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A whole lot of stupid
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Published Thursday, December 19, 2013 @ 1:03 AM EST
Dec 19 2013

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen, and quotes about hydrogen and stupidity.
-John Alejandro King (The Covert Comic)

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
-Bertrand Russell

A TV program can never be worse than its viewers; for the more stupid it is, the more stupid they are to watch it.
-Clive James

Above all, if what you've done is stupid, but it works, it ain't stupid.
-Robert Fulghum

Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain.
-Friedrich von Schiller

Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you.
-J. Michael Straczynski

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.
-Victor Hugo

Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.
-Hedy Lamarr

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
-Unattributed

Avaritia Facit Bardus. (Greed makes you stupid.)
-(Credo of refdesk.com)

Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.
-Leo Tolstoy

Brilliance is typically the act of an individual, but incredible stupidity can usually be traced to an organization.
-Jon Bentley

Complete masculinity and stupidity are often indistinguishable.
-H.L. Mencken

Conspiracy theories depend on the perpetrators being endlessly clever. I think you'll find the facts also work if you assume everyone is endlessly stupid.
-Brian E. Moore

Contrary to what people may say, there's no upper limit to stupidity.
-Stephen Colbert

Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.
-Edwin H. Land

Darwin's Blade: All other things being equal, the simplest solution is usually stupidity. (corollary to Occam's Razor)
-Dan Simmons

Doing something stupid once is just plain stupid. Doing something stupid twice is a philosophy.
-Dan O'Neill

Early risers are conceited in the morning and stupid in the afternoon.
-Rose Henniker Heaton

Earnestness is just stupidity sent to college.
-P.J. O'Rourke

Education makes us more stupid than the brutes. A thousand voices call to us on every hand, but our ears are stopped with wisdom.
-Jean Giraudoux

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
-Frank Leahy

Freedom means the right to be stupid.
-Penn Jillette

From stupidity there is always something to be learned, but it's always the same thing: don't be stupid.
-Robert M. Adams

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
-Elbert Hubbard

Good generally conquers evil. Unless, of course, good is stupid.
-Unattributed

Human beings can always be relied upon to assert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.
-Dean Koontz

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.
-Edith Sitwell

I believe in equality. Equality for everybody. No matter how stupid they are or how superior I am to them.
-Steve Martin

I don't care what people think. People are stupid.
-Charles Barkley

I don't imagine you will dispute the fact that at present the stupid people are in an absolutely overwhelming majority all the world over.
-Henrik Ibsen

I don't think for a moment that Americans are inherently more stupid or brain-dead than anyone else. It's just that they are routinely provided with conditions that spare them the need to think, so they have got out of the habit.
-Bill Bryson

I have never come across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking in the smallest sense of humanity. Moral people, as they are termed, are simple beasts.
-Oscar Wilde

I know your little fourth grade teacher said there are no stupid questions. She was wrong. This is the Internet.
-Unattributed

I like to think of my behavior in the Sixties as a "learning experience." Then again, I like to think of anything stupid I've done as a "learning experience." It makes me feel less stupid.
-P.J. O'Rourke

I made a pact with myself a long time ago: Never watch anything stupider than you. It's helped me a lot.
-Bette Midler

I require three things in a man. He must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid.
-Dorothy Parker

I think the problem with people like this (Sarah Palin) is that they are so stupid, that they have no idea how stupid they are.
-John Cleese

I think we can agree racial prejudice is stupid. Because if you spend time with someone from another race and really get to know them, you can find other reasons to hate them.
-Bernadette Luckett

I'll take crazy over stupid any day.
-Joss Whedon

I'm not implying you are stupid. I observed your behavior, formulated a hypothesis, then tested and confirmed that hypothesis by listening to you. You are stupid. (Internet post)
-Unattributed

If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, triathlon must have taken Him completely by surprise.
-P.Z. Pearce

If honesty really is the best policy then why don't people appreciate it when I tell them how stupid they are?
-Olivia Ramsey

If it's stupid, but it works, it's not stupid.
-Unattributed

If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?
-Will Rogers

If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
-P.J. O'Rourke

If wicked actions are atoned for only in the next world, stupid ones are only atoned for in this.
-Arthur Schopenhauer

If you do something and people think you're stupid, just go for crazy. You get more respect that way because nobody likes stupid people.
-Louis C.K.

In a democracy, the votes of the vicious and stupid count. On the other hand, in any other system, they might be running the show. (from The Boston Globe)
-Unattributed

In fact, when you get right down to it, almost every explanation Man came up with for anything until about 1926 was stupid.
-Dave Barry

In nature, stupidity gets you killed. In the workplace, it gets you fired. In politics, it gets you re-elected.
-Bill VanRemmen

In science, it doesn't matter if you're wrong, as long as you're not stupid. In business, it doesn't matter if you're stupid, so long as you're not wrong.
-Unattributed

In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that he did not also limit his stupidity.
-Dean Acheson

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
-George Bernard Shaw

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is so pleasant to come across people more stupid than ourselves. We love them at once for being so.
-Jerome K. Jerome

It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional.
-Antonin Scalia

It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.
-David Harris

It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful.
-Anton Szandor LaVey

Let us say that I despise stupidity. Especially when it masquerades as virtue.
-Miguel de Cervantes

Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid.
-John Wayne

Like most intellectuals, he is immensely stupid.
-Marquise de Merteuil

Many learned persons have read themselves stupid.
-Arthur Schopenhauer

McLuhanism and the media have broken the back of the book business; they've freed people from the shame of not reading. They've rationalized becoming stupid and watching television.
-Pauline Kael

Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.
-Bertrand Russell

Money tends to make you stupid.
-H. Ross Perot

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. But remember, any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
-Unattributed

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. Think about it. People aren't out to get you, they're just stupid.
-Jane Espenson

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. Don't assign to stupidity what might be due to ignorance. And try not to assume your opponent is the ignorant one- until you can show it isn't you.
-M.N. Plano

Never underestimate the power of a lot of stupid people working in the same company.
-Karen Boucher

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
-Unattributed

Nothing could be more stupid than for the communications commission to give to people who handle the means of broadcasting the inventing of what to broadcast, and then, disturbed at the poor quality, to worry about censorship.
-Paul Goodman

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
-Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.
-C.S. Lewis

Obedience to public authority ought not to be based either on ignorance or stupidity.
-Napoleon Bonaparte

On some deeper level, science fiction writers truly are cultural allies of scientists. We have a whole lot of the same enemies, and anyone who wants to hurt them, wants to hurt us. Also, we both get all depressed when we see stupid people being happy.
-Bruce Sterling

Once the XFL was canceled for not being stupid enough, it was clear that America's internal enemies had already triumphed.
-P.J. O'Rourke

One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.
-Bertrand Russell

Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be "too clever by half." The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.
-John Major

Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid.
-Heinrich Heine

Other things being equal, it is better to be smart than to be stupid.
-Carl Sagan

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.
-Bertrand Russell

Politics is about compromises... really stupid compromises.
-Bill Maher

Posterity! Why should people be less stupid tomorrow than they are today?
-Jules Renard

Readiness to answer all questions is the infallible sign of stupidity.
-Saul Bellow

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things... a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.
-Dee Hock

Society is much like the ostrich with its head in the sand. It will not look at facts and face the responsibility of its own stupidity.
-Margaret Sanger

Some fellows get credit for being conservative when they are only stupid.
-Frank McKinney (Kin) Hubbard

Some people think having large breasts makes a woman stupid. Actually, it's quite the opposite: a woman having large breasts makes men stupid.
-Rita Rudner

Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it.
-Stephen Vizinczey

Stupid people shouldn't breed.
-Unattributed

Stupid people surround themselves with smart people. Smart people surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them.
-Aaron Sorkin

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.
-Albert Camus

Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it.
-Pope John Paul II

Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. But you still don't want to get any on you.
-Scott Adams

Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere. (sign)
-Unattributed

Stupidity is replicating itself at an enormous rate. The person who stands up and says, "This is stupid," either is asked to "behave" or, worse, is greeted with a cheerful, "Yes, we know! Isn't it terrific!"
-Frank Zappa

Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Stupidity often saves a man from going mad.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Stupidity, thy name is the Texas House of Representatives.
-Molly Ivins

Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders.
-Sloan Wilson

The American people are a very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.
-Will Rogers

The better the actor the more stupid he is.
-Truman Capote

The genius of you Americans is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves, only complicated stupid moves which make us wonder at the possibility that there may be something to them we are missing.
-Gamel Abdel Nasser

The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.
-Art Spander

The hard part about being a bartender is figuring out who is drunk and who is just stupid.
-Richard Braunstein

The initial objective of problem solving is not to solve the problem but to keep from doing something stupid.
-Ron Evans

The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action.
-A. Kindsvater

The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
-Unattributed

The problem with the world is there are too many stupid people and nobody to eat 'em.
-Carlos Mencia

The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity and until they do (and find the cure) all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.
-Richard P. Feynman

The stupid have an answer for every question.
-Unattributed

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.
-Thomas Szasz

The stupidity of the average man will permit the oligarch, whether economic or political, to hide his real purposes from the scrutiny of his fellows and to withdraw his activities from effective control.
-Reinhold Neibuhr

The supreme crime of the church today is that everywhere and in all its operations and influences it is on the side of sloth of mind; that it banishes brains, it sanctifies stupidity, it canonizes incompetence.
-Upton Sinclair

The system isn't stupid, but the people in it are.
-Thomas Szasz

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
-Harlan Ellison

The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views... which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering. (From the TV series Dr. Who.)
-Unattributed

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.
-Gustave Flaubert

The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives.
-Lois McMaster Bujold

The world is just filling up with more and more idiots! And the computer is giving them access to the world! They're spreading their stupidity! At least they were contained before- now they're on the loose everywhere!
-Harlan Ellison

There are no stupid questions, but there a lot of inquisitive idiots.
-Larry Kersten, PhD

There are only two ways by which to rise in this world, either by one's own industry or by the stupidity of others.
-Jean de la Bruyere

There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.
-Charles Caleb Colton

There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.
-Frank Zappa

There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity.
-Gene Wolfe

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity.
-Robertson Davies

There is no sin except stupidity.
-Oscar Wilde

There is nothing more horrifying than stupidity in action.
-Adlai E. Stevenson II

To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.
-G.K. Chesterton

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
-Gustave Flaubert

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
-Voltaire (François Marie Arouet)

We're called rebels because we're easily manipulated into doing stupid things.
-Scott Adams

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
-George Bernard Shaw

When you argue stupid, you campaign stupid. When you campaign stupid, you win stupid. And when you win stupid, you govern stupid.
-David Frum

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing it is always from the noblest motive.
-Oscar Wilde

With stupidity and sound digestion man may front much.
-Thomas Carlyle

You are smarter than the government, so when the government pays you to do something you wouldn't do on your own, it is almost always paying you to do something stupid.
-P.J. O'Rourke

You can be sincere and still be stupid.
-Unattributed

You can't fix stupid.
-Ron White

You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.
-Robert A. Heinlein

You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.
-Charles de Gaulle

Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupidity lasts forever.
-Unattributed


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