Foolish Quotes - Page 20

• A fool and his money are soon parted. - Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.

  Thomas Tusser

  Money, Italian, Taxation

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• The foolish ofttimes teach the wise: I strain too much this string of life, belike, Meaning to make such music as shall save. Mine eyes are dim now that they see the truth, My strength is waned now that my need is most; Would that I had such help as man must have, For I shall die, whose life was all men's hope.

  Edwin Arnold

  Wise, Eye, Men

  Edwin Arnold (2016). “The Light of Asia, or the Great Renunciation (Mahâbhinishkramana): Being the Life and Teaching of Gautama, Prince of India and Founder of Buddhism (as Told in Verse by an Indian Buddhist)”, p.80, Routledge

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• The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and, when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right.

  Edmund Burke

  Wise, Moments, Individual

  Edmund Burke (1963). “Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches”, p.398, Transaction Publishers

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• Let me live in my house by the side of the road, Where the race of men go by; They are good, they are bad; they are weak, they are strong, Wise, foolish,--so am I; Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat, Or hurl the cynic's ban? Let me live in my house by the side of the road, And be a friend to man.

  Sam Walter Foss

  Wise, Strong, Men

  Sam Walter Foss, “The House By The Side Of The Road”

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• The point is that profound but contradictory ideas may exist side by side, if they are constructed from different materials and methods. and have different purposes. Each tells us something important about where we stand in the universe, and it is foolish to insist that they must despise each other.

  Neil Postman

  Ideas, Profound, Important

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• A line runs from the meditations of the heart to the words of the mouth. The meditations are not clear to us until the mouth utters its words. If what the mouth utters is unclear or foolish or mendacious, it must be that the meditations are the same. But the line runs both ways. The words of the mouth will become the meditations of the heart, and the habit of loose talk loosens the fastenings of our understanding.

  Richard Mitchell

  Running, Heart, Meditation

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• I simply make music, and people have always been foolish enough to pay me for it. I never told them that I would have done it all for nothing.

  Leopold Stokowski

  People, Done, Pay

  CBS TV, 1976.

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• The foolish think the Eagle weak, and easy to bring to heel. The Eagle's wings are silken, but its claws are made of steel.

  Sidney Sheldon

  Thinking, Eagles, Wings

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• But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

  Paul the Apostle

  Talking, Giving, Saint

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• Keep this little canvas, it is a promise for the future. When I say 'keep this canvas,' I mean for the influence on yourself. When one does a good thing, it's well to keep it to show how foolish we are at other times.

  Charles Webster Hawthorne

  Future, Mean, Promise

  Richard Mühlberger, Charles Webster Hawthorne (1999). “Charles Webster Hawthorne”, University of Washington Press

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• Such an experiment without actual conditions of war to support it is a foolish waste of time. . . . I once saw a man kill a lion with a 30-30 caliber rifle under certain conditions, but that doesn't mean that a 30-30 rifle is a lion gun.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  War, Mean, Men

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• The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with potions and powders, but with the exercise of an influence of the strong upon the weak, of the righteous upon the wicked, of the wise upon the foolish.

  William Osler

  Wise, Art, Strong

  Sir William Osler (1963). “Aequanimitas, and Other Papers that Have Stood the Test of Time. [With an Introd. by Paul Dudley White]”

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• How are you to meet the swarm of foolish attachments, triflings, and undesirable inclinations which beset you? By turning sharply away, and thoroughly renouncing such vanities, flying to the Saviour's Cross, and clasping His Crown of thorns to your heart, so that these little foxes may not spoil your vines. Beware of entering into any manner of treaty with the Enemy; do not delude yourself by listening to him while intending to reject him.

  Saint Francis de Sales

  Heart, Vanity, Attachment

  Saint Francis de Sales, Catholic Way Publishing (2015). “The Saint Francis de Sales Collection [16 Books]”, p.249, Catholic Way Publishing

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• It is a great mistake to think that the extremist is a better man than the moderate. Usually the difference is not that he is morally stronger, but that he is intellectually weaker. He is not more virtuous. He is simply more foolish.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Mistake, Thinking, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses”, p.64, Courier Corporation

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• When we are foolish, we want to conquer the world. When we are wise, we want to conquer ourselves. That begins when we do what we should no matter how we feel about it.

  John C. Maxwell

  Motivational, Wise, Conquer The World

  John C. Maxwell (2015). “The Leadership Handbook: 26 Critical Lessons Every Leader Needs”, p.15, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• Power is very much like the wind. It comes and goes; no one really owns it. People are foolish enough to think they possess power. You don't possess power, power possesses you. Power uses you.

  Frederick Lenz

  Thinking, Power, Wind

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• The worldly wisdom of the foolish man Is like a sieve, that does alone retain The grosser substance of the worthless bran: But thou, my soul, let thy brave thoughts disdain So coarse a purchase: O be thou a fan To purge the chaff, and keep the winnow'd grain: Make clean thy thoughts, and dress thy mixt desires: Thou art Heav'n's tasker, and thy God requires The purest of thy flow'r, as well as of thy fires.

  Francis Quarles

  Art, Men, Foolish Man

  Richard Crashaw, Francis Quarles, George Gilfillan (1857). “The Poetical Works of Richard Crashaw and Quarles' Emblems”, p.249

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• My mother took too much, a great deal too much, care of me; she over-educated, over-instructed, over-dosed me with premature lessons of prudence: she was so afraid that I should ever do a foolish thing, or not say a wise one, that she prompted my every word, and guided my every action. So I grew up, seeing with her eyes, hearing with her ears, and judging with her understanding, till, at length, it was found out that I had not eyes, ears or understanding of my own.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Wise, Mother, Eye

  Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1826). “Works of Maria Edgeworth: Tales of fashionable life. 1826.- -v. 7. Patronage. 1825”, p.2

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• Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle. Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for the others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever.

  Bertrand Russell

  Struggle, Quality, Needs

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “In Praise of Idleness”, p.1, Lulu Press, Inc

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• One of the most ridiculous defenses of foreign aid is that it is a very small part of our national income. If the average American set fire to a five-dollar bill, it would be an even smaller percentage of his annual income. But everyone would consider him foolish for doing it.

  Thomas Sowell

  Fire, Average, Dollar Bills

  "Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays". Book by Thomas Sowell, 1999.

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• In Paris, everything's for sale: wise virgins, foolish virgins, truth and lies, tears and smiles.

  Emile Zola

  Wise, Lying, Paris

  Emile Zola (1984). “The Attack on the Mill and Other Stories”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Giving advice is many times only the privilege of saying a foolish thing one's self, under the pretense of hindering another from doing one.

  Alexander Pope

  Self, Giving, Advice

  Alexander Pope, Alexander Chalmers (1807). “A Supplementary Volume to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: Containing Pieces of Poetry, Not Inserted in Warburton's and Warton's Editions : and a Collection of Letters, Now First Published”, p.122

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• I am far more provoked at being thought foolish by foolish people, than pleased at being thought sensible by sensible people; and the average proportion of the numbers of each is not to my advantage.

  John Ruskin

  Average, Numbers, People

  John Ruskin, Kenneth Clark (1991). “Selected writings”, Penguin Group USA

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

  John Wolcot

  Men, May, Now And Then

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

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• That a mouse of scandal whisks its foolish tail across the church's floor is not sufficient cause for clamorous leaping out of its windows.

  Austin O'Malley

  Church, Tails, Scandal

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