THE blind led by the blind. (146 hits)

Uninformed and incompetent people leading others who are similarly incapable.
Origin

This appears in the Bible, Matthew 15:14 - from Miles Coverdale's Bible, 1535:

Let they go, they are ye blynde leaders of ye blynde. Wha one blinde leadeth another, they fall both i ye diche.

Biblical citations of commonly used English phrases usually tend to be earlier than those from other sources. In this case the thought was probably inherited from the Upanishads - the sacred Hindu treatises, which were written between 800BC and 200 BC and first translated into English between 1816-19. From Katha Upanishad we have:

Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind. Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Saturday, August 28th 2010 at 1:34PM
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