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    idiocy


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IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Idiot,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
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Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-08-29).
 
Added on 20-Aug-24 | Last updated 20-Aug-24
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The ratio of damn fools to villains is high.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
The Puppet Masters, ch. 26 (1951)
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Added on 17-Nov-17 | Last updated 16-Feb-18
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If you attack Stupidity, you attack an entrenched interest with friends in government and every walk of public life, and you will make small progress against it.

Robertson Davies (1913-1995) Canadian author, editor, publisher
The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks (1949)
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Added on 8-Sep-17 | Last updated 8-Sep-17
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It is safe to wager that every public idea and every accepted convention is sheer foolishness, because it has suited the majority.

[Il y a à parier que toute idée publique, toute convention reçue, est une sottise, car elle a convenu au plus grand nombre.]

Nicolas Chamfort
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 130 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)]
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(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

It may be argued that every public idea, every accepted convention, is a piece of stupidity, for has it not commended itself to the greatest number?
[tr. Hutchinson (1902), "The Cynic's Breviary"]

One can be certain that every generally held idea, every received notion, will be an idiocy, because it has been able to appeal to a majority.
[In Botton, Status Anxiety (2004)]

It is likely that every public idea, every received convention, is folly, because the majority of men consented to it.
[Source]

 
Added on 21-Aug-17 | Last updated 10-Jul-23
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There’s a fine line between audacity and idiocy.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Turn Coat (2009)
 
Added on 21-Oct-14 | Last updated 21-Oct-14
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Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.

[Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens]

Schiller - against stupidity the gods themselves - wist_info quote

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) German poet, playwright, critic [Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller]
The Maid of Orleans [Die Jungfrau von Orleans], Act III, sc. vi (1801) [tr. Swanwick]

Alt. trans:

  • "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
  • "Against stupidity the gods themselves labor in vain."
  • "Against stupidity the gods themselves fight unvictorious."
  • "Against stupidity even the gods contend in vain."
  • "With stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
  • "With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain."
 
Added on 5-Jun-08 | Last updated 25-Feb-16
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The word “idiot” comes from a Greek root meaning private person. Idiocy is the female defect: intent on their private lives, women follow their fate through a darkness deep as that cast by malformed cells in the brain. It is no worse than the male defect, which is lunacy: men are so obsessed by public affairs that they see the world as by moonlight, which shows the outlines of every object but not the details indicative of their nature.

Rebecca West (1892-1983) British author, journalist, literary critic, travel writer [pseud. for Cicily Isabel Fairfield]
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Prologue (1941)
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Sometimes oddly paraphrased, "The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots."
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 8-Mar-21
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