Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 16: Ideas Which Have Become Obsolete, p. 158

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.

— Bertrand Russell

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them." in the context of "Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 16: Ideas Which Have Become Obsolete, p. 158" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Bertrand Russell" (Quotes, 1950s, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 08, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Bertrand Russell

About Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (May 18, 1872 – February 2, 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. In 1950, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature.