Stupidity
Alcuin - Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit. English: And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.
Raymond Aron - On ne peut pas être à la fois communiste, intelligent et honnête. English: One cannot be at the same time communist, intelligent, and honest. ("Aron's trilemma").
Elliot Aronson (1969) - Man is a rationalizing animal.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Dummheit ist ein gefährlicherer Feind des Guten als Bosheit. Gegen das Böse läßt sich protestieren, es läßt sich bloßstellen, es läßt sich notfalls mit Gewalt verhindern, das Böse trägt immer den Keim der Selbstzersetzung in sich, indem es mindestens ein Unbehagen im Menschen zurückläßt. Gegen die Dummheit sind wir wehrlos. Weder mit Protesten noch durch Gewalt läßt sich hier etwas ausrichten; Gründe verfangen nicht; Tatsachen, die dem eigenen Vorurteil widersprechen, brauchen einfach nicht geglaubt zu werden – in solchen Fällen wird der Dumme sogar kritisch – und wenn sie unausweichlich sind, können sie einfach als nichtssagende Einzelfälle beiseitegeschoben werden. Dabei ist der Dumme im Unterschied zum Bösen restlos mit sich selbst zufrieden; ja, er wird sogar gefährlich, indem er leicht gereizt zum Angriff übergeht. Daher ist dem Dummen gegenüber mehr Vorsicht geboten als gegenüber dem Bösen. Niemals werden wir mehr versuchen, den Dummen durch Gründe zu überzeugen; es ist sinnlos und gefährlich. English: Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.
George Carlin (1990) - Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are stupider than that.
Isaac Asimov - (in The Stars in Their Courses, 1974) - There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.
Claude Chabrol (in Pensées, répliques et anecdotes, 2002) - La bêtise est infiniment plus fascinante que l'intelligence... L'intelligence a des limites, la bêtise n'en a pas ! English: Stupidity is infinitely more facinating than intelligence... Intelligence is limited but stupidity is boundless.
Carlo Cipolla (in The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, 1976) - The five fundamental laws of stupidity :
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
Annie Duke (in Thinking in bets, 2018) - The smarter you are, the better you are at constructing a narrative that supports your beliefs, rationalizing and framing the data to fit your argument or point of view.
David Dunning (2018) - The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club. People miss that.
Joseph Epstein - When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public.
Attribué à Charles de Gaulle (à la vue de l'inscription "Mort aux cons" sur une jeep) - Vaste programme!
German proverb - Gegen Dummheit ist kein Kraut gewachsen. English: Against stupidity, there is no remedy (litterally: no herb has grown).
André Gide (in Voyage au Congo, 1927) - Moins le blanc est intelligent, plus le noir lui paraît bête. English: The less intelligent a white man is, the dumber he thinks black men are.
Gerd Gigerenzer (in Gut feelings: the intelligence of the unconscious, 2007) - We think of intelligence as a deliberate, conscious activity guided by the laws of logic. Yet much of our mental life is unconscious, based on processes alien to logic: gut feelings, or intuitions.
Christopher Hitchens - Notice the way in which people show their gullibility and their herd instinct, and their wish - or perhaps their need - to be fooled. Credulity may be a form of innocence, but it provides a standing invitation for the wicked and the clever to exploit their brothers and sisters.
David Hull (in Science and Selection, 2001) - The rule that human beings seem to follow is to engage the brain only when all else fails - and usually not even then.
Satochi Kanazawa - According to the basic principles of quantitative genetics, the fact that general intelligence is highly heritable suggests that it is not very important for our survival and reproductive success.
Fran Lebowitz (interviewed by The New York Times, 1994) - I never met anyone who didn't have a very smart child. What happens to these children when they reach adulthood?
Martin Luther King - Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Michael Muthukrishna (in A Theory of Everyone, 2023) - The human brain, after growing for millions of years, has begun shrinking. (...) Such shrinkage is consistent with increased cultural innovation. Culture and our collective brain allow more people to survive, even if they are not particularly bright (...) simply by copying what most other people are doing.
Lionel Page - Reason likely did not evolve to help us be right, but to convince others that we are.
Pierre Ryckmans, a.k.a. Simon Leys, on European maoists - Les idiots disent des idioties, comme les pommiers produisent des pommes.
Bertrand Russell (in On Education Especially in Early Childhood) - The average man’s opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself.
Bertrand Russell (in Mortals and Others, 1931-35) - The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
Bertrand Russell - So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Bertrand Russell - Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favour of this statement . . .
Rory Sutherland - You get a buzz from a bargain and a thrill from an extravagance – you don’t get an endorphin rush from mid-market retail. (...) This leads to polarisation in markets, where you get to choose between opulent but stupidly expensive or cheap and annoyingly crap.
Alex Tabarrok - The madness of crowds used to be limited by geography, time, and transaction cost–all of which have been lessened by social media.
Traditional - Debating an idiot is like trying to play chess with a pigeon — it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.
Traditionnel - Tout objectif flou conduit irrémédiablement à une connerie précise.
Amos Tversky - My colleagues study artificial intelligence; I study natural stupidity.
Eric Valatini - Famous units include: the millimeter (for distance), the milligram (for weight) and the militant (for intelligence). (French original : Les unités célèbres: il y a le millimètre (distance), le milligramme (poids) et le militant (intelligence).)
George Will (The Washington Post, June 26th, 2020) - A nation’s gravest problems are those it cannot discuss because it dare not state them. This nation’s principal problem, which makes other serious problems intractable, is that much of today’s intelligentsia is not intelligent.
Yiddish saying - Send a fool to close the shutters and he'll close them all over town (Original: Az m'shikt a nar farmakhn di lodns, farmakht er zey in der gantser shtot).
Yiddish saying - A wise man knows what he says; a fool says what he knows. (Original: A kluger vaist vos er zogt; a nar zogt vos er vaist).
