Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
Not found
No. It is not in Twain’s works, and who first wrote it is not known.
The closest real passage, shown below, is found word for word by program in the full text; the shared line is not in it.
- Closest passage
- A Tramp Abroad (1880), Chapter XXXVI
Researched by AI; closest passage located by program on 31 October 2026. Entry updated 20 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
Where you would expect it
The closest real passage: A Tramp Abroad, Chapter XXXVI. The shared line is not in it.
“They would whitewash it. They always do.”
I did not believe a word of this, but rather than have trouble I let it go; for it is a waste of breath to argue with a bigot.1 I even doubted if the Rhone glacier WAS in a Protestant canton; but I did not know, so I could not make anything by contradicting a man who would probably put me down at once with manufactured evidence.
About nine miles from St. […]
We went forward and examined the place and saw the long tracks which her feet had made in the dirt when they darted over the verge. […]
A gap the length of the shared sentence, which is not in the text.2
Where it comes from
No source in Twain. Quote Investigator traces the idea to Proverbs 26:4 (‘Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him’) and to an adage printed in New Orleans in 1878, ‘To argue with a fool is to make him your equal.’ In 1956 the actor Yul Brynner credited Jean Cocteau with advice beginning ‘Never associate with idiots on their own level’; a 1958 student paper gave a version with ‘argue’; the full modern wording, with ‘beat you with experience’, appears unattributed on Usenet in 1993. The first link to Twain found is a hedged tweet of 2009, and the familiar wording was credited to him from about 2011. Matt Seybold of the Center for Mark Twain Studies concluded that Twain never said anything like it.
In context
Shared on social media and mugs as Twain’s. Not in any of the fifteen Twain texts in the sources. The passage shown is the nearest real thing: near Zermatt in A Tramp Abroad, his travelling companion Harris, ‘a rabid Protestant’, has been blaming everything in the Catholic canton on its religion, and finally says a Protestant glacier would never be so dirty because ‘they would whitewash it’. The narrator lets it go.
What it says
Arguing with fools only lowers you to their level, where they have the advantage.
Use this instead
“I did not believe a word of this, but rather than have trouble I let it go; for it is a waste of breath to argue with a bigot.”
A Tramp Abroad (1880), Chapter XXXVI.
Also shared as
- The form on posters and social mediaNever argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. Also credited to George Carlin, equally without a source.
Before and after
Topics
Related quotes
- Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. (misattributed) Oscar Wilde
- Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. (not found) Oscar Wilde
- Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. (not found) Albert Einstein
- Put all your eggs in one basket—and watch that basket.
- You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. Dr. Seuss
Sources
Cite it
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” Attributed to Mark Twain. No. It is not in Twain’s works, and who first wrote it is not known. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/never-argue-with-stupid-people/ (checked 20 October 2026).
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Checked by people
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