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“There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell?divine as the vale of Tempe; you might have seen the gods there morning and eveningApollo and the sweet Muses of the Light? You enterprised a railroad?you blasted its rocks away? And, now, every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton.”

Light Might Hours Half Morning Rocks Divine Sweet Fool Valleys Muse Railroads

Author:John Ruskin

“Honesty was a cheat invented first To bind the hands of bold deserving rogues, That fools and cowards might sit safe in power, And lord it uncontroll'd above their betters.”

Firsts Hands Might Lord Honesty Fool Safe Coward Cheat Deserving Rogues

Author:Thomas Otway

“But once a fool always a fool, and the greater the power in his hands the more disastrous is likely to be the use he makes of it. The heaviest calamity in English history, the breach with America, might never have occurred if George the Third had not been an honest dullard.”

Ifs Use Hands Might America Greater Honest Fool Thirds Calamity Breach English History

Author:James G. Frazer

“Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.”

Might Fool Criminals Defence Athenians

Book:Plutarch's Morals

Source: Plutarch's Morals

“Some people', Miss R. said,'run to conceits or wisdom but I hold to the hard, brown, nutlike word. I might point out that there is enough aesthetic excitement here to satisfy anyone but a damned fool.”

People Said Hard Enough Might Running Missing Fool Excitement Brown Aesthetic Conceit

Author:Donald Barthelme

“To turn away a guest is poorest poverty; To bear with fools is mightiest might.”

Might Turns Poverty Fool Bears Guests Poorest

Author:Thiruvalluvar

“Luke Jermay is as devious as he's clever, and he's a Master at complication - with this take on TTTCBE he might just fool the Devil.”

Might Masters Fool Devil Clever Luke Complication Devious

Author:Roberto Giobbi

“Faith may rise into miracles of might, as some few wise men have shown; faith may sink into credulities of weakness, as the mass of fools have witnessed.”

Men May Might Faith Wise Fool Mass Weakness Miracle Credulity

Book:Tupper's Proverbial philosophy: a book of thoughts and arguments, originally treated : first and second series

Source: Tupper's Proverbial philosophy: a book of thoughts and arguments, originally treated : first and second series

“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.”

Knows Men Might Next Consciousness Know How Fool Wit Best Things Behave

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man.”

Men Play Might Fool Advantage Fortune Knaves

Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)

“Then might ye see Cowls, hoods, and habits with their wearers tost And flutter'd into rags; then reliques, beads, Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls, The sport of winds; all these upwhirl'd aloft Fly to the rearward of the world far off Into a limbo large and broad, since called The paradise of fools.”

World Might Sports Wind Fool Habit Paradise Broads Bulls Indulgence Pardon Hood Rags Beads Limbo

Author:John Milton

“You can be a thorough-going Neo-Darwinian without imagination, metaphysics, poetry, conscience, or decency. For 'Natural Selection' has no moral significance: it deals with that part of evolution which has no purpose, no intelligence, and might more appropriately be called accidental selection, or better still, Unnatural Selection, since nothing is more unnatural than an accident. If it could be proved that the whole universe had been produced by such Selection, only fools and rascals could bear to live.”

“I bear a burden that might well try Men that do all by rule, And what can I That am a wandering-witted fool But pray to God that He ease My great responsibilities?”

Men Trying Wells Might Faith Responsibility Fool Bears Praying Burden Wander Ease Praying To God Great Responsibility Try Me

Book:Later Poems

Source: Later Poems

“The word 'We' is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages.”

Men Might Lost Strong Black White Virtue Fool Stones Weak Stealing Crush Grey Sage Depraved Limes

Book:Anthem

Source: Anthem

“Mankind, from Adam, have been women's fools; Women, from Eve, have been the devil's tools: Heaven might have spar'd one torment when we fell; Not left us women, or not threatened hell.”

Has Beens Might Left Heaven Women Hell Mankind Fool Devil Tools Adam Threatened Torment

Author:George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne

“That great philosopher anonymous once said, never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.”

People Knows Said Might Differences Fool Philosopher Arguing Murphys Law Great Philosophers

Author:Tucker Carlson

“There are quite a few things I've done that even I thought might have been one step too far. But if you are willing to make a fool of yourself and make people smile, as long as you do it with a sense of fun, you can get away with it.”

People Ifs Long Has Beens Done Might Fun Steps Willing Fool Get Away Might Have Been Make People Smile

Author:Richard Branson

“You might have been able to fool people the first time, or something, but you really can't make a successful sequel today unless people really, really liked the predecessor.”

People Firsts Has Beens Might Today Able Successful Fool First Time Might Have Been Sequels Predecessors

Author:Neal H. Moritz

“The way in which a certain kind of political idealism has been discredited and scorned makes the danger not that intellectuals keep on making fools of themselves, formulating political opinions when they might not be as informed as they might be, but that they retreat and leave politics to the professionals.”

Way Kind Has Beens Might Political Certain Opinion Danger Fool Idealism Retreat Scorned Political Opinions

Author:Susan Sontag

“Ask questions. Listen. Be quiet. Be willing to make a fool of yourself. Be willing to be completely exposed and to give all you've got and to be rejected for your troubles. But expect magic to happen. It just might. And don't worry about winning the audition, just win the room.”

Giving Might Happens Asks Winning Rooms Worry Trouble Magic Willing Fool Quiet Exposed Rejected Auditions

Author:Bill Oberst Jr.

“People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence. A contemptuous indifference turns into an enemy a woman who, well treated, might have been an angel.”

People Men Wells Looks Has Beens Might Turns Enemy Teaching Fool Angel Average Treated Indifference Might Have Been Contemptuous

Author:Andre Maurois

“With the superciliousness of extreme youth, I put thirty-five as the utmost limit at which a man might fall in love without making a fool of himself.”

Men Might Fall Five Youth Fool Limits Falling In Love Extremes Thirty

Book:The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence

“...I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire...I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.”

Men Giving Trying May Said Moments Might Remember Desire Forget Fields Fool Victory Battle Despair Illusion Breaths Philosopher Conquer Folly Now And Then Forget It Fury Mausoleum

Author:William Faulkner

“If you are trying to fool a farsighted or dimwitted person, a veiled facial disguise might be enough.”

Ifs Trying Persons Enough Might Fool Disguise Facial

Author:Daniel Handler

“GOING TO WALDEN It isn't very far as highways lie. I might be back by nightfall, having seen The rough pines, and the stones, and the clear water. Friends argue that I might be wiser for it. They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper: How dull we grow from hurrying here and there! Many have gone, and think me half a fool To miss a day away in the cool country. Maybe. But in a book I read and cherish, Going to Walden is not so easy a thing As a green visit. It is the slow and difficult Trick of living, and finding it where you are.”

Source: The River Styx, Ohio, and other poems

“I am not sad, he would repeat to himself over and over, I am not sad. As if he might one day convince himself. Or fool himself. Or convince others -- The only thing worse than being sad is for others to know that you are sad.”

Ifs Knows Might Fool One Day Repeats Convince Being Sad

Book:Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

“Go to bed, you fool," Calcifer said sleepily. "You're drunk." "Who, me?" said Howl. "I assure you, my friends, I am cone sold stober." He got up and stalked upstairs, feeling for the wall as if he thought it might escape him unless he kept in touch with it. His bedroom door did escape him.”

Ifs Said Feelings Might Doors Wall Fool Bed My Friends Drunk Bedroom Howl Upstairs Cones Howl's Moving Castle Calcifer

Book:Wizard's Castle

Source: Wizard's Castle

“He believed that he must, that he could and would recover the good things, the happy things, the easy tranquil things of life. He had made mistakes, but he could overlook these. He had been a fool, but that could be forgiven. The time wasted--must be relinquished. What else could one do about it? Things were too complex, but they might be reduced to simplicity again. Recovery was possible.”

Made Might Easy Mistake Fool Good Things Complexes Simplicity Recovery Forgiven Made A Mistake Tranquil Wasted Time Happy Things

Author:Saul Bellow

“People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”

People Thinking Want Believe Facts Might Lying Motivation Belief Given Differences Stupid Fool Easier Being True True People

Author:Terry Goodkind

“The old tale of Sleeping Beauty might end happily in French or English, but he was in Russia, and only a fool would want to live through the Russian version of any fairy tale.”

Want Ends Might Sleep Fool Russia Tales Versions Fairy Fairy Tale Sleeping Beauty

Book:Enchantment

Source: Enchantment

“In the Tarot deck, the Fool is depicted as a young man about to step off a cliff into empty air. Most people assume that the Fool will fall. But we don't see it happen, and a Fool doesn't know that he's subject to the laws of gravity. Against all odds, he just might float.”

People Knows Men Might Happens Law Young Fall Steps Air Subjects Fool Empty Assuming Young Man Gravity Odds Floats Cliffs Deck Tarot Against All Odds

Book:Butcher Bird

Source: Butcher Bird

“I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?”

Said Might Known Objects Wall Fool Eternal Red Burning Urges Iron Pits Bosoms Garments Eternal Peace

Book:The Tell-Tale Heart: And Other Stories - Purloined Letter, Descent into the Maelström, Von Kempelen and His Discovery, Mesmeric Revelation, Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, Black Cat, Fall of the House of Usher, Masque of the Red Death and Many More

Source: The Tell-Tale Heart: And Other Stories - Purloined Letter, Descent into the Maelström, Von Kempelen and His Discovery, Mesmeric Revelation, Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, Black Cat, Fall of the House of Usher, Masque of the Red Death and Many More

“She could not bear the thought. She simply could not bear the thought that she might somehow prove to her grandfather that her mother had indeed been a fool and her father had been a damned fool and that she was the damnedest fool of them all.”

Might Mother Father Fool Bears Prove Grandfather

Book:Ten Things I Love About You

Source: Ten Things I Love About You

“For in me there have always been two fools, among others, one asking nothing better than to stay where he is and the other imagining that life might be slightly less horrible a little further on.”

Littles Two Might Fool Asking Horrible

Book:I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader

Source: I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader

“I cared more about your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In other words I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act.”

Ifs Mind Might Lost Knowing Plans Fool Peace Of Mind Knowing The Truth

Author:J. K. Rowling

“But we do need a breather. We do need knowledge. And perhaps in a thousand years we might pick smaller cliffs to jump off. The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They’re Caesar’s praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, ‘Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.’ Most of us can’t rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven’t time, money or that many friends. The things you’re looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book.”

Source: Fahrenheit 451