We should realize that a city is better off with bad laws, so long as they remain fixed, than with good laws that are constantly being altered, that lack of learning combined with sound common sense is more helpful than the kind of cleverness that gets out of hand, and that as a general rule states are better governed by the man in the street than by intellectuals.

The sentiment contrasts stability and practical judgment with restless innovation and over-refined intellect. It argues that predictable, even imperfect, laws can serve a community better than frequently revised “better” laws that undermine continuity and trust. Likewise, it praises ordinary prudence—common sense anchored in shared experience—over a cleverness that becomes detached from consequences. Politically, it expresses skepticism toward rule by self-styled intellectual elites and suggests that broad civic judgment can be a surer basis for governance. Read as political realism, the line values institutional steadiness and social cohesion over theoretical brilliance and constant reform.