Stupidity Quotes - Page 26

• Against stupidity, God Himself fights in vain.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Fighting, Vain

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• In crowds it is stupidity and not mother wit that is accumulated.

  Gustave Le Bon

  Mother, Crowds, Wit

  Gustave Le Bon (2009). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.33, The Floating Press

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• I'm prepared to concede that stupidity does not help survival. One must after all understand not to poke a tiger with a stick. But intelligence leads to curiosity, and curiosity has never been a quality that helps one pour his or her genes into the pool. The truth must lie somewhere between. Whatever the reason, it is clearly mediocrity, at best, that lives and breeds.

  Jack McDevitt

  Lying, Survival, Curiosity

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• Courage is perhaps our most admirable trait. The man, or woman, who possesses it is able to plunge ahead, despite dangers, despite warnings, despite hazards of all kinds, to attack the task at hand. Often, it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

  Jack McDevitt

  Men, Hands, Able

  Jack McDevitt (2013). “Odyssey (Academy - Book 5): Academy -”, p.251, Hachette UK

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• Continue reading Proust. His magnificent intelligence is particularly fond of describing stupidity. Which is ultimately exhausting.

  Jean Cocteau

  Reading, Proust, Magnificent

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• It was stupid behaviour. And you take a look at the explosion, and it knocks you down and you wake up every morning and you're scared and you're depressed and sad, and you kind of got to let that knock you down and knock you down.

  David Letterman

  Morning, Stupid, Looks

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• If photography is allowed to supplement art in some of its functions, it will soon have supplanted or corrupted it altogether, thanks to the stupidity of the multitude which is its natural ally.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Photography, Art, Allies

  Charles Baudelaire, Jonathan Mayne (1981). “Art in Paris 1845-1862: salons and other exhibitions”

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• If everybody's behavior can be explained by simple stupidity and greed, there's no point in assuming a conspiracy.

  P. J. Plauger

  Simple, Greed, Assuming

  P. J. Plauger (1994). “Programming on purpose III: essays on software technology”, Prentice Hall

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• All traditions are stupid unless you came up with it yourself.

  Doug Stanhope

  Stupid, Tradition

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• Bad sign when the thought of your x-girlfriend sends you reeling in a search for new adjectives to describe stupidity and thoughtlessness?

  Dov Davidoff

  Girlfriend, Adjectives, Thoughtlessness

  FaceBook post by Dov Davidoff from Jun 14, 2012

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• Brain damage and stupidity are very different things, but can have similar effects on the wearer.

  Dov Davidoff

  Brain, Different, Damage

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• The only sin is stupidity.

  Oscar Wilde

  Sin

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• Who is the enemy? Who is holding back more rapid movement to the better society that is reasonable and possible with available resources?...Evil, stupidity, apathy, the 'system' are not the enemy...The real enemy is fuzzy thinking on the part of good, intelligent, vital people...In short, the enemy is strong natural servants who have the potential to lead but do not lead, or who choose to follow a non-servant.

  Robert K. Greenleaf

  Strong, Real, Intelligent

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• Time and time again, the obstinate refusal of the tsarist regime to concede reforms turned what should have been a political problem into a revolutionary crisis... the tsarist regime's downfall was not inevitable; but its own stupidity made it so.

  Orlando Figes

  Should Have, Political, Reform

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• When I put the camera back to my eye, I noticed a particular guardsman pointing at me. I said, "I'll get a picture of this," and his rifle went off. And almost simultaneously, as his rifle went off, a halo of dust came off a sculpture next to me, and the bullet lodged in a tree. I dropped my camera in the realization that it was live ammunition. I don't know what gave me the combination of innocence and stupidity... but I never took cover.

  John Filo

  Eye, Dust, Tree

  "Photographer John Filo discusses his famous Kent State photograph and the events of May 4, 1970". CNN News Chat, www.cnn.com. May 4, 2000.

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• If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Lying, Writing, Men

  "Cat's Cradle". Book by Kurt Vonnegut, ch. 127, 1963.

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• A rational man never distorts or corrupts his own standards and judgment in order to appeal to the irrationality, stupidity, or dishonesty of others.

  Ayn Rand

  Men, Order, Dishonesty

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.49, Penguin

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• [Vanity] is an unrecognised form of stupidity, you have to forget the cosmic meaninglessness of all our acts to be able to be vain and that's a glaring form of stupidity.

  Pascal Mercier

  Vanity, Able, Forget

  Pascal Mercier (2009). “Night Train To Lisbon”, p.80, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• Stupidity and unconscious bias often work more damage than venality.

  Bertrand Russell

  Damage, Bias, Unconscious

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.121, Psychology Press

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• When men can hate without risk, their stupidity is easily convinced, the motives supply themselves.

  Louis-Ferdinand Celine

  Hate, Men, Risk

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• The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

  Milan Kundera

  Attitude, People, Tolerance

  "Siraaj: An Arab Tale". Book by Radwa Ashour and Barbara Romaine, 2007.

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• She's quite intelligent, in my stupidity.

  J. D. Salinger

  Intelligent

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• Great! I've written something stupid, but I haven't signed a contract with anyone to produce solely wise and perfect works. I gave vent to my stupidity...and here I am, reborn.

  Witold Gombrowicz

  Wise, Stupid, Here I Am

  Witold Gombrowicz (2012). “Ferdydurke”, p.82, Yale University Press

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• Unknowing ignorance is preferable to informed stupidity.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Ignorance, Unknowing

  Brandon Sanderson (2009). “Warbreaker”, p.311, Macmillan

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• It seems that in the advanced stages of stupidity, a lack of ideas is compensated for by an excess of ideologies.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Ideas, Excess, Stage

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