Folly Quotes - Page 27

• Look now how mortals are blaming the gods, for they say that evils come from us, but in fact they themselves have woes beyond their share because of their own follies.

  Homer

  Evil, Looks, Woe

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• By their own follies they perished, the fools.

  Homer

  Fool

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• A man that loves to be peevish and paramount, and to play the sovereign at every turn, does but blast the blessings of life, and swagger away his own enjoyments; and not to enlarge upon not folly, not to mention the injustice of such a behavior, it is always the sign of a little, unbenevolent temper. It is disease and discredit all over, and there is no more greatness in it, than in the swelling of a dropsy.

  Jeremy Collier

  Blessing, Greatness, Men

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• Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.

  Jeremy Collier

  Excess, Ingredients, Degenerates

  Jeremy COLLIER (the Nonjuror.), J. E. (1838). “Pearls of Great Price: or, Maxims, reflections, characters and thoughts, on miscellaneous subjects ... Selected from the works of the Rev. Jeremy Collier by the editor of “Sir William Jones's Discourses,” etc. [The editor's preface signed: J. E., i.e. James Elmes.]”, p.101

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• In common discourse we denominate persons and things according to the major part of their character; he is to be called a wise man who has but few follies.

  Isaac Watts

  Wise, Character, Men

  Isaac Watts (1809). “Logic: Or, The Right Use of Reason, in the Inquiry After Truth”, p.151

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• Such is the nature of the marriage relation that a breach once made cannot be healed, and it is the height of folly to waste one's life in vain efforts to make a binary compound of two diverse elements. What would we think of the chemist who should sit twenty years trying to mix oil and water, and insist upon it that his happiness depended upon the result of the experiment?

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Marriage, Thinking, Oil And Water

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriot (Stanton). Blatch (Mrs) (1922). “Elizabeth Cady Stanton as revealed in her letters, diary and reminiscences”

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• England, a happy land we know,
  Where follies naturally grow,
  Where without culture they arise,
  And tow'r above the common size.

  Charles Churchill

  Land, Culture, Size

  Charles Churchill (1772). “Poems: By Charles Churchill. In Three Volumes. With Large Corrections and Additions. To which is Added, the Life of the Author. Adorned with Cuts”, p.143

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• Superstitious notions propagated in infancy are hardly ever totally eradicate, not even in minds grown strong enough to despise the like credulous folly in others.

  Samuel Richardson

  Strong, Mind, Enough

  Samuel Richardson (1980). “A collection of the moral and instructive sentiments: a facsimile reproduction”, Scholars Facsimilies & Reprint

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• There will he nothing more that posterity can add to our immoral habits; our descendants must have the same desires and act the same follies as their sires. Every vice has reached its zenith.

  Juvenal

  Desire, Vices, Add

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• Judge not the preacher; for he is thy judge:
  If thou mislike him, thou conceiv'st him not.
  God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge
  To pick out treasures from an earthen pot.
  The worst speak something good. If all want sense,
  God takes a text, and preaches patience.

  George Herbert

  Judging, Treasure, Want

  'The Church Porch' (1633) st. 72

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• Incredulity is not wisdom, but the worst kind of folly. It is folly, because it causes ignorance and mistake, with all the consequents of these; and it is very bad, as being accompanied with disingenuity, obstinacy, rudeness, uncharitableness, and the like bad dispositions; from which credulity itself, the other extreme sort of folly, is exempt.

  Isaac Barrow

  Mistake, Ignorance, Causes

  Isaac Barrow, James Hamilton (1861). “The works of Isaac Barrow”, p.163

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• O woman! woman! thou shouldest have few sins of thine own to answer for! Thou art the author of such a book of follies in a man that it would need the tears of all the angels to blot the record out.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Art, Women, Book

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• The passionate heart of the poet is whirled into folly and vice.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Heart, Vices, Passionate

  'Maud' (1855) pt. 1, sect. 4, st. 7

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• Answer not a fool according to his folly,lest thou also be like unto him.

  Solomon

  Advice, Answers, Fool

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• Laugh as loud as you please at your companion's wit; do not even smile at his folly.

  Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

  Laughing, Advice, Loud

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• Part of that, I think, is being able to tune out folly, as distinguished from recognizing wisdom. You've got whole categories of things you just bat away so your brain isn't cluttered with them. That way, you're better able to pick up a few sensible things to do.

  Charlie Munger

  Thinking, Simplicity, Brain

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• There can be - there ought to be - no medium course; a love-affair is either sober earnest or contemptible folly, if not wickedness: to gossip about it is, in the first instance, intrusive, unkind, or dangerous; in the second, simply silly.

  Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

  Silly, Gossip, Wickedness

  "A Woman's Thoughts About Women" by Dinah Maria Murlock Craik, (Ch. 8), 1858.

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• Though it is folly to suppose that happiness is a matter of volition, and that we can make ourselves content and cheerful whenever we choose - a theory that many poor hypochondriacs are taunted with till they are nigh driven mad - yet, on the other hand, no sane mind is ever left without the power of self-discipline and self-control in a measure, which measure increases in proportion as it is exercised.

  Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

  Self, Hands, Discipline

  "A Woman's Thoughts About Women" by Dinah Maria Murlock Craik, (Ch. 10), 1858.

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• Fashionable women regard themselves, and are regarded by men, as pretty toys or as mere instruments of pleasure; and the vacuity of mind, the heartlessness, the frivolity which is the necessary result of this false and debasing estimate of women, can only be fully understood by those who have mingled in the folly and wickedness of fashionable life.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Heart, Men, Mind

  "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman" by Sarah Moore Grimke, Letter 8, 1837.

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• Apathy borders upon folly.

  Publilius Syrus

  Apathy, Borders

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• It is folly to fear what cannot be avoided.

  Publilius Syrus

  Avoided

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• He who boasts of being perfect is perfect in folly. I never saw a perfect man. Every rose has its thorns, and every day its night. Even the sun shows spots, and the skies are darkened with clouds; and faults of some kind nestle in every bosom.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Night, Men, Sky

  Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1892). “Brilliants: selected from the works of C.H. Spurgeon”

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• It is folly to shiver over last year's snow.

  Richard Whately

  Regret, Years, Snow

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• To take offence is a great folly, and to give offence is a great folly - I know not which is the greater.

  Amelia Barr

  Giving, Offence, Knows

  Amelia E. Barr (2017). “The Maid of Maiden Lane: A Sequel to "The Bow of Orange Ribbon." A Love Story”, p.242, Sai ePublications via PublishDrive

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• When people are uncertain about what is right and what is wrong, and anxious about being considered old-fashioned, it seems to be worse than folly that Christians are still arguing about doctrinal matters which can only bring needless distress to a number of people.

  Prince Charles

  Christian, Numbers, People

  "Handicaps of royalty are highlighted by Prince's controversial remarks". "The Times" Newspaper, July 3, 1978.

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