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Who really said it

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence

Not Charles Bukowski — a paraphrase of Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell 1872–1970 · British philosopher, mathematician & Nobel laureate
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

This exact wording appears in none of Charles Bukowski’s books or interviews. It is a modern, smoothed-over paraphrase of a line Bertrand Russell wrote in his 1933 essay “The Triumph of Stupidity”: “the stupid are cocksure, while the intelligent are full of doubt.” Quote Investigator groups the sentiment across Yeats, Russell and Bukowski, but no source pins this precise sentence to Bukowski.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence” Not Charles Bukowski. This is a modern paraphrase of Bertrand Russell, "The Triumph of Stupidity" (1933): "the stupid are cocksure, while the intelligent are full of doubt."

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Charles Bukowski. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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In context

Evoking the world of Bertrand Russell — British philosopher, mathematician & Nobel laureate. Theme: "The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The documented antecedent

Closest source
“The Triumph of Stupidity” (essay)
Author
Bertrand Russell
First published
10 May 1933 (San Francisco Examiner)
Popular form
Anonymous later paraphrase, mis-credited to Bukowski

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

Russell’s actual 1933 sentence — the “Bukowski” version is a rewrite of this line.

Quote Investigator: tracing the “doubt vs. certainty” saying

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator traces the idea across three figures: Yeats’s 1920 “The Second Coming” (“The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity”), Russell’s 1933 essay, and a 1989 Bukowski interview line about writers — none of which is the popular sentence.
  • Russell’s exact 1933 wording — “the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt” — is preserved in his collected American essays and reproduced online.
  • On the Bukowski Forum, longtime scholars concluded the phrase “full of doubt” appears in none of his books and traced it back to Russell — a case of a paraphrase “wrongly attributed” to Bukowski.

The exact popular wording is an anonymous paraphrase with no identifiable published source, so no rights status can be asserted for it. The documented antecedent — Russell’s 1933 essay “The Triumph of Stupidity” — was first published in 1933 and would itself be handled as in-copyright (Bertrand Russell estate / The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation).

Fact-check

Why Bukowski gets the credit

This is one of the internet’s most durable misattributions: a Bertrand Russell idea, smoothed into a punchier sentence and pinned on Charles Bukowski, whose blunt persona makes the line feel plausibly his.

Charles Bukowski misattributed

The exact sentence appears in none of Bukowski’s books, and Bukowski scholars judge it not to be from his interviews either — the Bukowski Forum traced it to Russell. Bukowski’s own nearest remark (a 1989 Arete interview) was narrowly about writers: bad writers have self-confidence while good ones have self-doubt.

Bertrand Russell true source

Russell’s 1933 essay “The Triumph of Stupidity” supplies the documented line the paraphrase rewrites, per Quote Investigator.

The thought is Bertrand Russell’s (1933); the exact “doubts…confidence” wording is an anonymous later paraphrase, and it is not Charles Bukowski’s — see Quote Investigator.

Context

A saying with three fathers

The sentiment — that certainty runs inverse to intelligence — has been voiced independently by several writers, which is exactly why it drifts so easily from one famous name to another. Quote Investigator lines up W. B. Yeats’s 1920 “The Second Coming” (“The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity”), Bertrand Russell’s 1933 essay, and a 1989 Bukowski interview as three distinct expressions of the same idea.

The version that went viral — “the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence” — is closest to Russell’s phrasing but matches none of the three verbatim. It is best understood as a crowd-polished paraphrase that later acquired a celebrity byline.

The idea is Russell’s; the wording is the internet’s; the byline is wrong.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Doubt Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: The Best Lack All Conviction…quoteinvestigator.com

The authoritative investigation grouping Yeats, Russell and Bukowski and showing the popular wording is a later paraphrase.
Russell, “The Triumph of Stupidity” (1933 text)russell-j.com

Full text of Russell’s 1933 essay containing the original “stupid are cocksure” sentence.
Bukowski Forum: “intelligent people are full of doubts”bukowskiforum.com

Bukowski scholars confirm the line is in none of his books and trace it to Russell.
Bertrand Russell (Wikipedia)en.wikipedia.org

Biography of the philosopher whose 1933 line the quote paraphrases.
Goodreads: the quote as mis-credited to Bukowskigoodreads.com

Shows how widely the paraphrase circulates under Bukowski’s name.

The author

About Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

1872–1970 · British philosopher, mathematician & Nobel laureate

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician and social critic who won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature. His 1933 essay “The Triumph of Stupidity,” written as the Nazi movement rose in Germany, contains the line that the modern paraphrase reworks: “the stupid are cocksure, while the intelligent are full of doubt.” The polished “doubts…confidence” version that circulates today — often under Charles Bukowski’s name — is not Russell’s exact phrasing either.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Bertrand Russell, “The Triumph of Stupidity,” San Francisco Examiner, 10 May 1933; reprinted in Mortals and Others: Bertrand Russell’s American Essays, 1931–1935. Earliest documented antecedent of the paraphrase popularly mis-credited to Charles Bukowski.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-problem-with-the-world-is-that-the-intelligent-people

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