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Who really said it

There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them

Not Orwell’s words — a later paraphrase George Orwell 1903–1950 · English novelist, essayist & critic (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair)
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The idea is genuinely Orwell’s, but this is not what he wrote. In “Notes on Nationalism” (1945) he wrote, “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.” The neat “so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them” wording is a later paraphrase that appears in none of his works; its closest phrased cousin is a 1959 line by Bertrand Russell ↗.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them” Paraphrase of George Orwell. His actual words in "Notes on Nationalism" (1945): "One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool."

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

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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

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Provenance

The real source of the thought

Work
“Notes on Nationalism”
Author
George Orwell
First published
May 1945, in the journal Polemic (No. 1)
Actual wording
“no ordinary man could be such a fool” — not “only an intellectual could believe them”

I have heard it confidently stated, for instance, that the American troops had been brought to Europe not to fight the Germans but to crush an English revolution. One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.

Orwell’s actual sentence from “Notes on Nationalism” (1945). The widely shared “so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them” is a later compression of this idea, not a quotation.

Notes on Nationalism (full text) at The Orwell Foundation

How we traced it

The thought comes from Orwell’s “Notes on Nationalism” (first published 1945), which remains in copyright in the United States (work published after 1930; author died 1950) — controlled by the Estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell. But the exact popular wording appears in no identifiable published work by Orwell or anyone else; as an anonymous paraphrase it has no sourceable rights status of its own, so we classify it as uncertain rather than assert a public-domain claim.

Fact-check

The misquote, untangled

This is one of those quotes that is ‘right’ in spirit and wrong in fact. Orwell really did skewer intellectuals who believe things no ordinary person would — but he never wrote the neat sentence now stamped on his name.

No documented source paraphrase

“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them” appears in none of Orwell’s essays, letters or books. Quote Investigator finds it is a later paraphrase ↗ that accreted around his real 1945 remark.

Bertrand Russell (1959) different author

The “so absurd… only very learned men” construction that the modern wording echoes was actually written by Bertrand Russell ↗: “This is one of those views which are so absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them.”

The thought is Orwell’s; the wording is not. What he actually wrote in 1945 was “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool ↗.”

Context

Why it mattered

Orwell wrote “Notes on Nationalism” in the closing months of the Second World War, arguing that intellectuals, more than ordinary people, were prone to swallow whatever their political loyalties required — even when the ‘plainest facts’ contradicted them. The famous jab about intellectuals believing absurdities is a distillation of that argument.

The paraphrase endures because it is punchier than the original and flatters the reader’s common sense. But its very success has buried Orwell’s actual, sharper sentence — a small irony for the essayist who warned that language could be used to make lies sound truthful.

The thought is Orwell’s; the polished sentence is somebody else’s.

Explore

Filed under

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

Truth 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: “Believe Things Like That… Such a Fool”quoteinvestigator.com

The authoritative investigation: Orwell’s real 1945 wording, the Russell variant, and the chain of misattribution.
Notes on Nationalism — full textorwellfoundation.com

The complete 1945 essay from The Orwell Foundation, containing Orwell’s actual sentence.
Notes on Nationalism (mirror)orwell.ru

Searchable full text confirming the ‘intelligentsia / no ordinary man’ line and the absence of the popular wording.
Notes on Nationalismen.wikipedia.org

Background on the essay, its 1945 publication in Polemic, and its argument about the intelligentsia.
George Orwellen.wikipedia.org

Biography of Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950), the author of the underlying thought.

The author

About George Orwell

George Orwell

1903–1950 · English novelist & essayist

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair, 1903–1950) was an English novelist and essayist, author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, and a relentless critic of the ideological self-deception he saw in the intelligentsia of his day.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic, no. 1 (London, May 1945). Actual wording: “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.” The “so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them” form is a later paraphrase; see Quote Investigator, “One Has To Belong To the Intelligentsia…,” 3 March 2024.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/there-are-some-ideas-so-absurd-that-only-an-intellectual

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