IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.
 Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1906). copy citation

edit
Author Ambrose Bierce
Source The Devil's Dictionary
Topic stupidity influence
Date 1906
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/972/972-h/972-h.htm

Context

“For the poor things would have other idols in place of those he thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth. But the iconoclast saith: "Ye shall have none at all, for ye need them not; and if the rebuilder fooleth round hereabout, behold I will depress the head of him and sit thereon till he squawk it."
IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole." He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.” source

Meaning and analysis

write a note
report