Roger Scruton Quotes

I can always tell how stupid someone is by how certain they are about what they're saying.

It's amazing how dumb people can impress you with how much stupider they can be when they really assert themselves.

The most confident critics are generally those who know the least about the matter criticized.

Those who pretend to know what they don't, will be thought ignorant of even what they know.

I thought I was fabulous and everyone else was stupid.

In civil business; what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

Politics is so difficult, it's generally only people who aren't quite up to the task who feel convinced they are.

There is a plague on Man, the opinion that he knows something.

Ignorance sheer ignorance. There is no confidence to equal it. It's only when you know something about a profession that you are timid or careful.

Nonsense! The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware that he is wise.

I didn't worry about what DeNiro thought... I went in, looked him in the eye, and got the part. I was confident, even though I'd never done anything like it before. Now I realise it was ignorant confidence-I had no idea.

The smaller the mind, the greater the ego.

It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.

To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.

There is nothing that makes a man more self-satisfied than a poor memory.

A man once said, 'All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.' Mark Twain, you know. He had a fine mustache. Men of wisdom so often do.

Confidence is ignorance. If you're feeling cocky, it's because there's something you don't know.

Egotist: 1. A person who is his own best friend. 2. An I specialist. 3. A man whose opinions all change, except the one he has of himself.

I never had a man come to me for advice yet, but what I soon discovered that he thought more of his own opinion than he did of mine.

The truth that I know for sure is that I may have an opinion, but I do not know the truth, and the other thing I know for sure is that certainty is the root of all ignorance and the root of all evil.

Opinions scattered indiscriminately about leave the mark of egotism.

A dogmatic tone is generally inspired by abysmal ignorance. The man who knows nothing thinks he is informing others of something which he has that moment learnt; the man who knows a great deal can scarcely believe that people are ignorant of what he is telling them, and speaks more diffidently.

I admire the assurance and confidence everyone has in himself, whereas there is hardly anything I am sure I know or that I dare give my word I can do.

When people are least sure, they are often most dogmatic.