“Smart people sometimes get stupid, but stupid people never get smart. Never. Ever. 'You can come down the evolutionary ladder,' Chon has observed to Ben and O; 'you can't climb up.”

“Stupidity is a relevant term and it is relevant to the owner of the stupid brain. Smartness is an irrelevant term and it is irrelevant to the owner of the smart brain because even the smart people can do and say stupid things.”

“If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?”

“Stupid people surround themselves with smart people. Smart people surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them.”

“Smart people doing stupid things are not smart at all...”

“But you can't go around changing your definition of right and wrong (or smart and stupid) just because doing the wrong thing happens to be really convenient. Sometimes it isn't easy to be sane, smart, and responsible. Sometimes it sucks. Sucks wang. Camel wang. But that doesn't turn wrong into right or stupid into smart.”