> [!cite]- Metadata > 2025-09-30 16:57 > Status: #primary #quote > Tags: `Read Time: 1m 11s` > Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident who opposed Hitler and the Nazi regime. He helped organize the Confessing Church, an underground religious movement that resisted Nazi ideology, and was involved in plots to assassinate Hitler and smuggle Jews to safety. Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 for his resistance work and was executed by hanging in 1945, shortly before the end of World War II. > [!Quote] > The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. > > [!Quote] > Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous. --- ### **References**