Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 606 |
| AUTHOR: | Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) |
| QUOTATION: | Twenty-seven millions, mostly fools. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Carlyle used this phrase several times in the pamphlet to refer to the citizens of Great Britain. Champ Clark, referring to this remark added, “While the percentage of fools in this country is not so large, there are still enough to fatten the swindlers…. The percentage of fools in this country is not so great as Carlyle states it, but nevertheless it is quite large.”—Champ Clark, My Quarter Century of American Politics, p. 213 (1920). Clark was Speaker of the House from 1911–1919. |
| SUBJECTS: | Fools |