Stupidity Quotes - Page 20

• Sometimes we desire absolute nonsense because in our stupidity we see in this nonsense the easiest way of attaining some conjectural good.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Desire, Way, Sometimes

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (2012). “The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky”, p.117, Modern Library

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• Inflation does not lubricate trade but by rescuing traders from their errors of optimism or stupidity.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Errors, Optimism, Doe

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2017). “Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went”, p.15, Princeton University Press

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• One should commit no stupidity twice, the variety of choice is, in the end, large enough.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Choices, Enough, Ends

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• trouble is not a sign of inadequacy, stupidity or inferiority, but rather an inescapable part of life - proof that you are a card-carrying member of the human race.

  Ann Landers

  Race, Cards, Inferiority

  Ann Landers (1981). “Ann Lander's Encyclopedia, A to Z: Improve Your Life Emotionally, Medically, Sexually, Socially, Spiritually”, Ballantine Books

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• Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Ignorance, Character, Vanity

  "The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de la Bruyere, Volume II, Chapter XI, 1688.

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• Let nothing dupe you! Such is the horrible maxim that acts as a solvent upon every noble feeling man experiences.

  Honore de Balzac

  Men, Feelings, Noble

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• Stupidity assumes two forms, it speaks or is silent. Mute stupidity is bearable.

  Honore de Balzac

  Two, Assuming, Speak

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• If it be true that men of strong imaginations are usually dogmatists--and I am inclined to think it is so--it ought to follow that men of weak imaginations are the reverse; in which case we should have some compensation for stupidity. But it unfortunately happens that no dogmatist is more obstinate or less open to conviction than a fool.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Strong, Men, Thinking

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.95

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• I kept praying that I might be able to prevent a repetition of this stupidity called war. I have tried to keep the promise I made to myself, but the progress that the world is making toward peace seems like the crawling of a little child, very halting and slow.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Peace, Children, War

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• The choking, sweltering, deadly, and killing rule of no rule; the consecration of cupidity and braying of folly, and dim stupidity and baseness, in most of the affairs of men. Slopshirts attainable three-halfpence cheaper by the ruin of living bodies and immortal souls.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Men, Soul, Three

  Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill (2010). “The Works of Thomas Carlyle”, p.29, Cambridge University Press

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• I come from the Town of Stupidity; it lieth about four degrees beyond the City of Destruction.

  John Bunyan

  Cities, Intelligence, Degrees

  John Bunyan (2013). “The Pilgrim’s Progress Simplified: Includes Modern Translation, Study Guide, Historical Context, Biography, and Character Index”, p.571, BookCaps Study Guides

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• Paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity, whenever it would endeavor to please.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Ignorance, Endeavor, Badges

  Oliver Goldsmith (1819). “Letters From A Citizen Of The World: To His Friends In The East”, p.135

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• There's nothing like fishing to pass the time and to incline toward a sort of magnificent stupidity in which nothing matters but tackle, bait, sunlight and the strike.

  Faith Baldwin

  Fishing, Bait, Matter

  Faith Baldwin (1934). “Honor bound”

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  Too many of our countrymen rejoice in stupidity, look upon ignorance as a badge of honor. They condemn everything they don't understand.

  Tallulah Bankhead

  Ignorance, Honor, Looks

  Tallulah Bankhead (1952). “Tallulah: My Autobiography”, p.303, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Capable people do not understand incapacity; clever people do not understand stupidity.

  Doris Lessing

  Clever, People, Incapacity

  Doris May Lessing (1994). “Under my skin”

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• There is only one force stronger than selfishness, and that is stupidity.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Selfishness, Stronger, Force

  Ellen Glasgow (1935). “Vein of Iron”

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• The shock, for an intelligent writer, of discovering for the first time that there are people younger than himself who think him stupid is severe.

  Cyril Connolly

  Stupid, Intelligent, Thinking

  Cyril Connolly (1960). “Enemies of promise and other essays: an autobiography of ideas”

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• Though we do not have many poets, we certainly have more than we deserve, for we deserve none at all. It is ourselves that we are hurting by our stupidity and ignorance of poetry.

  Elizabeth Janeway

  Hurt, Ignorance, Poetry

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• Intelligence is not necessarily a good thing, something to value or cultivate. It's more like a fifth wheel - necessary or desirable when things break down. When things go well, it's better to be stupid ... Stupidity is as much a value as intelligence.

  Susan Sontag

  Stupid, Wheels, Breaking Down

  Susan Sontag (2012). “As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980”, p.176, Macmillan

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• The monstrosity of bureaucracy, I thought: always the pint-pot judging the gallon, the scribe's, the door-keeper's world. Always the stupidity of people who feel certain about things they never try to find out. A world that educates people to be ignorant - that is what this world of ours is.

  Freya Stark

  Doors, Judging, People

  Freya Stark (1964). “The Journey's Echo: Selections”

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• A problem with my novels is that they, from the start, have been infantile and incredibly childish. There are childishness, stupidity, lack of wisdom, fantasies. At the same time, that's where my creativity can be found. If I tried to control it and make it more mature, it wouldn't be good at all. It'd be uninteresting, without any vivacity.

  Karl Ove Knausgard

  Creativity, Fantasy, Problem

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• Ever since time began the world has seemed stupid to those who aren't stupid themselves. It was to avoid that annoyance that I became stupid myself, as fast as ever I could. Sheer egoism, no doubt.

  George Sand

  Stupid, Doubt, World

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• The thought that murders the wish that fathered it will be overtaken by the revenge of stupidity

  Theodor Adorno

  Revenge, Wish, Murder

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.122, Verso

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• One cannot overestimate the power of a good rancorous hatred on the part of the stupid. The stupid have so much more industry and energy to expend on hating. They build it up like coral insects.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Hate, Stupid, Hatred

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, Claire Harman (1994). “The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Virago Pr

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• Stupidity is sufficient unto itself. Wisdom can never learn enough.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  Enough, Sufficient

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