Folly Quotes - Page 20

• It is not proof that I sought. I, of all men, know that proof is but a fallacy invented by man to justify to himself and his fellows his own crass lust and folly.

  William Faulkner

  Men, Lust, Proof

  William Faulkner (2011). “Selected Short Stories”, p.270, Modern Library

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• Without taste genius is only a sublime kind of folly. That sure touch which the lyre gives back the right note and nothing more, is even a rarer gift than the creative faculty itself.

  Bill Vaughan

  Giving, Creative, Sublime

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• It's folly that women measure their happiness with the pleasures of the bed, but they do. And when the pleasure cools or their man goes missing, all they once lived for turns dark and hateful.

  Euripides

  Dark, Men, Missing

  Euripides,, Peter Burian, Alan Shapiro (2011). “The Complete Euripides Volume V: Medea and Other Plays”, p.170, Oxford University Press

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• I know The past and thence I will essay to glean A warning for the future, so that man May profit by his errors, and derive Experience from his folly; For, when the power of imparting joy Is equal to the will, the human soul Requires no other heaven.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Past, Men, Errors

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.98, Delphi Classics

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• A rational reaction against the irrational excesses and vagaries of scepticism may, I admit, readily degenerate into the rival folly of credulity. To be engaged in opposing wrong affords, under the conditions of our mental constitution, but a slender guarantee for being right.

  William E. Gladstone

  Guarantees, Excess, Rivals

  "Homeric Synchronism : An Enquiry Into the Time and Place of Homer". Book by William Ewart Gladstone, 1876.

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• America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.

  Thomas Paine

  Revenge, War, Heart

  Thomas Paine (2016). “THE AMERICAN CRISIS – Revolutionary Work Which Inspired the American People to Fight for Their Independence: Including “The Life of Thomas Paine” – Extensive Biography of the Author”, p.8, e-artnow

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• War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington - not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  War, Stupid, Men

  Graduation Exercises at the United States Military Academy, www.dwightdeisenhower.com. June 03, 1947.

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• Revolt and revolution both wind up at the same crossroads: the police, or folly.

  Albert Camus

  Wind, Police, Revolution

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• The first Degree of Folly, is to conceit one's self wise; the second to profess it; the third to despise Counsel.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Wise, Self, Firsts

  Benjamin Franklin (2013). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.96, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Such is the supreme folly of man that he labours so as to labour no more.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Work, Men, Labor

  Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.976, Delphi Classics

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• The suburbs of folly is vain mirth, and profuseness of laughter is the city of fools.

  Francis Quarles

  Laughter, Cities, Mirth

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.56

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• Since Adam and Eve ate the apple, man has never refrained from any folly of which he was capable.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Apples, Adam

  "History of the World in Epitome (For Use in Martian Infant Schools)". Book by Bertrand Russell, as quoted in Slater Bertrand Russell (1994), p. 136, 1959.

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• The great events of history are often due to secular changes in the growth of population and other fundamental economic causes, which, escaping by their gradual character the notice of contemporary observers, are attributed to the follies of statesmen or the fanaticism of atheists .

  John Maynard Keynes

  Atheist, Character, Escaping

  John Maynard Keynes (2016). “The Economic Consequences of the Peace”, p.15, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Fashion, though Folly's child, and guide of fools, Rules e'en the wisest, and in learning rules.

  George Crabbe

  Fashion, Children, Fool

  'The Library' (1808) l. 167

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• I am not a nervous man in a general way, and very little troubled with superstitions, of which I have lived to see the folly.

  H. Rider Haggard

  Men, Littles, Superstitions

  H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lin Carter, Rudyard Kipling, Eando Binder (2014). “The Lost World MEGAPACK ®: 22 Modern and Classic Tales”, p.421, Wildside Press LLC

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• A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.

  Alain de Botton

  Achievement, Ordinary, Enough

  "The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, Chapter IV, Consolation For Inadequacy, 2000.

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• When an alluring woman comes in at the door," warningly traced the austere Kien-fi on the margin of his well-known essay, "discretion may be found up the chimney". It is incredible that beneath this ever-timely reminder an obscure disciple should have added the words: "The wiser the sage, the more profound the folly.

  Ernest Bramah

  Doors, Should Have, Profound

  Ernest Bramah (1963). “The Celestial Omnibus”

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• The minute we leave south Lebanon we will have to erase the word Hezbollah from our vocabulary, because the whole idea of the State of Israel versus Hezbollah was sheer folly from the outset. It most certainly no longer will be relevant when Israel returns to her internationally recognized northern border.

  Amos Oz

  Vocabulary, Israel, Ideas

  "Try a Little Tenderness". Haaretz Interview, March 17, 2000.

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• Grant folly's prayers that hinder folly's wish, And serve the ends of wisdom.

  George Eliot

  Prayer, Wish, Ends

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.4230, Delphi Classics

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• Many brief follies--that is what you call love. And your marriage puts an end to many brief follies, with a single long stupidity.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Long, Stupidity, Ends

  Friedrich Nietzsche, Graham Parkes (2008). “Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and Nobody”, p.61, Oxford University Press

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• Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination. They are: 1) tyranny or oppression, of which history provides so many well-known examples that they do not need citing; 2) excessive ambition, such as Athens' attempted conquest of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War, Philip II's of England via the Armada, Germany's twice-attempted rule of Europe by a self-conceived master race, Japan's bid for an empire of Asia; 3) incompetence or decadence, as in the case of the late Roman empire, the last Romanovs and the last imperial dynasty of China; and finally 4) folly or perversity.

  Barbara Tuchman

  War, Ambition, Race

  Barbara Tuchman (2015). “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam”, p.11, Crux Publishing Ltd

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• We all have our youthful follies, embarassing to recall -- but people somehow find it hard to dismiss as a youthful folly anything that has happened to be a financial success.

  John Wyndham

  People, Financial, Embarassing

  John Wyndham (2003). “The Day of the Triffids”

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• Remember that the Tarot is a great and sacred arcanum - its abuse is an obscenity in the inner and a folly in the outer. It is intended for quite other purposes than to determine when the tall dark man will meet the fair rich widow.

  Jack Parsons

  Dark, Men, Abuse

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• If someone tries to use you as a tool, you shouldn't mind it, because it is their choice and folly, not yours.

  Jude Morgan

  Choices, Mind, Trying

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• For the rest of my life there are two days that will never again trouble me. The first day is yesterday with all its blunders and tears, follies and defeats. Yesterday has passed away, beyond my control forever. The other day is tomorrow with all its pitfalls and threats, its dangers and mystery. Until the sun rises again I have no stake in tomorrow, for it is still unborn.

  Og Mandino

  Two, Yesterday, Forever

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