Folly Quotes - Page 12

• The history of fiat money is little more than a register of monetary follies and inflations. Our present age merely affords another entry in this dismal register.

  Hans F. Sennholz

  Age, Gold, Littles

  Hans F. Sennholz (1979). “Age of inflation”

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• Recent events in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have reaffirmed for me, however, the complete folly of any Republican strategy to increase black representation in the Republican Party by appeals based on race. Whatever the name- 'African American Outreach' or 'Black Republicans for Bush'- any effort to attract blacks or any other ethnic group to the Republican party, based on explicit or implicit appeals to race or ethnic identity, are not only a waste of time and resources, but are also misguided and potentially quite damaging to the nation.

  Ward Connerly

  Party, Names, Race

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• There are many trials in life which do not seem to come from unwisdom or folly; they are silver arrows shot from the bow of God, and fixed inextricably in the quivering heart - they are meant to be borne - they were not meant, like snow or water, to melt as soon as they strike; but the moment an ill can be patiently borne it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Pain, Heart, Arrows

  Henry Ward Beecher (1887). “Beecher : Christian Philosopher, Pulpit Orator, Patriot and Philantropist: A Volume of Representative Selections from the Sermons, Lectures, Prayers, and Letters of Henry Ward Beecher”

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• One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.

  Thomas Paine

  Kings, Giving, Lions

  Thomas Paine (2016). “Common Sense”, p.12, Coventry House Publishing

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• Facts or opinions which are to pass through the hands of so many, to be misconceived by folly in one, and ignorance in another, can hardly have much truth left.

  Jane Austen

  Ignorance, Hands, Facts

  Jane Austen (2013). “Persuasion In Modern English”, p.361, BookCaps Study Guides

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• A contempt of the monuments and the wisdom of the past, may be justly reckoned one of the reigning follies of these days, to which pride and idleness have equally contributed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pride, Past, May

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Journey to the Hebrides. Tales of the imagination. Prayers and sermons. Index”, p.356

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• As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.

  William James

  Sympathy, Lying, Justice

  William James (1985). “The Varieties of Religious Experience”, p.284, Harvard University Press

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• Lord, enlighten thou our enemies. Sharpen their wits, give acuteness to their perceptions, and consecutiveness and clearness to their reasoning powers: we are in danger from their folly, not from their wisdom; their weakness is what fills us with apprehension, not their strength.

  John Stuart Mill

  Giving, Perception, Enemy

  John Stuart Mill (1864). “Dissertations and Discussions: Political, Philosophical, and Historical”, p.77

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• I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usaully goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.

  Thucydides

  Passion, Thinking, Hands

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.179, Simon and Schuster

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• Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As mans ingratitude Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho sing, heigh-ho unto the green holly Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. Then heigh-ho the holly This life is most jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend rememberd not.

  William Shakespeare

  Life, Art, Winter

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 174

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• And writers say, as the most forward bud
  Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
  Even so by love the young and tender wit
  Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud,
  Losing his verdure even in the prime,
  And all the fair effects of future hopes.

  William Shakespeare

  Blow, Stupidity, Bud

  William Shakespeare (1858). “The Plays of Shakespeare”, p.4

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• The wise man who is not heeded is counted a fool, and the fool who proclaims the general folly first and loudest passes for a prophet and Führer, and sometimes it is luckily the other way round as well, or else mankind would long since have perished of stupidity.

  Carl Jung

  Wise, Stupid, Men

  Carl Gustav Jung (1968). “The Collected Works”

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• The fact that people will be full of greed, fear, or folly is predictable. The sequence is not predictable.

  Warren Buffett

  People, Greed, Investing

  Financial Review, 1985.

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• ...and I wonder if there is any way to adequately describe the folly that causes us to undo all the great gifts of both Earth and Heaven.

  James Lee Burke

  Heaven, Earth, Way

  James Lee Burke (2002). “Jolie Blon's Bounce: A Novel”, p.327, Simon and Schuster

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• Dreams are a sweet mistake
  All dreamers must awake
  On, then, with the dance
  No backward glance
  Or my heart will break
  Never look back.

  Stephen Sondheim

  Dream, Sweet, Mistake

  "Song: 'One More Kiss'". 1987.

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• His folly has not fellow Beneath the blue of day That gives to man or woman His heart and soul away.

  A. E. Housman

  Heart, Men, Blue

  A. E. Housman (2012). “A Shropshire Lad”, p.10, Courier Corporation

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• Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and whoever, therefore, finds himself inclined to envy another, should remember that he knows not the real condition which he desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already too sparingly bestowed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sex, Real, Passion

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.201

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• The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of Woman's Rights with all its attendant horrors on which her poor, feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety.

  Queen Victoria

  Queens, Sex, Writing

  Letter to Sir Theodore Martin, 29 May 1870

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• There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist, Passion, Fire

  Gautama Buddha (2013). “The Dhammapada”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

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• Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity - I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly.

  Plato

  Plato, Character, Mean

  Plato (2013). “The Republic: A Socratic Dialogue Concerning the Definition of Justice and the Order and Character of the Just City-State and the Just Man (Beloved Books Edition)”, p.322, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Gardening is ultimately a folly whose goal is to provide delight.

  Deborah Needleman

  Garden, Goal, Essentials

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• To think that the world can ever change without changes in our mental models is folly.

  Joseph Jaworski

  Change, Thinking, World

  Joseph Jaworski, Peter Senge (2011). “Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership”, p.10, Berrett-Koehler Publishers

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• Of all the follies the greatest is to love the world.

  Ali ibn Abi Talib

  Wisdom, Islamic, World

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  The budget should be balanced not by more taxes, but by reduction of follies.

  Herbert Hoover

  Presidential, Economics, Should

  Herbert Hoover (1937*). “American ideals and the New deal ... eight addresses upon pressing national problems”

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• It is like most other ancient books - a mingling of falsehood and truth, of philosophy and folly - all written by men, and most of the men only partially civilized. Some of its laws are good - some infinitely barbarous. None of the miracles related were performed. . . . Take out the absurdities, the miracles, all that pertains to the supernatural - all the cruel and barbaric laws - and to the remainder I have no objection. Neither would I have for it any great admiration.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Philosophy, Book, Men

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1952). “Life and Letters”

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