No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it

The remark suggests a cynical view of how ideas spread socially: for an idea to become widely accepted, it must be simplified, diluted, or packaged with elements that flatter common prejudices and mental shortcuts. “Stupidity” here can be read less as sheer ignorance than as the necessary concession to mass taste—slogans, oversimplifications, or comforting certainties that make a complex insight easy to repeat and emotionally satisfying. The quote also implies a tension between intellectual rigor and popularity: the more demanding an idea is, the less likely it is to travel intact. As a critique of public discourse, it anticipates how propaganda, marketing, and even popular philosophy often succeed by mixing truth with reductive or misleading components.