Quotes about idiot (532 quotes, page 6)

“Dr Insulza is quite an idiot, a true idiot. The insipid Dr Insulza should resign from the secretariat of the OAS for daring to play that role.”

Hugo Chávez (1954–2013) 48th President of Venezuela

Chavez responding to criticism from OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza regarding the governments decision for not renew the license of an opposition-aligned TV station. (January 9, 2007) https://en.mercopress.com/2007/01/09/insulza-branded-an-idiot
2007

“In the case of the musician Bach we have proof that heredity counts for nothing if the Ego is not advanced, for his genius was not borne down his family line; it gradually faded out, finally leaving the family stream entirely. So, too, the coming of idiots or vicious children to parents who are good, pure, or highly intellectual is explained in the same way. They are cases where heredity is set at nought by a wholly bad or deficient Ego.”

William Quan Judge (1851–1896) American occult writer

The Ocean of Theosophy by William Q. Judge (1893), Chapter 8, Of Reincarnation

Family , Bad luck , Children , Parent

“Cause up until that day, I was an idiot, but nobody else knew, you know?”

Brian Regan (comedian) (1957) American comedian

Brian Regan Live (1997)

“In fact, giving society cheap, abundant energy at this point would be the moral equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun. With cheap, abundant energy, the attempt clearly would be made to pave, develop, industrialize, and exploit every last bit of the planet—a trend that would inevitably lead to a collapse of the life-support systems upon which civilization depends.”

Paul R. Ehrlich (1932) American scientist and environmentalist

"An ecologist's perspective on nuclear power", Federation of American Scientists Public Interest Report vol. 28, no. 5-6 (May-June, 1975) https://fas.org/faspir/archive/1970-1981/May-June1975.pdf, page 5.

Support , Life , Dependency

“Jungs! Opfert euch nicht! Der krieg ist doch scheiße, Hitler ist ein idiot! (message in a pro-allied propaganda broadcast) Translation: Boy! Do not sacrifice yourself! The war is but shit, Hitler is an idiot!”

Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992) German-American actress and singer

Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend https://books.google.com/books?id=MahIKu7q9X0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Marlene+Dietrich:+Life+and+Legend&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-8OTo5P3YAhUMIcAKHbcdBp4Q6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

War , Boy

“What kind of idiot do you think I am?”

M. K. Hobson (1969) American writer

”I have no idea what kind of idiot you are,” Miss Jesczenka said. “That’s why I’m asking.”
Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 8, “Chaos and Disorder” (p. 133)

Thinking

“The personal, as everyone’s so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here—it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference—the only difference in their eyes—between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life, and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal.”

Richard K. Morgan book Altered Carbon

Source: Altered Carbon (2002), Chapter 15 (pp. 184-185, quoting the fictional work Things I Should Have Learned by Now, Volume II, written by story character Quellcrist Falconer)

Chance , Time , Justice , Business

“Why is it that Johnny Spaghetti Stain in fucking Georgia can knock a woman up, legally be married to her, and then beat the shit out of her, but these two intelligent, sophisticated writers who have been together for 20 years can’t get married? It’s infuriating and idiotic. I’m incredibly passionate about my support for the gay community and what they’re dealing with at this current point in time. I have arguments with people where I get red in the face, screaming at the top of my lungs.”

Seth MacFarlane (1973) American animator, actor, singer and television producer

Read Oscar Host Seth MacFarlane's One and Only Gay Interview (From 2008) http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2008/01/25/read-oscar-host-seth-macfarlanes-one-and-only-gay-interview, The Advocate, 25 January 2008.

Time , Support , Intelligence , People

“I THINK OF INTERSCOPE AND ALL THESE LABELS AS THE BIGGEST FUCKING IDIOTS ON THE PLANET. And print that in capitals, because they can’t do anything to me.”

Josh Homme (1973) American musician

Reported in Jay Babcock, " JOSHUA HOMME: People say [record] labels are evil. No, they’re just lame. http://www.arthurmag.com/2007/12/04/josh-homme-people-say-labels-are-evil-no-theyre-just-lame/", Arthur Magazine (December 4, 2007).

Thinking

“I have defined the hundred per cent American as ninety-nine per cent an idiot.”

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright

George Bernard Shaw on Sinclair Lewis receiving the Nobel Prize (1930)

“Bloody and hideous facts; acts of revolting superstition, arrests, and executions of stupid ferocity. "Burn every body!" the Inquisition seemed to say — God will easily sort out His own! Poor fools, hysterical women, and idiots were roasted alive, without mercy, for the crime of "magic."”

Eliphas Levi book Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie

But, at the same time, how many great culprits escaped this unjust and sanguinary justice! This is what Bodin makes us fully appreciate.

Quoted in Isis Unveiled, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. II, Chapter III (1877)
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1856)

Fools , God , Women , Stupidity

“Slavery to State and men has disappeared only to make room for slavery to things and Self, to one's own vices and idiotic social customs and ways. Rapid civilization, adapted to the needs of the higher and middle classes, has doomed by contrast to only greater wretchedness the starving masses.”

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky book The Key to Theosophy

The Key to Theosophy (1889)

Way , Self-confidence , Making love , Men

“In our secret depths, wherever we do our unspoken wishing, either we want life to be tidy, clear, fully understood, contained within definite limits, or we long for it to seem larger, wilder, stranger. Faced with some odd incident, either we wish to cut it down or to build it up.
On this level, below that of philosophies and rational opinions, either we reject or ignore the unknown, the apparently inexplicable, the marvellous and miraculous, or we welcome every sign of them. At one extreme is a narrow intolerant bigotry, snarling at anything outside the accepted world-picture, and at the other is an idiotic credulity, the prey of any glib charlatan. At one end the world becomes a prison, at the other a madhouse.”

J.B. Priestley (1894–1984) English writer

Source: Man and Time (1964), Ch. 8, p. 183

World , Life , Secret

“Some days you go to your office and you're the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in.”

Thomas Harris (1940) American author and screenwriter

Hannibal Lecter’s Creator Cooks Up Something New (No Fava Beans or Chianti) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/books/thomas-harris-new-book.html (May 18, 2019)

Idea , Feeling

“You're an idiot. [...] You are an illiterate. [...] You're censored. [...] You're an ignorant. [...] I don't give a shit about you.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Responding to the reporter Manuela Borges after asked about the 1964 coup d'état denial on 1 April 2014. Câmara suspende sessão sobre golpe militar após tumulto no plenário http://g1.globo.com/politica/50-anos-do-golpe-militar/noticia/2014/04/camara-suspende-sessao-sobre-golpe-militar-apos-confusao.html. G1 (1 April 2014); Jair Bolsonaro se irrita e chama jornalista de “analfabeta” e “idiota”; assista https://vejasp.abril.com.br/blog/pop/jair-bolsonaro-se-irrita-e-chama-jornalista-de-8220-analfabeta-8221-e-8220-idiota-8221-assista/. Veja SP (4 April 2014)
2014

“Fame always finds the village idiot.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

“You can't get any movement larger than five people without including at least one fucking idiot.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Coyote
Green Mars (1993)

People

“In modern language we think of "idiot" as someone who is stupid or a fool. That is not the classical meaning... An idiot is someone who cares only about himself and has no regard for anyone else, and that's terribly important when you think about tyrants. ...We think of tyrants as people who are horrible... oppressors. ...In its classic historic meaning, tyrant was simply someone who ceased power.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

The Tyrant Next Time (November 7, 2019)

Thinking , People , Fools , Stupidity

“When all else fails, admit you’re an idiot.”

John Barnes book A Million Open Doors

Part 2 “Mission to a Cold World”, Chapter 3 (p. 82)
A Million Open Doors (1992)

“Generals are, as a matter of course, allowed to be far more idiotic than ordinary human beings are permitted to be.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Our Federal Union (1975), p. 248
General sources

“The idiot thinks he is intelligent, cunning, and even an authentic person, when reality proves just the opposite.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) L'idiota pensa di essere intelligente, astuto e persino una persona autentica, quando la realtà dimostra esattamente l'opposto.
Source: prevale.net

Personality , Intelligence , Thinking , Reality

“First of all, this prince is an idiot, and, secondly, he is a fool--knows nothing of the world, and has no place in it.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky book The Idiot

The Idiot, Part IV., Chapter V.
General, The Idiot (1868–9)

Fools , World

“Always remember... Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots.”

Ziad K Abdelnour (1960) Lebanese-born American investment banker, financier, activist and author

Source: Economic Warfare Quotes

Fools

“Something that bad, it makes the headlines. They were idiots to bet against physics.”

Alastair Reynolds book On the Steel Breeze

Source: On the Steel Breeze (2013), Chapter (p. 149)

“One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Was written in a slightly different way by Leo Longanesi in Italian, above form has been attributed to Kafka without evidence.
Misattributed
Source: One Idiot Is One Idiot. Two Idiots Are Two Idiots. Ten Thousand Idiots Are a Political Party, Quote Investigator, 2021-10-08 https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/10/08/idiots/,

“For you to love something, you must have seen and heard it for a long time, you idiots.”

Francis Picabia (1879–1953) French painter and writer

Original: (fr) Pour que vous aimiez quelque chose il faut que vous l'ayez vu et entendu depuis longtemps tas d'idiots.
Source: Sign for a Dada festival (March 1920)

Time , Love

“Never confuse an idiot.”

Jack Cady book The Night We Buried Road Dog

Source: The Night We Buried Road Dog (1993), p. 476