A Quote by Isaac Asimov

When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.

Isaac Asimov

Quote Topics

Considered Intelligent Patriotism Stupidity Unsafe

Quote Author

Isaac Asimov
American - Scientist
January 2, 1920 - April 6, 1992

Seas of blood have been shed for the sake of patriotism. One would expect the harm and irrationality of patriotism to be self-evident to everyone. But the surprising fact is that cultured and learned people not only do not notice the harm and stupidity of patriotism, they resist every unveiling of it with the greatest obstinacy and passion (with no rational grounds), and continue to praise it as beneficent and elevating.

Leo Tolstoy

The stupidity of a stupid man is exercised in a restricted field; the stupidity of an intelligent man has a much wider diffusion, and a far greater effect, aided as it is by the element of surprise.

Peter Ustinov

There is Ontario patriotism, Quebec patriotism, or Western patriotism; each based on the hope that it may swallow up the others, but there is no Canadian patriotism, and we can have no Canadian nation when we have no Canadian patriotism.

Henri Bourassa

Boredom and stupidity and patriotism, especially when combined, are three of the greatest evils of the world we live in.

Robertson Davies

Remember this, take this to heart, live by it, die for it if necessary: that our patriotism is medieval, outworn, obsolete; that the modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

To abolish war it is necessary to abolish patriotism, and to abolish patriotism it is necessary first to understand that it is an evil. Tell people that patriotism is bad and most will reply, 'Yes, bad patriotism is bad, but mine is good patriotism.'

Leo Tolstoy

There are these two kinds of patriotism. There's blind patriotism, unflagging patriotism. And then there's the patriotism that says I live in a democracy and it's very important for the health and the life of this democracy that it get better all the time, not get worse.

Norman Mailer

She's quite intelligent, in my stupidity.

J. D. Salinger

I look forward to a time when Irish patriotism will as easily combine with British patriotism as Scottish patriotism combines now.

Arthur Balfour

We're being sold a brand new idea of patriotism. It never occurred to me that patriotism had to be advertised. Patriotism is something you deeply felt. You didn't have to wear it on your lapel or show it in your window or on a bumper sticker. That kind of patriotism does not appeal to me at all.

Sam Shepard

There are some forms of stupidity that one must be highly intelligent and educated to achieve.

J. Budziszewski

No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.

Fernando Pessoa

Fathers are the geniuses of the house because only a person as intelligent as we could fake such stupidity.

Bill Cosby

Look into the eyes of a chicken and you will see real stupidity. It is a kind of bottomless stupidity, a fiendish stupidity. They are the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creatures in the world.

Werner Herzog

The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

Albrecht's Law - Intelligent people, when assembled into an organization, will tend toward collective stupidity.