Human stupidity is a concept that includes several features at the same time. This is unacceptable recklessness, frivolity, limited thinking. Those people whose existence is not subordinate to a higher goal are also unreasonable. One of the universal features is satisfaction with one’s mind, but only with a fool does she achieve real rapture. Quotes of great people and popular aphorisms describe this phenomenon in detail, giving it a full description.
Perseverance in foolishness
A famous quote about stupidity that belongs to Aristotle is known:
Each person has a tendency to make mistakes, but no one but a fool has the tendency to persist in error.
If a person is smart, he realizes what he is doing wrong and what needs to be corrected so as not to make previous mistakes. But only the madman continues to persevere, adhering to the same behavior as before. This is one of the main signs of stupidity.
Opinion about the fools of Schiller
The great German poet speaks of an unreasonable man like this:
A fool is one who leaves the case halfway and looks with open mouth, from the side that it will come of all this.
One cannot disagree with this quote about stupidity. After all, he who does not finish the job to the end, and believes that everything will be able to develop by itself and without the direct participation of a person, is a real fool. Anyone who takes responsibility for their actions and brings things to an end cannot be considered an unreasonable person.
Opinion of Voltaire
The French philosopher says so about foolish people:
A fool is a person who remains always unchanged.
In his opinion, it is the one who does not want to change himself, and is a real fool. Lack of flexibility, unwillingness to listen to someone else's opinion, can even make a real madman out of a promising person. Having come to this world, the soul must change throughout life, learn new things. Voltaire rightly calls the one who does not do this a fool.
Is stupidity needed?
The Austrian philosopher and logician puts it this way:
Always go down from the bare heights of judgment into the green valleys of stupidity.
This quote about stupidity does not apply to those who lack intelligence. Wittgenstein gives this recommendation to smart people who often themselves experience suffering or fatigue from their minds. Sometimes it is vital for them to spend a little time in the shoes of a nearby person. Such a pause in judgment allows the mind to relax for a while. This does not mean that thinking individuals will immediately turn from this into stupid people. A pause in judgment is always a temporary phenomenon for the smart. It is also necessary in order to receive insights. After all, it is known that insights come not at the moment of hard work, but during rest (provided that the rest was preceded by a period of labor).
The difference between man and animal
Quite radically expressed in his quote about the human stupidity of Sanai, a Persian poet:
He who is blind with reason is not man, but cattle.
It is impossible to call a real person one who does not want to use his mind. The main difference between a person and representatives of the animal kingdom is endowment with reason, consciousness.
If people do not take advantage of this without enlightening their minds and not seizing this opportunity, they can hardly be called people in full. In this case, the individual relies more on his emotions and instincts - and this is characteristic of animals. Therefore, despite all the categorical statements of Sana'i, it is impossible not to disagree with him.
Awareness of Stupidity
The following quote about stupidity belongs to the great Russian writer F. M. Dostoevsky.
A fool who admitted that he is a fool is no longer a fool.
Even if a person acts or thinks incorrectly, one admission in this is already capable of promoting him to comprehend the truth and change his path. Awareness of one’s own stupidity is by no means shameful. Moreover, as Fedor Mikhailovich points out, it saves a person from the role of a fool.
The need to trust the mind
Here is what Russian literary critic V. G. Belinsky writes about reason:
The greatest weakness of the mind lies in distrust of the powers of the mind.
In his opinion, one of the main mistakes that a reasonable person can make is a lack of confidence in the strength of one’s own mind. This phenomenon can often be observed in everyday life: a completely intelligent person belittles his abilities, considering his intellect insufficiently developed. This significantly reduces the range of possibilities, limits such a person. Unlike intelligent people underestimating themselves, stupid people rarely realize their own lack of intelligence.
The ratio of mediocre to reasonable
The French writer François de Larochefoucauld says so about stupidity:
Mediocrity usually condemns everything that exceeds its understanding.
If a person is not sufficiently developed mentally - in other words, represents a mediocre person - he will condemn everything that seems to him incomprehensible and incomprehensible. This is also one of the main mistakes of stupidity. What she cannot comprehend is condemned. A reckless person devalues the achievements of other people in science, literature, music, sports and other fields.
Belinsky's expression is largely consonant with the opinion of the Spanish playwright and poet Lope de Vega:
The ignoramus is the first worst hater of the one who is truly smart, learned.
Imitation of Madness
Here is what Goethe writes about human stupidity:
Where stupidity is a model, there is reason - madness.
In a group of people where fools are an example to follow, the following picture is often observed: rational actions are condemned, and meaningless ones, on the contrary, are encouraged. For example, in the company of adolescents it is customary to drink alcohol or smoke. In this case, those young people who seek to maintain their health and devote time to more useful activities will be considered fools. And those who waste precious time of youth in vain - on the contrary, will be mistaken for their own. Thus, madness will be considered reasonable, as Goethe writes about this.
About female foolishness
Of particular note are quotes about female stupidity. Consider some of the most popular:
I’ve been terribly afraid of stupid all my life. Especially women. You never know how to talk to them without falling into their level. (Faina Ranevskaya).
The smarter the woman, the more she does stupid things. (Folk wisdom).
In stupidity, all women are the same. (Erasmus of Rotterdam).
As you can see, foolishness is a topic that has interested thinkers of all times and has not lost its relevance to this day. Aphorisms about stupidity help get rid of this shortcoming and maintain common sense in everyday life.