Quote of the Day
Glen Alleman MSSM
Vietnam Veteran, Applying Systems Engineering Principles, Processes & Practices to Increase the Probability of Program Success for Complex Systems in Aerospace & Defense, Enterprise IT, and Process and Safety Industries
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
This quote is attributed to Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania, US. According to his friend Joseph Bigler, Hanlon first used it as part of something he wrote for a compilation of various jokes related to Murphy's law. The compilation book was published in 1980, titled Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong.[1] The name was inspired by Occam's razor.[2]
Napoleon made a similar quote.
In our current situation, we must be reminded that willful ignorance is a common condition among several leaders occupying the White House.
[1] In an email to Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Joseph E. Bigler wrote that Robert J. Hanlon was real and did invent this quotation. A later note refers to Murphy's Law Book Two, Wrong Reasons Why Things Go More (ISBN 0-417-06450-0); not to be confused with Murphy's Law #2 (ISBN 0-8431-0674-3). The publisher of these books, Price Stern Sloan, was acquired by Putnam Berkley Group (Penguin Group (USA) History Archived 2006-04-30 at the Wayback Machine) in 1993.
[2] Giancarlo Livraghi, Il potere della stupidità, Monti & Ambrosini, Pescara, Italy, 2004, p. 1