Robert J. Hanlon

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1 Robert J. Hanlon 2 See also: 3 External Links:

Robert J. Hanlon

• Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
  • Murphy's Law book two: More reasons why things go wrong! (1980) by Arthur Bloch page 52.
  • This statement has often been referred to as Hanlon's Razor, though the author himself has remained relatively unknown, and some have theorized that "Hanlon" might have been a corruption of "Heinlein". Hanlon was a winner in a contest to come up with further statements similar to "Murphy's Law", for publication in this particular book. This phrase or very similar statements have been attributed to William James, Napoleon Bonaparte, Richard Feynman (who may well have quoted it) and others.
  • Similar statements have been made by Goethe, and indeed, Robert Heinlein. Goethe declared: "Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence." in The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Heinlein may have written a statement derived from Goethe's and is known to have written "You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity" in his story Logic of Empire (1941). He calls this the "devil theory" of sociology.
  • Variants of the phrase that were encountered in researching its history, and which have been variously attributed to this wide assortment of authors include:
      Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
      Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.
      Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

• Stupidity

• Blog of Quentin Stafford-Fraser: Statusq.org Posting 1 (November 26, 2001) & Posting 2 (December 4, 2001)