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Quotations about stupid
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
I divide my officers into four classes: the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!
Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord (1878-1943) German general
(Attributed)
Possibly apocryphal. Quoted (unconfirmed) in Horst Poller, Bewältigte Vergangenheit. Das 20. Jahrhundert, erlebt, erlitten, gestaltet [Conquered Past. The 20th century, witnessed, endured, shaped] (2010). Sometimes cited to Truppenführung [Troop Leading] (1933), the German Army Field Manual, but not found there. Also attributed to Erich von Manstein.
Man is a clever animal, who behaves like an imbecile.
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Alsatian theologian, philosopher, physician, philanthropist
(Attributed)
Experience informs us that the first defense of weak minds is to recriminate.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Biographia Literaria (1817)
Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer and scholar [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
The stupid you have always with you.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Journal (13 Feb 1860)
Like many men of genius, he could not understand why things obvious to him should not be so at once to other people, and found it easier to believe that they were corrupt than that they could be so stupid.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
The Apple Cart, Preface (1928)
If it’s stupid but works, it ain’t stupid.
Other Authors and Sources
Murphy’s Law for Grunts
In Paul Dixon, "Getting a Handle on Life's Slippery Truths," San Francisco Chronicle (24 Dec 1992)
EDDIE: Kid, life’s hard. But it’s a lot harder if you’re stupid.
Paul Monash (1917-2003) American producer and screenwriter
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (movie) (1973)
Screenplay based on the novel by George V. Higgins (though the line is not in the book). Played in the movie by Robert Mitchum, to whom the quote is often attributed.
“Fast and stupid is still stupid. It just gets to stupid a lot quicker than humans could on their own. Which, I admit, is an accomplishment,” she added, “because we’re pretty damn good at stupid.”
John G. Hemry (contemp.) American naval officer, author [pseud. Jack Campbell]
The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Invincible (2012)
On computers.
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, orator
Strength to Love, ch. 4 (1963)
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933)
Often paraphrased, "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure, and the intelligent are full of doubt."
I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. I believe that to be so obvious and undeniable a fact that I hardly think any honorable Gentleman will question it.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
Debate in Parliament with John Pakington (31 May 1866)
Often paraphrased "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative." Misquoted in Courtney, Life of John Stuart Mill (1889) as "I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it."
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Caesar and Cleopatra, Act 3 [Apollodorus] (1898)
