quotations about fools
If all fools wore white hoods, any crowd would look like a field of blooming buckwheat.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
At thirty a man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
ANATOLE FRANCE
Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations
They that are fated to be fools, have one consolation, that they are fated also to be ignorant of it.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
I have great faith in fools -- self-confidence my friends will call it.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
"Marginalia"
It is a fool's privilege to laugh at an intelligent man.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
ALEXANDER POPE
An Essay on Criticism
To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Parable of the Talents
He that will be his own master ... must often have a fool for his scholar.
JOHN THORNTON
Maxims and Directions for Youth
The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools?
HENRIK IBSEN
An Enemy of the People
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
DOUGLAS ADAMS
Mostly Harmless
Yet with great toil all that I can attain
By long experience, and in learned schools,
Is for to know my knowledge is but vain,
And those that think them wise, are greatest fools.
SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL OF STIRLING
The Tragedy of Croesus
Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
Maxims
You have to stop worrying about looking foolish, 'cause fear of being humiliated really limits you.
DEAN KOONTZ
Fear Nothing
Better to listen to the wind ... than to waste time with the words of a fool.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Atreides
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.
BIBLE
Proverbs 29:11
Fortune has been considered the guardian divinity of fools; and, on this score, she has been accused of blindness; but it should rather be adduced as a proof of her sagacity, when she helps those who cannot help themselves.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Though fools can censure others, they cannot live free of reproach themselves.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
If you would not be thought a fool in others conceit, be not wise in your own.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine