Idiot

“If we've learned anything from the best-selling Diary of a Wimpy Kid children's book series, it's that those who see themselves surrounded by idiots are usually idiots themselves.”

“What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”

“Degrade first the arts if you'd mankind degrade, Hire idiots to paint with cold light and hot shade.”

“To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit — General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess.”

“Never confuse an idiot.”

“It is paltry philosophy if in the old-fashioned way one lays down rules and principles in total disregard of moral values. As soon as these appear one regards them as exceptions, which gives them a certain scientific status, and thus makes them into rules. Or again one may appeal to genius, which is above all rules; which amounts to admitting that rules are not only made for idiots, but are idiotic in themselves.”

“All right! I confess, I confess. I confess to your being a bigger idiot than I thought.”

“Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom — that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself.”

“Idiots are not responsible for what they do. The real guilt falls on rational people who sit on their hands while the morons run wild. You can opt out if you want to. Play it safe. But if you do, don’t complain when the roof comes down.”

“Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn't.”

“Out, out, brief candle!Signifying nothing.”

“You know there’s no advantage to be gained by murdering idiots—it doesn’t teach the idiot anything and it might give onlookers the idea that you take them seriously.”

“The idiot heard the sounds, but they had no meaning for him. He lived inside somewhere, apart, and the little link between word and significance hung broken.”

“Even if we accept, as the basic tenet of true democracy, that one moron is equal to one genius, is it necessary to go a further step and hold that two morons are better than one genius?”

“In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.”

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”