Blockheads Quotes

• He's a blockhead who wants a proof of what he cannot perceive. And he's a fool a fool who tries to make such a blockhead believe.

  Prince William

  Believe, Stupidity, Trying

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• Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grief, Heart, Fate

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, Tobias Smollett, George Gilfillan (1855). “The Poetical Works of Johnson: Parnell, Gray, and Smollett, with Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes”, p.22

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• A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of sense.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Going Away

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• An illusion of depth often occurs if a blockhead is a muddlehead at the same time

  Karl Kraus

  Ignorance, Depth, Illusion

  Karl Kraus (1977). “No Compromise: Selected Writings of Karl Kraus”, Frederick Ungar

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• The ancients, who in these matters were not perhaps such blockheads as some may conceive, considered poetical quotation as one of the requisite ornaments of oratory.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Ornaments, Oratory, May

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• Nationalism is the love which ties me to the blockheads of my country, to the insultors of my way of life, and to the desecrators of my language.

  Karl Kraus

  Country, Ties, Patriotism

  Karl Kraus (1976). “Half-truths & one-and-a-half truths: selected aphorisms”

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• The uplifters are forever running around telling blockheads they would do better if they would believe in themselves. But they already do. That is why they are blockheads.

  Jack McDevitt

  Running, Believe, Forever

  "Odyssey". Book by Jack McDevitt, 2006.

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• There never was any party, faction, sect, or cabal whatsoever, in which the most ignorant were not the most violent; for a bee is not a busier animal than a blockhead.

  Alexander Pope

  Party, Animal, Ignorant

  Alexander Pope (1812). “The works of Alexander Pope. With a selection of explanatory notes, and the account of his life by dr. Johnson”, p.227

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• A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Work, Failure

  Benjamin Franklin (2013). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.96, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Mystery is the wisdom of blockheads.

  Horace Walpole

  Mystery

  Horace Walpole, Peter Cunningham (1857). “The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford”, p.371

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• Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

  Warren Buffett

  Investing

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• I have come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason, I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Life, Marriage, Humor

  Letter to Mrs. Orville H. Browning, 1 Apr. 1838

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• Sex and drugs and rock and roll.

  Ian Dury

  Sex, Rocks, Rock And Roll

  Title of song (1977)

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• The liar at any rate recognizes that recreation, not instruction, is the aim of conversation, and is a far more civilized being than the blockhead who loudly expresses his disbelief in a story which is told simply for the amusement of the company.

  Oscar Wilde

  Liars, Lying, Stories

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “A Critic in Pall Mall: Being Extracts from Reviews and Miscellanies”, p.60, Simon and Schuster

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• Blame-all and Praise-all are two blockheads.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Two, Criticism, Flattery

  Poor Richard's Almanack, Feb. 1734

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• No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Money, Work

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 5 Apr. 1776)

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• Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom the devils have established themselves: and all the physicians who heal these infirmities, as though they proceeded from natural causes, are ignorant blockheads.

  Martin Luther

  Religious, Men, Dumb

  Martin Luther (1862). “The Life of Luther Written by Himself”, p.321

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• Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Teacher, Mean, Cocky

  Vladimir Nabokov (2011). “Pnin”, p.161, Vintage

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• Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always the best, if the editors are not blockheads.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Book, Reading, Editors

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.201, Oxford University Press

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• A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.

  William Hazlitt

  Advantage, Should, Graves

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.137

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• I have felt in my very blood, ever since I was born, a most unconquerable hatred towards the whole tribe of fools, and it arises from the fact that I feel myself a blockhead whenever I am in their company.

  Giacomo Casanova

  Blood, Hatred, Unconquerable Will

  Giacomo Casanova (2013). “The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt: Complete”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

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• The vanity of teaching doth oft tempt a man to forget that he is a blockhead.

  George Saville

  Education, Teaching, Men

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• The great person is ahead of their time, the smart make something out of it, and the blockhead, sets themselves against it.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Change, Smart, Great Person

  "Cody Wilson Wants To Destroy Your World" by Andrew Zaleski, www.wired.com. March 11, 2015.

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• Clairvoyant, n.: A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron - namely, that he is a blockhead.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Atheism, Invisible, Clairvoyant

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.36, University of Georgia Press

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• Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Cheating, Men, Sometimes

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