{"id":469,"date":"2024-06-28T14:36:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.english-culture.com\/?p=469"},"modified":"2026-05-25T14:57:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:57:56","slug":"the-triumph-of-stupidity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.english-culture.com\/the-triumph-of-stupidity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Triumph of Stupidity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Voltaire<\/a>
Voltaire quote on fools<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The triumph of stupidity an article by Bertrand Russell, who wants to point out the fundamental cause of our troubles, namely that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Lack of judgment is precisely what is called stupidity, and there is absolutely no remedy for this defect. A dull and limited brain, lacking nothing except a suitable measure of intellect and precision in its concepts, can certainly be trained through study, even to the point of achieving erudition. However, since judgment is usually also lacking in such cases, one not infrequently encounters highly erudite men who, in the use of their knowledge, often reveal this incurable defect.<\/span>
\nImmanuel Kant<\/span><\/p>\n

You can beat 40 scholars with one fact, but you can beat one idiot with 40 facts.<\/span>
\nRumi<\/span><\/p>\n

Being a scholar of stupidity, how might I avoid to thank a lot of people for their existence.<\/span>
\nCarl William Brown<\/span><\/p>\n

People are so fucking stupid. No one reads anymore, no one goes out and watches and explores the society and culture they grew up in. People have five-second attention spans and the depth of a glass of water.<\/span>
\nDavid Bowie<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made school boards.<\/span>
\nMark Twain<\/span><\/p>\n

The history of great world leaders is often the history of human folly.<\/span><\/span>
\nVoltaire<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Humanity does not need artificial intelligence if imbecility still dominates deep within its nature.<\/span>
\nCarl William Brown<\/span><\/p>\n

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.<\/span>
\nJohann Wolfgang von Goethe<\/span><\/p>\n

Youth grows old, immaturity fades away, ignorance can become education and drunkenness can become sobriety, but stupidity lasts forever.<\/span>
\nAristophanes<\/span><\/p>\n

No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.<\/span>
\nMark Twain<\/span><\/p>\n

Tragedy, arising from the deep source of compassion, is in its essence pessimistic.<\/span><\/span> In it, existence is something supremely terrible, man is something supremely foolish.<\/span><\/span> <\/span>
\nFriedrich Nietzsche<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity.<\/span>
\nArthur Shopenhauer<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately our planet is more and more full of increasingly empty men, to paraphrase Eliot, shapeless figures, colorless shadows, not souls, lost and violent, but only, empty men, stuffed men, created by the taxidermists of stupidity.<\/span>
\nCarl William Brown<\/span><\/p>\n

It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.<\/span>
\nVoltaire<\/span><\/p>\n

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in a large group.<\/span>
\nGeorge Carlin<\/span><\/p>\n

Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.<\/span>
\nAnonymous<\/span><\/p>\n

By now humanity has become so imbecile that we often tend to mortify intelligence, in order not to offend stupidity.<\/span>
\nCarl William Brown<\/span><\/p>\n

The most intelligent recedes. The world domination of stupidity is based on this sad truth.<\/span>
\nMarie von Ebner-Eschenbach<\/span><\/p>\n

We never really know what stupidity is until we have experimented on ourselves.<\/span>
\nPaul Gauguin<\/span><\/p>\n

Wickedness is paid for in the next world, but stupidity in this one.<\/span>
\nArthur Schopenhauer<\/span><\/p>\n

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.<\/span>
\nWilliam Shakespeare<\/span><\/p>\n

So you see, the universe is made up by protons, electrons, neutrons and morons.<\/span>
\nAnonymous<\/span><\/p>\n

Man is the most intelligent of the animals, and the most silly.<\/span>
\nDiogenes<\/span><\/p>\n

You can’t overestimate the stupidity of the general public.<\/span>
\nCharles Bukowski<\/span><\/p>\n

A clever person solves problems. A wise person avoids them. On the contrary a stupid man creates them. And if the world is full of problems, there must be a clear reason!<\/span>
\nAlbert Einstein<\/span><\/p>\n

Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much.<\/span>
\nJohann Wolfgang von Goethe<\/span><\/p>\n

A man profits more by the sight of an idiot than by the orations of the learned.<\/span>
\nArabian Proverb<\/span><\/p>\n

Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed!<\/span>
\nAlbert Einstein<\/span><\/p>\n

What has been happening in Germany is a matter of the gravest portent for the whole civilized world. Throughout the last hundred and fifty years, individual Germans have done more to further civilization than the individuals of any other country; during the latter half of this period, Germans, collectively, have been equally effective in degrading civilization. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The triumph of stupidity by Bertrand Russell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.<\/span>
\nBertrand Russell<\/span><\/p>\n

At the present day the most distinguished names in the world of learning are still German; the most degraded and brutal government is also German. Of the individual Germans whose work has caused Germany to be respected, some are in exile, some in hiding, and some have disappeared, their fate unknown. Given a few years of Nazi rule, Germany will sink to the level of a horde of Goths.<\/span><\/p>\n

What has happened? What has happened is quite simple. Those elements of the population which are both brutal and stupid (and these two qualities usually go together) have combined against the rest. By murder, by torture, by imprisonment, by the terrorism of armed forces, they have subjected the intelligent and humane parts of the nation and seized power with the view of furthering the glory of the Fatherland.<\/span><\/p>\n

What has happened in Germany may well happen elsewhere. The British Fascists are not as yet a large party, but they are growing rapidly, and if at any future time there should be danger of a Labour Government that meant business, they would win the support of most of the governing classes. Meanwhile, the British government of India is a form of Fascism, all the worse for being alien. The British in India, like the Hitlerites in Germany, can only govern by putting the best people in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brute force plays a much larger part in the government of the world than it did before 1914, and what is especially alarming, force tends increasingly to fall into the hands of those who are enemies of civilization. The danger is profound and terrible; it cannot be waved aside with easy optimism.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Even those of the intelligent who believe that they have a nostrum are too individualistic to combine with other intelligent men from whom they differ on minor points. <\/span><\/p>\n

This was not always the case. A hundred years ago the philosophical radicals formed a school of intelligent men who were just as sure of themselves as the Hitlerites are; the result was that they dominated politics and that the world advanced rapidly both in intelligence and in material well-being.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is quite true that the intelligence of the philosophical radicals was very limited. It is, I think, undeniable that the best men of the present day have a wider and truer outlook, but the best men of that day had influence, while the best men of this are impotent spectators. Perhaps we shall have to realise that scepticism and intellectual individualism are luxuries which in our tragic age must be forgone, and if intelligence is to be effective, it will have to be combined with a moral fervour which it usually possessed in the past but now usually lacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this gloomy state of affairs, the brightest spot is America. In America democracy still appears well established, and the men in power deal with what is amiss by constructive measures, not by pogroms and wholesale imprisonment. After the defeat of the French Revolution, democracy; discredited by the reign of terror, reconquered the world from America. Perhaps America is destined once more to save Europe from the consequences of its excesses. (10 May 1933)<\/span><\/p>\n

Bertrand Russell\u00a0 (In: Mortals and Others: Bertrand Russell’s American Essays, 1931-1935, p.28.)<\/span><\/p>\n

If you like this blog you can visit my page on Ko-fi<\/a> and support me, since I created an account there in order to test and demonstrate human philanthropy and its sense of humor. In any case, don\u2019t worry, take it easy and be happy, since I am a scholar of stupidity, thanks for existing just the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the same topic you can also read:<\/span><\/p>\n

The power of stupidity<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Osho thoughts on stupidity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Italian stupidity<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The triumph of stupidity<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Stultorum infinitus est numerus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Some quotes about stupidity<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Quotes against power and stupidity 1<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Quotes against power and stupidity 2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Essays with quotes<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Quotes by authors<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Quotes by arguments<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Thoughts and reflections<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Full Entertainment<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

News and events<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The triumph of stupidity an article by Bertrand Russell, who wants to point out the fundamental cause of our troubles, namely that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,33,21,146,11,107,24,16,28,55,132,64],"tags":[699,2753,700,701,2754,702,682,703,56,2755,1535,704,177],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authority-power","category-education","category-knowledge","category-life","category-literature","category-logics","category-methodology","category-philosophy","category-strategy","category-struggle-against-stupidity","category-the-world-of-english","category-warcraft","tag-bertrand-russell","tag-civilised","tag-german-atrocity","tag-german-stupidity","tag-imprisonment","tag-mortals-and-others","tag-murder","tag-struggle-against-stupidity-2","tag-stupidity","tag-terrorism","tag-torture","tag-triump-of-stupidity","tag-world-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t