Carolina QuotesThe world’s prize stupid oaf is the man who thinks he already has all the answers.
John W. Campbell Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Second-Order Logic? (editorial) in Astounding, Feb. 1955, p. 6
- year
- 1955
- locator
- p. 6
Cite this record
“The world’s prize stupid oaf is the man who thinks he alread…” John W. Campbell. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-4500461B91. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/4500461b91
More from John W. Campbell
Logic happens to be one of the levels of reality; ignoring it is perfectly possible, just as it is possible for a drunken driver to ignore the concrete-and-steel bridge abutment in his path. The difficulty is that logic—like the bridge-abutment—won’t ignore the individual man.
A successful crackpot is still a crackpot.
It’s frustrating to have to yield one’s Opinion to someone else; the ancient, surging feeling “I have a right to my own opinion!” resents that necessity violently. O.K., friend, your opinion may, indeed, be just as good as mine . . . but is it as good as the Universe’s? The cultural group was able to apply pressure that forced Galileo to retract his stated opinion, and that proved his opinion wasn’t as good as theirs, didn’t it? Winning the argument is not equivalent to proving yourself the better and righter man. You may, in the more general terms of the Universal Laws, simply be the more bigoted and stupid man.