“There are so many different kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.”

Source: The Magic Mountain

Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There are so many different kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst." by Thomas Mann?
Thomas Mann photo
Thomas Mann 159
German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate 1875–1955

Related quotes

Diana, Princess of Wales photo

“I was always told by my family that I was the thick one. That I was stupid and my brother was the clever one. And I was always so conscious of that. I used to go to the headmistress crying saying I wish I wasn't so stupid.”

Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997) First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales

Said to voice coach Peter Settelen in 1992, as quoted in [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6619607/t/tapes-reveal-more-princess-diana/ "Tapes reveal more from Princess Diana: NBC News exclusive: Inside the life of the late icon", NBC News (30 November 2004)

Richard Wagner photo

“No clever person can help here; I see that clearly. Here, only stupidity can help the stupid one!”

Original: (de) "Hier hilft kein Kluger, das seh’ ich klar: hier hilft dem Dummen die Dummheit allein!"
Source: Quotes from his operas, Siegfried, Mime, the dwarf (and master metal-smith), Act 1, Scene 3

G. K. Chesterton photo

“To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.”

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) The Paradise of Thieves
The Father Brown Mystery Series (1910 - 1927)

Oscar Wilde photo
Thomas Mann photo
Hema Malini photo
Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever.”

"Of Women"
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Studies in Pessimism

Muammar Gaddafi photo

“I do not support peace in the Middle East. And I do not support Arafat. He is a stupid, incompetent fool!… The stupid fool is a zealot, a warrior, and a clever one. But he doesn't accomplish anything.”

Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011) Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist

Remarks quoted in Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief (1987) by Ion Mihai Pacepa, p. 110

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach photo

“Silly people say stupid things, clever people do them.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Alberne Leute sagen Dummheiten. Gescheite Leute machen sie.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 70.

G. K. Chesterton photo

Related topics