A collection of over 100 the best quotes about stupidity and/or stupid people that you can use to take a lighter look at the stupid things stupid people do (including ourselves sometimes).
Have you ever had one of those days where you spend just a little bit too much time on social media and it feels the nonsense just seems to fly around like mosquitos on a hot summer’s night? Me too! To help laugh at our own misfortune, I have put together a collection of some of the best quotes about stupidity and/or stupid people that you can use to take a lighter look at the stupid things stupid people do (including ourselves sometimes).
Whether it’s current world news, science, religion, politics, or finance, it seems that there is an abundance of opinions available from a slew of different people.
I’m not saying that opinions, on their own, are a bad thing. It’s perfectly ok to disagree with others. If we all agreed with each other, it would be a pretty boring life and no progress would ever be made.
And, yes, we all do stupid things sometimes – sometimes on purpose and sometimes by accident. Often, people’s dumbness has no limits. Luckily, neither does the array of stupidity quotes available to offer a humorous escape from time to time.
But how do you deal with people who are – to put it bluntly – just being plain stupid? People who refuse to listen to facts. People who are so dug in on their opinion, no matter what alternatives are presented to them for consideration.
It is so frustrating when you have to deal with someone who seems incapable of making smart decisions or doing something that makes sense. We’ve all had that face-palm moment when you read or hear somebody say something and you think to yourself “You can’t really be THAT STUPID, can you?”
The challenge, of course, is that what we think is stupid is likely what the other person thinks is clever (and most likely visa-versa). But whichever side of the argument you are on, sometimes we let our frustrations with the other person’s apparent stupidity that it gets the best of us and our emotions.
So I thought it would be fun to look at some great quotes about stupidity from some very smart people throughout history.
CAUTION – MILD LANGUAGE AHEAD!
We have quotes from some of the most intelligent minds in history: Albert Einstein, Confucius, and even Shakespeare himself. Plus a few fun ones from others just because I couldn’t help but laugh when I read them.
There are serious quotes, sarcastic quotes funny quotes, meaningful quotes, and a few insults mixed in to give a variety of opinions on the entire subject of stupidity and stupid people.
You’ll be able to see just what they had to say about stupidity and how best to deal with it. Maybe it can give you some ideas or inspiration. Or maybe it will give you something that you can copy and paste as a response to someone who says something truly, utterly, and inconceivably stupid.
No matter how you decided to use all of these quotes about stupidity, just remember to enjoy and use them in the kind and tongue-in-cheek way they were intended!
And, yes, it is entirely possible that I was grumpy when I wrote this. 🙂
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln
What luck for rulers that men do not think.
Adolf Hitler
Just because I stop arguing with you doesn’t make you right. It just means I remembered that you can’t fix stupid.
Unknown
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.
Albert Einstein
A stupid man is the most dangerous animal of them all.
Ariana Franklin
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein
We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.
Benjamin Franklin
The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russell
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
It’s hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it’s damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person
Bill Murray
At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Billy Madison
Most people would sooner die than start to think. In fact – they do so.
Bertrand Russell
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence!
Charles Bukowski
Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.
Bruce Lee
I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.
Blaise Pascal
Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.
Confucius
We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.
Christopher Hitchens
Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our ignorance about ourselves.
Carl Sagan
I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.
Edith Sitwell
Stupidity is a talent for misconception.
Edgar Allan Poe
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 the 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.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
George Carlin
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
Elbert Hubbard
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bonafide stupidity, there ain’t nothin’ can beat teamwork.
Edward Abbey
Stupidity makes you dangerous to yourself and everyone around you.
Jennifer Lee Carrell
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
Euripides
An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
Eric Hoffer
Freedom of speech does not protect you from the consequences of saying stupid shit.
Jim C. Hines
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
Frank Leahy
Stupid is as stupid does.
Forrest Gump
There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Where stupidity is involved, you are quite an expert, friend.
Franz Grillparzer
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.
Frank Zappa
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.
Laurence J. Peter
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin
Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain.
Friedrich Schiller
When you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It is only painful for others. The same applies when you are stupid.
Ricky Gervais
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.
Harlan Ellison
Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.
Gustave Flaubert
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Robert A. Heinlein
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.
Isaac Asimov
The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.
Harlan Ellison
Dealing with stupid people is like playing chess with a pigeon. The pigeon will just knock over all the pieces, crap all over the board, and then fly home and tell his friends that he won.
Unknown
It is a wise man who knows where courage ends and stupidity begins.
Jerome Cady
Honestly, if you were any slower, you’d be going backward.
J.K. Rowling
Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. Stupidity is the refusal to acquire or accept it.
Unknown
There are only two races on this planet, the intelligent and the stupid.
John Fowles
Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference.
Jim Butcher
I have to stop saying “How stupid can you possibly be?” Too many people are taking it as a challenge.
Unknown
When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”
Jonathan Swift
Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.
John Steinbeck
Everything happens for a reason. But sometimes the reason is that you’re stupid and you make bad decisions.
Unknown
Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth.
Joseph Joubert
My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species.
Joni Mitchell
I wouldn’t say you are stupid. You truly are. But I wouldn’t say it.
Unknown
Beauty fades, dumb is forever.
Judge Judy
I’ll take crazy over stupid any day.
Joss Whedon
God must love stupid people – He made so many of them.
Unknown
In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that He did not also limit his stupidity.
Konrad Adenauer
Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.
Karl Kraus
I can’t tell if people are becoming more stupid, or if my tolerance for idiots is getting lower.
Unknown
Stupidity isn’t punishable by death. If it was, there would be a hell of a population drop.
Laurell K. Hamilton
If your brains were dynamite there wouldn’t be enough to blow your hat off.
Kurt Vonnegut
Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking.
Unknown
It is, after all, impossible in the modern world to shield everyone from nonsense and stupidity.
Lawrence M. Krauss
If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?
Laurence J. Peter
Cheers to the people who bring us joy unintentionally with their ridiculous life choices. Dumbasses, we thank you!
Unknown
Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.
Margaret Atwood
The great mistake made by intelligent people is to refuse to believe that the world is as stupid as it is.
Madame de Tencin
Trying to understand the behavior of stupid people is like trying to smell the color 9.
Unknown
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled.
Mark Twain
The real war is not between the West and the East. The real war is between intelligent and stupid people.
Marjane Satrapi
For someone who seems to know it all, how come you don’t know that you’re stupid?
Unknown
In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King
If stupid was a sport, I would be surrounded by champions.
Unknown
Irony is wasted on the stupid
Oscar Wilde
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
Oscar Wilde
Have you ever just looked at someone and knew that the wheel was turning, but the hamster was dead?
Unknown
He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.
P.G. Wodehouse
The only thing that ever consoles man for the stupid things he does is the praise he always gives himself for doing them.
Oscar Wilde
Sometimes, the first step towards forgiveness is realizing that the other person was born an idiot.
Unknown
Stupid people always think they are right. Wise people listen to advice.
Proverb
Most people are not only comfortable in their ignorance, but hostile towards anyone who attempts to point it out.
Plato
I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and poop out a sentence smarter than that one!
Unknown
Stupidity without malice isn’t horrible; some people can’t help it.
Ricky Gervais
Man is the inventor of stupidity.
Remy de Gourmont
You’re the reason they have to put directions on shampoo bottles.
Unknown
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Robert J. Hanlon
You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.
Robert A. Heinlein
I have neither the time nor the crayons to explain this to you.
Unknown
People demand freedom of speech as compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
Søren Kierkegaard
Far be it from me to ever let my common sense get in the way of my stupidity. I say we press on.
Sherrilyn Kenyon
The problem with stupidity is that it doesn’t always recognize itself.
Will Stainton
If complete and utter chaos was lightning, then he’d be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting ‘All gods are bastards!
Terry Pratchett
A mark of stupidity is a belief that one party is totally virtuous and correct on the issues while the other is evil and always wrong.
Steve Schmidt
It’s all just madness and stupidity.
Unknown
Stupid people are like glowsticks. They cause an overwhelming designer to snap them and shake them until the light comes on.
Unknown
Have you ever listened to someone for a while and wondered… “who ties your shoelaces for you?”
Unknown
Stupidity is the deliberate cultivation of ignorance.
William Gaddis
In a world that’s smarter than it used to be and, in some ways, smarter than it ought to be, stupidity has a way of making us seem all the more human.
Walter Kirn
Why is it acceptable for you to be an idiot, but not acceptable for me to point it out?
Unknown
We live in an era of smart phones and stupid people.
Ziad K. Abdelnour
Talk, talk, talk: the utter and heartbreaking stupidity of words.
William Faulkner
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
William Shakespeare
Exploring the Power of Stupidity Quotes: A Thoughtful Journey
In a world filled with noise and conflicting opinions, stupidity quotes can serve as a light-hearted yet poignant reminder of human folly and wisdom. This article has navigated the complex terrain of quotations about stupidity, dumb actions, and the humorous side of human nature. From famous authors to everyday wisdom, we’ve explored why these quotes resonate with so many and how they can serve as both a cautionary tale and a source of amusement.
Understanding the Influence and Impact of Stupidity Quotes
Quotes about stupidity often cut through the clutter to reveal a simple truth. An author’s witticism on human folly or a thought-provoking observation about greed and cruelty can resonate with readers, serving as a valuable lesson or a biting critique of societal norms.
The famous quotation, “the risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision,” reflects the human tendency to lose courage in the face of choices. Similarly, statements like “people naturally possess a capacity for stupidity” or “we must answer for everything, but question everything as well” compel us to reflect on our actions and decisions. These quotes not only make us wiser but remind us of the universal experiences that bind us.
Stupid quotes also drag us into a space where we can reflect on what it means to think logically, explore new ideas, or even sleep on a problem before responding. The sentiment “it is better to keep quiet and let people think you are a fool than to speak and remove all doubt” encapsulates the careful balance between speaking up and risking ridicule or remaining silent and accepting a backhanded compliment. Whether advising restraint or encouraging us to become rich in thought and not just material wealth, these quotes serve a useful purpose, helping us to pause, reflect, and perhaps even laugh at our own follies.
In Summary: Remember These Key Points
Stupidity quotes serve as both a mirror and a guide, reflecting our imperfections while also nudging us towards self-improvement.
Famous authors and everyday wisdom offer insights into human nature, including our tendencies towards racism, cruelty, greed, and the ability to become wiser through reflection.
Whether light-hearted or deeply philosophical, these quotes remind us to explore our own thoughts, question our actions, and not be afraid to risk being seen as foolish if it leads to personal growth.
WORDS OF WISDOM – THE BEST QUOTES TO GET YOUR THROUGH YOUR DAY
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