student, however idle or stupid, will fail to get some result; but there is great danger that he will be led astray, obsessed and overwhelmed by his results, even though it be by those which it is necessary that he should attain. Too often, moreover, he mistaketh the first resting-place for the goal, and taketh off his armour as if he were a victor ere the fight is well begun.
It is desirable that the student should never attach to any result the importance which it at first seems to possess.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Book VI : Liber O (1909)

Fight

“The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
For that were stupid and irrational;
But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues,
And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.”

Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) Scottish poet and dramatist

Act III, scene 1, line 151.
Count Basil (1798)

Fear, Feeling, Soul, Nature

“I dare say that most of you gentlemen know that a good many pig-iron handlers can never learn to shovel right; the ordinary pig-iron handler is not the type of man well suited to shoveling. He is to stupid; there is too much mental strain, too much knack required of a shoveled for the pig-iron handler to take kindly to shoveling.”

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915) American mechanical engineer and tennis player

Source: Testimony of Frederick W. Taylor... 1912, p. 111.

Learning

“Is it still "artificial intelligence" when the task is to model human stupidity, or would only preventing its devastating consequences get an "AI" rating?”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

Re: Harlequin was: Re: Is LISP dying? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/4cf16808182eb81e (Usenet article). Usenet articles, Miscellaneous

Intelligence

“What egotism, what stupid vanity, to suppose that a thing could not happen because you could not conceive it!”

Philip Wylie book When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide (1933), co-written with Edwin Balmer