Idiot
Idiot, dolt, and dullard are terms used for a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way. The similarly used terms moron, imbecile, and cretin have all gained specialized meanings in modern times. An idiot is said to be idiotic, and to suffer from idiocy. A dunce is an idiot who is specifically incapable of learning. An idiot differs from a fool, who is considered unwise, or an ignoramus, who is simply uneducated (an ignorant person), neither of which refers to someone with low intelligence. Such words are sometimes used as mildly derisive terms of endearment as well as harshly critical insults. The word idiot is derived from the Greek ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs ("person lacking professional skill", "a private citizen", "individual"), from ἴδιος, idios ("private", "one's own"). In Latin the word idiot ("ordinary person, layman") preceded the Late Latin meaning "uneducated or ignorant person." Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French idiote ("uneducated or ignorant person"). In Athenian democracy an idiot was someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private — as opposed to public — affairs.
[edit] Quotes
- What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
- William Blake, in a letter to Revd Dr. Trusler, (23 August 1799)
- Degrade first the arts if you'd mankind degrade,
Hire idiots to paint with cold light and hot shade.- William Blake, in Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses, title page (c. 1798–1809)
- To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit — General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess.
- William Blake, in Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses, pp. xvii–xcviii (c. 1798–1809)
- All right! I confess, I confess. I confess to your being a bigger idiot than I thought.
- Robert Holmes, in lines written for the fourth incarnation of The Doctor, in response to his being tortured in the Doctor Who episode The Deadly Assassin (30 October 1976)
- 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.
- David Hilbert, in defense of Galileo's recantation of his discoveries before a tribunal of the Inquisition, as quoted in Mathematical Circles Squared : A Third Collection of Mathematical Stories and Anecdotes (1972) by Howard Whitley Eves, p. 125
- 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.
- Jack McDevitt, in Odyssey (2006), Ch. 6, p. 48
- 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.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, as quoted in The Seattle Massacre : The Ripper Case Series (2011) by J. J. Knight, p. vii
- Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.- William Shakespeare in Macbeth (c.1605), Act V, Sc. V; Macbeth after the death of his wife.
- 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.
- Mark Twain, in The Innocents Abroad (1869), Ch. 61
- Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain, in a draft manuscript (c.1881), quoted in Mark Twain: A Biography (1912) by Albert Bigelow Paine, p. 724
