If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing it.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Attributed)
(Source)
Quoted without citation in John Frederick Boyes, Lacon in Council, "Literature, Poetry, Oratory, Genius, &c." (1865). That is the earliest reference I could find for this quote.
Sometimes misattributed to Horace Mann.
Quotations about:
idiocy
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
There are more fools than wise men, and even in the wise there is more folly than wisdom.
[Il y a plus de fous que de sages, et dans le sage même, il y a plus de folie que de sagesse.]
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, ¶ 149 (1795) [tr. Merwin (1969)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:There are more fools than wise men, and even in the wise man himself there is more folly than wisdom.
[tr. Hutchinson (1902)]There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]There are more fools than wise people, and in wise people themselves there is more folly than wisdom.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]
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)
(Source)
Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-08-29).
The ratio of damn fools to villains is high.
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)
(Source)
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 (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)]
(Source)
(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]
There’s a fine line between audacity and idiocy.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Turn Coat (2009)
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.[Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens]
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."
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)
(Source)
Sometimes oddly paraphrased, "The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots."
Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Sprüche in Prosa: Maximen und Reflexionen [Proverbs in Prose: Maxims and Reflections] (1833) [tr. Saunders (1893)]
(Source)
Goethe's use of this phrase comes up twice in the Maxims and Reflections. Alternate translations:
From Art and Antiquity, Vol. 5, #3, Individual Points (1826):Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit.
(Source (German))Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.
[tr. Saunders (1893), "Life and Character," sec. 3, #231]There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
[tr. Rönnfeldt (1900)]There is nothing more dreadful than active ignorance.
[tr. Stopp (1995), #367]
From Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (1829):Auch nichts schrecklicher ist, als die Unwissenheit handeln zu sehen.
(Source(German))There is no more terrible sight than ignorance in action.
[tr. Saunders (1893), "Life and Character," sec. 1, #52]There is nothing more terrible than to see ignorance in action.
[tr. Rönnfeldt (1900)]Nothing is more frightful than to see ignorance in action.
[tr. Stopp (1995), #367]
