Jean Francois Paul de Gondi Quotes

I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension.

The public are not stupid.

Nothing convinces persons of a weak understanding so effectually, as what they do not comprehend.

How can people be so stupid? I marvel at that. See, I think you have to work as being ignorant - and if you're gonna work at being ignorant, why not work at being informed?

It is true the orator may make a myriad replica of his own passion out of those who listen to him. But that does not prove he is right or they are not fools.

The best way to win an argument is to begin by being right.

We may convince others by our argument; but we can only persuade them by their own.

Use your logick, and then your rhetorick. Rhetorick without logick, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet I confess more are taken with rhetorick than logick, because they are catched with a free expression, when they understand not reason. Logick must be natural, or it is worth nothing at all: Your rhetorick figures may be learned.

To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.

Stupidity is a talent for misconception.

I am not good at making people understand certain things.

Some people spend their time reasoning and thinking out everything, and so anything that cannot be fully understood, they will not accept. We call these people 'intellectuals.'

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.

People are just dumb. They misunderstand.

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.

Those who hear and do not understand are like the deaf. Of them the proverb says: "Present, they are absent."

What convinces is not necessarily true-it is merely convincing: a note for asses.

Logic: an instrument used for bolstering a prejudice.

Stupidity is active in every direction, and can dress up in all the clothes of truth. Truth, on the other hand, has for every occasion only one dress and one path, and is always at a disadvantage.

It's remarkable the logic we'll build around a misapprehension.

Popular presentation today is all too often that which puts the mob in a position to talk about something without understanding it.

My proof convinces the ignorant, and the wise man's proof convinces me. But he whose reasoning falls between wisdom and ignorance, I neither can convince him, nor can he convince me.