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"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot." -- Attribution unknown
(Edited to remove the attribution to Twain ... the evidence is that he never said (or wrote) it.)
@ColinTheMathmo Before posting a quote attributed to Mark Twain, it's always a good idea to see what fact-checkers have written about it: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mark-twain-idiot-quote/
@benjamingeer I have a large number of pithy comments, and I've not checked all of them in detail. Some time ago I decided to rest on Cunningham's Law:
"the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."
So *mostly* I've checked things, but as in this case, sometimes I just post it as I found it, then let people point me at the corrections.
For which I am genuinely grateful ... thank you!
(I'll edit the post once I've read the Snopes article.)
@benjamingeer According to the Snopes article it's almost certainly not genuinely by Twain, but provides no other reliable attribution.
So I'll edit the post to make that clear.
Again, thank you.
I’m not convinced!
If you like the sentiment but want it reliably sourced, there's always the Bible:
Do not answer fools according to their folly, lest you be a fool yourself. -- Proverbs 26:4, NRSV translation
Admittedly not a source you can use on all occasions, but... when it works, it works. :-)
@weekend_editor Proverbs is an interesting book ... *full* of repetition, and not as much genuine wisdom as I remember from my youth.
And this is a *similar* sentiment, but not really the same.
Even so, I appreciate the ping.
@ColinTheMathmo Try to prove that Twain didn't say that. I still won't be persuaded.