Folly Quotes - Page 5

• To stumble twice against the same stone, is a proverbsial disgrace.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Stones, Proverbial, Disgrace

  "Epistles (Letters)". Book by Marcus Tullius Cicero (Book X, Chapter 20), 68-43 BC.

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• Folly always knows the answer.

  Mason Cooley

  Answers, Literature, Knows

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• The greatest men May ask a foolish question, now and then.

  John Wolcot

  Men, May, Foolish

  John Wolcot (1812). “The works of Peter Pindar”, p.460

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• I hold him but a fool that will endanger His body for a girl that loves him not.

  William Shakespeare

  Girl, Body, Fool

  BookCaps, William Shakespeare (2012). “The Two Gentlemen of Verona in Plain and Simple English (A Modern Translation)”, p.241, BookCaps Study Guides

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• Fools are not mad folks.

  William Shakespeare

  Mad, Fool, Folks

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (1773). “Troilus and Cressida. Cymbeline. King Lear”, p.198

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• The shame of fools conceals their open wounds.
  [Lat., Stultorum incurata malus pudor ulcera celat.]

  Horace

  Fool, Shame, Mali

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• A fool is one whom simpletons believe to be a man on merit.
  [Fr., Un fat celui que les sots croient un homme de merite.]

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Believe, Men, Fool

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• Men of all ages have the same inclinations, over which reason exercises no control. Thus, wherever men are found, there are follies, ay, and the same follies.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Exercise, Men, Age

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• The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Religion, Occupation

  Prejudices (1926).

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• A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Sadness, Space, Waste

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• The world is filled with folly and sin, And Love must cling, where it can, I say: For Beauty is easy enough to win; But one isn't loved every day.

  Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton

  Birthday, Winning, And Love

  "Changes". Poem by Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, published in John Bartlett "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations", 10th edition, 1919.

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• PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Justice, Made, Commerce

  Ambrose Bierce (2009). “The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.226, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• If were not foolish young, were foolish old.

  Geoffrey Chaucer

  Foolish, Young, Ifs

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• For take thy ballaunce if thou be so wise, And weigh the winds that under heaven doth blow; Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise; Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow.

  Edmund Spenser

  Wise, Men, Reflection

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• I have play'd the fool, the gross fool, to believe The bosom of a friend will hold a secret Mine own could not contain.

  Philip Massinger

  Believe, Play, Secret

  Philip Massinger (1779). “The Dramatick Works of Philip Massinger...”, p.242

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• No creature smarts so little as a fool.

  Alexander Pope

  Smart, Littles, Fool

  'An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot' (1735) l. 83.

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• Fears of the brave and follies of the wise.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Brave, Prodigies

  'The Vanity of Human Wishes' (1749) l. 315

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• Alas! we see that the small have always suffered for the follies of the great.
  [Fr., Helas! on voit que de tout temps
  Les Petits ont pati des sottises des grands.]

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Alas

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• All places are filled with fools.
  [Lat., Stultorum plenea sunt omnia.]

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Fool, Filled

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• A fool is he that comes to preach or prate,
  When men with swords their right and wrong debate.
  [It., Chi conta i colpi e la dovuta offesa,
  Mentr' arde la tenzon, misura e pesa?]

  Torquato Tasso

  Men, Fool, Debate

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• It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.

  Richard Whately

  Men, May, Expected

  'Apophthegms' p. 219

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• Whether a party can have much success without a woman present I must ask others to decide, but one thing is certain, no party is any fun unless seasoned with folly.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Fun, Party, Certain

  Desiderius Erasmus (1986). “Literary and Educational Writings: Panegyricus and Philippum Austriaeducem. Moriae encomium. Dialogus Julius exclusus e coelis. Institutio principis christiani. Querela pacis”

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• Away with that folly that her rights would be detrimental to her character - that if she were recognized as the equal to a man she would cease to be a woman!

  Ernestine Rose

  Character, Men, Rights

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• There ought to be no laws to guarantee property against the folly of its possessors.

  William Graham Sumner

  Law, Guarantees, Property

  William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.50, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Military, Law

  Sir Winston Churchill, Jack Fishman (1974). “If I lived my life again”, W.H. Allen

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