Carlo M. Cipolla Quotes

• A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Stupid, Loss, Groups

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• No matter how high are one's estimates of human stupidity, one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that:a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid.b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one's activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Stupid, Intelligent, People

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• Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Stupid, Numbers, Underestimate

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• Our daily life is mostly, made of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm. Nobody knows, understands or can possibly explain why that preposterous creature does what he does. In fact there is no explanation - or better there is only one explanation: the person in question is stupid.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Stupid, Energy, Doe

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• Nobody knows, understands or can possibly explain why that preposterous creature does what he does. In fact there is no explanation - or better there is only one explanation: the person in question is stupid.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Stupid, Doe, Facts

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• ...quantity is not necessarily synonymous with quality and brilliant ideas are not a function of the number of titles printed.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Ideas, Numbers, Quality

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• The “Vasco da Gama's era” ends in a nightmare in which men-Westerners and non-Westerners alike-are bewildered by this confusion and the old fancy of the apprenti sorcier becomes tragically actual.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Men, Confusion, Fancy

  Carlo M. Cipolla (1966). “Guns, sails and empires: technological innovation and the early phases of European expansion, 1400-1700”

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• As Dr. Chiang puts it, “while Buddha came to China on white elephants, Christ was borne on cannon balls.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Elephants, White, Drs

  Carlo M. Cipolla (1970). “European culture and overseas expansion”

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