“If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.”

— W. Somerset Maugham

"1901", p. 76. Sometimes misquoted as "If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing". Sometimes misattributed to Bertrand Russell or Anatole France
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the…" by W. Somerset Maugham?

W. Somerset Maugham 158

British playwright, novelist, short story writer 1874–1965

Related quotes

“ If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.”

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

W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer's Notebook (1949), entry for 1901
Sometimes misquoted as "If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
Sometimes misattributed to Anatole France
Note that Russell does say something similar in Marriage and Morals (1929): "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible."
Misattributed

“Here lies our sovereign lord the king,
Whose word no man relies on;
He never says a foolish thing,
Nor ever does a wise one.”

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) English poet, and peer of the realm

Written on the Bedchamber Door of Charles II, as quoted in The Book of Days : A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities (1832) by Robert Chambers, Viol. II, July 26, p. 126.

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Si 50 millions de personnes disent une bêtise, c'est quand même une bêtise.
As quoted in Listening and Speaking : A Guide to Effective Oral Communication https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc=y&hl=es&id=0CcWYwjwyRgC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=foolish (1954) by Ralph G. Nichols and Thomas R. Lewis, p. 74
Also misattributed to Bertrand Russell, by Laurence J. Peter, in The Peter Prescription : How To Make Things Go Right (1976), but he subsequently attributed to France in Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977).
Derived variant: If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.
W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer's Notebook (1949), entry for 1901
Variant: If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

“Impatience can cause wise people to do foolish things.”

Janette Oke (1935) Canadian writer

“No one can be too talkative without often saying something that makes him look foolish, for the wise man's saying goes: "Whoever talks too much does himself a bad turn."”

Chrétien de Troyes French poet and trouvère

Nus ne puet estre trop parliers
Qui sovent tel chose ne die
Qui torné li est affolie,
Car li sages dit et retrait:
Qui trop parole, il se mesfait.
Source: Perceval or Le Conte du Graal, Line 1650.

“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

“We have a pretty witty king,
Whose word no man relies on;
He never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one.”

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) English poet, and peer of the realm

About King Charles II of England, as quoted in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Vol. XLIV (January - June 1857) p. 592; It is said to that this was written on the door of Charles II’s bedchamber, and that on seeing it, the king replied, “This is very true: for my words are my own, and my actions are my ministers’....”
Other

“It is said that a wise man who stands firm is a statesman, and a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe.”

Hyman George Rickover (1900–1986) United States admiral

The Rickover Effect (1992)

“God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), VIII : From God to God
Context: And He is the God of the humble, for in the words of the Apostle, God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty (I Cor. i. 27) And God is in each of us in the measure in which one feels Him and loves Him. "If of two men," says Kierkegaard, "one prays to the true God without sincerity of heart, and the other prays to the an idol with all the passion of an infinite yearning, it is the first who really prays to the idol, while the second really prays to God." It would be better to say that the true God is He to whom man truly prays and whom man truly desires. And there may even be a truer revelation in superstition itself than in theology.

“One of the most popular superstitions consists in the belief that every man is endowed with definite qualities—that some men are kind, some wicked; some wise, some foolish; some energetic, some apathetic, etc. This is not true. We may say of a man that he is oftener kind than wicked; oftener wise than foolish; oftener energetic than apathetic, and vice versa. But it would not be true to say of one man that he is always kind or wise, and of another that he is always wicked or foolish. And yet we thus divide people. This is erroneous. Men are like rivers—the water in all of them, and at every point, is the same, but every one of them is now narrow, now swift, now wide, now calm, now clear, now cold, now muddy, now warm. So it is with men. Every man bears within him the germs of all human qualities, sometimes manifesting one quality, sometimes another; and often does not resemble himself at all, manifesting no change. With some people these changes are particularly sharp. And to this class Nekhludoff belonged.”

Leo Tolstoy book Resurrection

Source: Resurrection (1899), Ch. 57

“If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

W. Somerset Maugham 158

Related quotes

Related topics