Stupidity Quotes - Page 17

• The book is second only to the wheel as the best piece of technology human beings have ever invented. A book symbolises the whole intellectual history of mankind; it's the greatest weapon ever devised in the war against stupidity.

  Philip Pullman

  War, Book, Technology

  " Philip Pullman declares war against 'stupidity' of library closures" by Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. October 24, 2011.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• We live, understandably enough, with the sense of urgency; our clock, like Baudelaire's, has had the hands removed and bears the legend, "It is later than you think." But with us it is always a little too late for mind, yet never too late for honest stupidity; always a little too late for understanding, never too late for righteous, bewildered wrath; always too late for thought, never too late for naïve moralizing. We seem to like to condemn our finest but not our worst qualities by pitting them against the exigency of time.

  Lionel Trilling

  Thinking, Wrath, Hands

  16 Copy quote

• I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.

  Salman Rushdie

  Art, Charlie Hebdo, Liberty

  "Charlie Hebdo magazine attack: vigils held as French hunt suspects – as it happened". www.theguardian.com. January 7, 2015.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation.

  John Calvin

  Pride, Men, Vanity

  John Calvin (1845). “Institutes of the Christian Religion”, p.24, Lulu.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• God's love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn him. Ignore him. Reject him. Despise him. Disobey him. He will not change. Our evil cannot diminish his love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does not earn it any more than our stupidity jeopardizes it. God doesn't love us less if we fail or more if we succeed. God's love never ceases.

  Max Lucado

  Evil, Succeed, Doe

  Max Lucado (2003). “Just Like Jesus Devotional: A Thirty-Day Walk with the Savior”, p.5, Thomas Nelson Inc

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Stupidity is falling pray to your own illusions.

  Wojciech Kurtyka

  Fall, Climbing, Praying

  11 Copy quote

• If you hang around long enough, they think you're good. It's either my tenacity or my stupidity, I'm not sure which.

  Adam West

  Thinking, Long, Tenacity

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  45 Copy quote

  Show source

• Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise.

  Giuseppe Verdi

  Stupid, Criticism, Praise

  37 Copy quote

• Perhaps a normal man is supposed to be stupid-how do we know? Perhaps it's even very beautiful.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Beautiful, Stupid, Men

  5 Copy quote

• No one is born with hate in their heart. Hate is something that has been taught. It is not an innate survival skill that we need; It is a form of stupidity that penetrates our minds and will eventually destroy us.

  Frank Iero

  Hate, Heart, Skills

  139 Copy quote

• Some people get rich studying artificial intelligence. Me, I make money studying natural stupidity.

  Carl Icahn

  Money, People, Entrepreneur

  "Carl Icahn buys stake in Botox-maker Allergan", www.theguardian.com. May 31, 2016.

  96 Copy quote

  Show source

• Stupidity is not another form of knowledge.

  Bill Maher

  Form

  5 Copy quote

• I don't think writers are any smarter than other people. I think they may be more compelling in their stupidity, or in their confusion.

  David Foster Wallace

  Thinking, People, Confusion

  9 Copy quote

• Simplicity is not the same as stupidity

  Steve Jordan

  Simplicity

  10 Copy quote

• Stupidity is not my strong suit.

  Paul Valery

  Strong, Suits

  "Monsieur Teste". Book by Paul Valery, 1919.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It [will-making] is the latest opportunity we have of exercising the natural perversity of the disposition. This last act of our lives seldom belies the former tenor of them for stupidity, caprice, and unmeaning spite. All that we seem to think of is to manage matters so (in settling accounts with those who are so unmannerly as to survive us) as to do as little good, and to plague and disappoint as many people, as possible.

  William Hazlitt

  Exercise, Opportunity, Thinking

  "Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners". Book by William Hazlitt. Chapter: "On Will-Making", 1822.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a bad thing to perform menial duties even for the sake of freedom; to fight with pinpricks, instead of with clubs. I have become tired of hypocrisy, stupidity, gross arbitrariness, and of our bowing and scraping, dodging, and hair-splitting over words. Consequently, the government has given me back my freedom.

  Karl Marx

  Tired, Fighting, Hair

  Karl Marx (1975). “Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: Collected Works”, International Pub

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Having a diverse sense of taste - or lack of taste - I loved so many different things. I was drawn to the stupidity and excitement of glam, I had a thorough upbringing in rhythm and blues.

  Paul Westerberg

  Rhythm And Blues, Different, Taste

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mass democracy guarantees stupidity. Masses of people, even if they're individually intelligent, can only act stupidly.

  Joseph Sobran

  Intelligent, People, Democracy

  9 Copy quote

• The sincere love of books has nothing to do with cleverness or stupidity any more than any other sincere love. It is a quality of character, a freshness, a power of pleasure, a power of faith. A silly person may delight in reading masterpieces just as a silly person may delight in picking flowers. A fool may be in love with a poet as he may be in love with a woman.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Flower, Silly, Book

  12 Copy quote

• The finest virtues can become deformed with age. The precise mind becomes finicky; the thrifty man, miserly; the cautious man, timorous; the man of imagination, fanciful. Even perseverance ends up in a sort of stupidity. Just as, on the other hand, being too willing to understand too many opinions, too diverse ways of seeing, constancy is lost and the mind goes astray in a restless fickleness.

  Andre Gide

  Perseverance, Men, Hands

  Andre Gide (2017). “Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality”, p.289, Routledge

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Anonymity is no excuse for stupidity.

  Albert Einstein

  No Excuses, Excuse, Anonymity

  "Albert Einstein, The Human Side: New Glimpses From His Archives". Book by Albert Einstein, p. 54, 1979.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nature is objective, and nature is knowable, but we can only view her through a glass darkly and many clouds upon our vision are of our own making: social and cultural biases, psychological preferences, and mental limitations (in universal modes of thought, not just individualized stupidity).

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Clouds, Glasses, Views

  Stephen Jay Gould (2011). “Full House”, p.8, Harvard University Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nobody has ever thought himself to death. The chief danger confronting us is not age. It is laziness, sloth, routine, stupidity, - forcing their way in like wind through the shutters, seeping into the cellar like swamp water.

  Gilbert Highet

  Wind, Water, Sloth

  Gilbert Highet (1976). “The Immortal Profession: The Joys of Teaching and Learning”, Random House Incorporated

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When people begin to philosophize they seem to think it necessary to make themselves artificially stupid.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Stupid, Thinking

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.201, Routledge

  12 Copy quote

  Show source