Fool Quotes - Page 17

• A fool is often as dangerous to deal with as a knave, and always more incorrigible.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Knaves, Dangerous, Deals

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.188

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• The best thing next to wit is a consciousness that it is not in us; without wit, a man might then know how to behave himself, so as not to appear to be a fool or a coxcomb.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Might, Next

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• If it be true that men of strong imaginations are usually dogmatists--and I am inclined to think it is so--it ought to follow that men of weak imaginations are the reverse; in which case we should have some compensation for stupidity. But it unfortunately happens that no dogmatist is more obstinate or less open to conviction than a fool.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Strong, Men, Thinking

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.95

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• The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.
  [Fr., Du meme fonds dont on neglige un homme de merite l'on sait encore admirer un sot.]

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Principles, Merit

  "Les Caractères", XII, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 510-11,

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• Nothing shows the kind of fool you are as quick as your tongue.

  Kate Langley Bosher

  Talking, Speech, Tongue

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• The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may going to prove one's self a fool.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Hero, Self, Doubt

  The Blithedale Romance ch. 2 (1852)

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• He was the freeman whom the truth made free;
  Who first of all, the bands of Satan broke;
  Who broke the bands of sin, and for his soul,
  In spite of fools consulted seriously.

  Robert Pollok

  Freedom, Soul, Firsts

  Robert Pollok (1833). “The Course of Time, a Poem: With a Memoir of the Author, an Introductory Notice, a Copious Index, and an Analysis Prefixed to Each Book”, p.74

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• Thus unlamented pass the proud away,
  The gaze of fools and pageant of a day;
  So perish all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow
  For others' good, or melt at others' woe.

  Alexander Pope

  Pride, Proud, Woe

  Alexander Pope, Henry Francis Cary (1841). “The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Edited by the Rev. H. F. Cary, Etc”, p.31

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• Let no one expect anything of certainty from astronomy, lest if anyone take as true that which has been constructed for another use, he go away... a bigger fool than when he came to it.

  Bill Vaughan

  Going Away, Use, Astronomy

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• You can fool people some of the time, but you can't fool them all of the time.

  Aesop

  Honesty, People

  Albert Cullum, Aesop (1972). “Aesop in the afternoon”

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• How often have I not heard a perfectly intelligent female says, in the tone of one clinching an argument, 'Edgar says -- ' And all the time you are perfectly aware that Edgar is a perfect fool.

  Agatha Christie

  Intelligent, Perfect, Tone

  Agatha Christie (1931). “The man in the brown suit”

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• Titles and mottoes to books are like escutcheons and dignities in the hands of a king. The wise sometimes condescend to accept of them; but none but a fool would imagine them of any real importance. We ought to depend upon intrinsic merit, and not the slender helps of the title.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Wise, Kings, Real

  Oliver Goldsmith (1820). “Essays and The Bee”

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• A rogue is a roundabout fool.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Rogues

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Nelson Coleridge (1851). “Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge”, p.11

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• The authority of reason is far more imperious than that of a master; for he who disobeys the one is unhappy, but he who disobeys the other is a fool.

  Blaise Pascal

  Unhappy, Reason, Authority

  Blaise Pascal (1829). “Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects”, p.263

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• Courage multiplies the chances of success by sometimes making opportunities, and always availing itself of them; and in this sense Fortune may be said to favor fools by those who, however prudent in their opinion, are deficient in valor and enterprise.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Courage, Opportunity, Prudent

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1854). “The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions”, p.476

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• You cannot fool an audience.

  Marian Anderson

  Audience

  Marian Anderson (1956). “My Lord, what a Morning: An Autobiography”, University of Illinois Press

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• Were I to be angry at men being fools, I could here find ample room for declamation; but, alas! I have been a fool myself; and why should I be angry with them for being something so natural to every child of humanity?

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Children, Men, Humanity

  Oliver Goldsmith (1835). “His Works”, p.168

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• Bets at first were fool-traps, where the wise like spiders lay in ambush for the flies.

  John Dryden

  Wise, Gambling, Spiders

  John Dryden, Sir Walter Scott (1808). “The works of John Dryden now first collected ...”, p.123

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• Hath fortune dealt thee ill cards? let wisdom make thee a good gamester. In a fair gale, every fool may sail, but wise behavior in a storm commends the wisdom of a pilot; to bear adversity with an equal mind is both the sign and glory of a brave spirit.

  Francis Quarles

  Wise, Adversity, Brave

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• Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee. If thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou hunt after it, it destroys thee. If virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory. It is the wise man's bonfire, and the fool's furnace.

  Francis Quarles

  Beauty, Wise, Heart

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.57

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• Wrinkle not thy face with too much laughter, lest thou become ridiculous; neither wanton thy heart with too much mirth, lest thou become vain: the suburbs of folly is vain mirth, and profuseness of laughter is the city of fools.

  Francis Quarles

  Laughter, Heart, Wrinkles

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

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• Men are so completely fools by necessity that he is but a fool in a higher strain of folly who does not confess his foolishness.

  Blaise Pascal

  Men, Doe, Higher

  Blaise Pascal (1829). “Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects”, p.222

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• Let the gulled fool the toil of war pursue, where bleed the many to enrich the few.

  William Shenstone

  War, Toil, Pursue

  William Shenstone, “The Judgement Of Hercules”

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• Only the fools are certain and assured.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Wisdom, Certain, Defiance

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.111, Stanford University Press

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• George Burns . . . the only man I know who does fool Mother Nature.

  Ronald Reagan

  Mother, Men, Doe

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