When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.
Yeah, I think A Confederacy of Dunces is probably the perfect New Orleans book.
Not all celebrities are dunces.
How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue.
I'm not eager to jump into marriage again. I'm in the corner right now, wearing my dunce cap. That area is obviously a nightmare.
When Fortuna spins you downward, go out to a movie and get more out of life.
Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins.
When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.
Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking.
I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.
Is my paranoia getting completely out of hand, or are you mongoloids really talking about me?
A firm rule must be imposed upon our nation before it destroys itself. The United States needs some theology and geometry, some taste and decency. I suspect that we are teetering on the edge of the abyss.
with the breakdown of the medieval system, the gods of chaos, lunacy, and bad taste gained ascendancy.
Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.
The defects of great men are the consolation of the dunces.
In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I'm as good as you has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish.The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway the teachers-or should I say, nurses?-will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturable conceit and incurable ignorance among men. The little vermin themselves will do it for us.
The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic.
There is no dunce like a mature dunce.
or simply: