Dumas, Alexandre fils -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

One thing that humbles me deeply is to see that human genius has its limits while human stupidity does not.

[Une chose qui m’humilie profondément est de voir que le génie humain a des limites, quand la bêtise humaine n’en a pas.]

Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824–1895) French writer and dramatist
(Attributed)

This is the earliest attribution of a phrase like this, given in the Great Universal Dictionary of the Nineteenth Century [Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIXe Siècle], Vol. 2, "Stupidity [Bêtise]" (c. 1865, during Dumas' lifetime).

The limits of genius vs. limitless stupidity appears in a variety of forms and attributed to a wide variety of individuals. Variants:

"What distresses me is to see that human genius has limitations, and human stupidity has none."
"How despairing it is to see that human genius has limitations, while human stupidity has none."
"Two things are infinite: the Universe and Human Stupidity, and I'm not sure about the Universe."
(Dubiously attributed to Einstein)
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
"Human genius has its limits, but stupidity does not."
"Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped."
(Elbert Hubbard, ed., The Philistine, title epigraph (1906-09)
"Human stupidity is infinite."
(Gustave Flaubert, letter (1880-02-19) to Guy de Maupassant)

For more discussion about this quotation, see:

WIST Quotations

Dumas, Alexandre fils -- (Attributed)