“arguing with a moron; is like reading Shakespeare to a lump of wood”

Last update Aug. 23, 2023. History

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Alfred Döblin (1878–1957) German expressionist novelist

“Looking for God—or Heaven—by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare's plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters or Stratford as one of the places. Shakespeare is in one sense present at every moment in every play.”

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist

"The Seeing Eye", in Christian Reflections (1967), p. 167

“My mother is probably the wisest person I've ever known. She's not schooled, she's not well read. But she has a philosophy of life that makes well-read people seem like morons.”

Gene Simmons (1949) Israeli-born American rock bass guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and actor

Fresh Air interview (February 4, 2002)

“But in my homeboys' high school, it's not like that. They don't have trips to go see this Broadway play, they don't read things we read. They didn't know when I was like: "Yo, Shakespeare's dope."”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

“I read in some of it (the reference is to Shakespeare). It’s not so bad when you get used to it, pretty archaic though. Why do you like old stuff like this?”

Paul J. McAuley (1955) British writer

“It has everything in it, if you look hard enough,” Dorthy said, taking the sheaf. “Love, jealousy, avarice, loyalty, murder, madness...I find it reassuring that human nature is so constant.”

Chapter 3 “The Keep” (p. 171; ellipses in the original)
Four Hundred Billion Stars (1988)

“An organisation that treats its programmers as morons will soon have programmers that are willing and able to act like morons only.”

Bjarne Stroustrup book The C++ Programming Language

[Stroustrup, Bjarne, The C++ Programming Language, 713]

“So Bertrand Russell once said to me that the pupil in school should study whatever he liked. I asked whether this was not a crime against the pupil. … Should he be allowed to grow up without knowing Shakespeare? … Lord Russell replied that he would require a boy to read one play of Shakespeare; if he did not like it, he should not be compelled to read any more.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) philosopher and university president

Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)

“I am reading Jonson's verses to the memory of Shakespeare; an insolent, sparing, and invidious panegyric…”

John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century

On "To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare: and what he hath left us” by Ben Jonson, in Discourses on Satire and Epic Poetry (1692 - 1697) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2615

“I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine.”

Spike Milligan (1918–2002) British-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor

Spike Milligan with Jeremy Taylor Live at Cambridge University. Recorded at Cambridge University on December 2, 1973, this was previously released as a double LP, and later re-issued as a 2 CD set. Milligan used variations on the Shakespear line throughout his later life.

“All that Shakespeare says of the king, yonder slip of a boy that reads in the corner feels to be true of himself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), History

“arguing with a moron; is like reading Shakespeare to a lump of wood”

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