Carlo M. Cipolla
Carlo M. Cipolla (August 15, 1922 – September 5, 2000) was an Italian economic historian. He was born in Pavia, where he got his academic degree in 1944.
As a young man, Cipolla wanted to teach history and philosophy in an Italian high school, and therefore enrolled at the political science faculty at Pavia University. Whilst a student there, thanks to professor Franco Borlandi, a specialist in Medieval economic history, he discovered his passion for economic history. Subsequently he studied at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics.
Cipolla obtained his first teaching post in economic history in Catania at the age of 27. This was to be the first stop in a long academic career in Italy (Venice, Turin, Pavia, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Fiesole) and abroad. In 1953 Cipolla left for the United States as a Fulbright fellow and in 1957 became a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Two years later he obtained a full professorship.
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“A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.”
“No matter how high are one's estimates of human stupidity, one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that:a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid.b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one's activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.”
“Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.”
“Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.”
“Perdida ya toda esperanza de alcanzar una vida mejor en este mundo, la gente fue depositando cada vez más sus esperanzas en la vida del más allá, y la idea de obtener recompensas en el cielo la ayudó a soportar la falta de pimienta en esta tierra.”
“El pueblo vikingo, aunque primitivo, era en algunos aspectos bastante desarrollado. Un antropólogo norteamericano logró calcular el rotated factor index del desarrollo sociocultural de algunos pueblos primitivos. El rotated factor index para los vikingos es de 1,60, mientras que es de 1,73 para los aztecas, 0,99 para los hotentotes, 0,89 para los mafulu, 0,44 para los bosquimanos y 0,28 para los esquimales. Lo que pueda ser exactamente el "rotated factor index" sólo lo sabe el antropólogo norteamericano que lo ha inventado.”
“Humor dagegen ist, sofern er in der richtigen Dosierung zum richtigen Zeitpunkt angewandt wird (wenn das nicht der Fall ist, handelt es sich nicht um Humor), ein Wundermittel, mit dem Spannungen abgebaut, unangenehme Situationen entkrampft und menschliche Beziehungen oder Verhältnisse erträglicher gemacht werden können.Ich bin daher der festen Überzeugung, dass es eine gesellschaftliche Pflicht ist, Humor anzuwenden, wann immer sich eine Gelegenheit dazu bietet. Keine derartige Gelegenheit darf verlorengehen.”