Quotessence
Home / Topics / Fool Quotes

Fool Quotes

Browse 4015 quotes about Fool.

Related topics

MenIfsWisePeopleThinkingKnowsWorldMayWayDoeWantSaidMadeWellsBelieveFoolishnessTryingEnoughLooksStupidGivingShouldFollyHeartFirstsLongWisdomLyingMindFeelsFunnyFoolishPersonsStupidityChildrenLittlesStillsYearsHumansSometimesWritingSufferingInspirationalEndsNeedsKindLifeReasonHas BeensMeanUseI CanMightPlayDoneFools And FoolishnessHandsEyeKnavesLovePoorShowsSpeakTwoWould BeYoungArtBookLaughingRealSeemsGeniusMistakeSchoolSelfAgeRunningFools And WiseHardLastsPoliticalEasyIdeasWholeCharacterFooledMomentsPoliticsDreamHonestHumorIntelligentMastersWarWitDamnFactsHalfLiarsOpinionmore

Fool Quotes

“In a world where God does not exist, any reasonable person must see that the propensity toward selfishness should be the most venerated of all human traits. From this it stands to reason that any man, knowing the total expanse of his existence to be finite, who does not devote every moment of his life to acts of pure selfishness, must be seen as nothing more than a fool.”

MenWorldLifeShouldHumansPersonsDoeReasonMomentsExistenceKnowingFoolPureSelfishnessReasonableTraitsFinitePropensityExpanse
Author:Derek R. Audette
Create image

“It is ignorance that is at times incomprehensible to the wise; for instance, he may not see 'the positive person' or 'the negative person' in a black and white way as many people do. A wise man may not understand it because, as a catalyst of wisdom, but not wise in his own eyes, even he can learn from and give back to fools. To think that an individual has absolutely nothing to offer to the table is counter-intuitively what the wise man considers to be 'the ignorance of hopelessness'.”

PeopleThinkingMenWayGivingMayPersonsEyeIndividualBlackWhiteWiseIgnoranceFoolOffersNegativeTablesInstanceBlack And WhiteHopelessnessGiving BackAbsolutely NothingCatalystPositive Person
Book:Killosophy
Create image

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.”

WayFirstsPersonsEasyPrinciplesHonestFoolScientistCarefulBeing HonestConventionalFooledConventional Ways
Book:Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character as Told to Ralph Leighton
Create image

“The sincere love of books has nothing to do with cleverness or stupidity any more than any other sincere love. It is a quality of character, a freshness, a power of pleasure, a power of faith. A silly person may delight in reading masterpieces just as a silly person may delight in picking flowers. A fool may be in love with a poet as he may be in love with a woman.”

MayPersonsBookCharacterReadingPleasureQualityPoetFlowerFoolDelightStupiditySillySincereMasterpieceClevernessFreshnessSincere LovePicking FlowersSilly Person
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
Create image

“Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs.”

ShouldHumansPersonsFeelingsWould BeHuman BeingsPleasureAnimalChangedFoolPromiseCreaturesConscienceIntelligentSelfishSatisfiedBeastConsentAllowanceBeing SelfishRascalsDunces
Book:The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill
Create image

“Erasmus dramatizes a well-established political position: that of the fool who claims license to criticize all and sundry without reprisal, since his madness defines him as not fully a person and therefore not a political being with political desires and ambitions. The Praise of Folly, therefore sketches the possibility of a position for the critic of the scene of political rivalry, a position not simply impartial between the rivals but also, by self-definition, off the stage of rivalry altogether.”

WellsPersonsSelfPoliticalDesireStagePossibilityPositionFoolSceneAmbitionClaimsMadnessPraiseCriticsDefinitionsFollyCriticizeLicenseRivalsRivalryReprisalErasmus
Author:J. M. Coetzee
Create image

“Speak not of guilt, speak not of responsibility. When the Regiment of the Senses parades by, with music, and with banners; when the senses shiver and shudder, it is only a fool and and an irreverent person that will keep his distance, who will not embrace the good cause, marching towards the conquest of pleasures and passions. All of morality's laws - poorly understood and applied - are nil and cannot stand even for a moment, when the Regiment of the Senses parades by, with music, and with banners.”

PersonsMomentsLawPassionSpeakCausesPleasureResponsibilityFoolMoralityUnderstoodEmbraceDistanceGuiltSensesConquestParadesBannerShiverGood CausesIrreverent
Author:C.P. Cavafy
Create image

“Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.”

KnowsMayPersonsArtSilenceQualityOpinionFoolConversationGainsCreditTongueWitSilence IsGreat ArtEloquenceArt Of Conversation
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
Create image

“Consider in fact, a body of six hundred and fifty-eight miscellaneous persons, set to consult about "business," with twenty-seven millions, mostly fools, assiduously listening to them, and checking and criticising them. Was there ever, since the world began, will there ever be till the world end, any "business" accomplished in these circumstances?”

WorldPersonsEndsFactsBodyGovernmentMillionsListeningFoolCircumstancesSixHundredTwentiesSevenEightAccomplishedFiftyMiscellaneous
Book:The Selected Works of Thomas Carlyle
Create image

“The great Tibetan meditator Gungtang Jampelyang once asked 'What is the difference between a wise man and a fool?' The difference lies in their intention. A wise person is someone who has a good intention, not someone who merely possesses knowledge.”

MenPersonsLyingDifferencesKnowledgeWiseFoolIntentionGood IntentionsTibetanWise Person
Book:Joyful Path of Good Fortune: The Complete Buddhist Path to Enlightenment
Create image

“I'll suffer no daughter of mine to play the fool with her heart, indeed! She shall marry for the purpose for which matrimony was ordained amongst people of birth--that is, for the aggrandisement of her family, the extending of their political influence--for becoming, in short, the depository of their mutual interest. These are the only purposes for which persons of rank ever think of marriage.”

PeopleThinkingHeartPersonsPlayPoliticalPurposeSufferingInterestInfluenceMinesFoolBirthBecomingDaughterMutualMatrimonyExtendingMutual InterestPolitical Influence
Book:Marriage [by S.E. Ferrier]. Edinb. ed
Create image

“It may be remarked in general, that the laugh of men of wit is for the most part but a feint, constrained kind of half-laugh, as such persons are never without some diffidence about them; but that of fools is the most honest, natural, open laugh in the world.”

MenWorldKindMayPersonsNaturalHalfLaughingHonestFoolLaughterWitDiffidence
Book:The Guardian, with Notes, and General Indexes: Complete in One Volume
Create image

“The schoolmaster is the person who takes the children off the parents' hands for a consideration. That is to say, he establishes a child prison, engages a number of employee schoolmasters as turnkeys, and covers up the essential cruelty and unnaturalness of the situation by torturing the children if they do not learn, and calling this process, which is within the capacity of any fool or blackguard, by the sacred name of Teaching.”

IfsChildrenPersonsHandsNamesProcessParentNumbersSituationTeachingFoolCallingEssentialsCapacitySacredPrisonCrueltyEmployeeConsiderationCover Ups
Author:George Bernard Shaw
Create image

“That mortal is a fool who, prospering, thinks his life has any strong foundation; since our fortune's course of action is the reeling way a madman takes, and no one person is ever happy all the time.”

ThinkingWayPersonsActionCoursesStrongFoolFoundationFortuneMortalsMadmenProsperingStrong Foundation
Book:Euripides III: Heracles, The Trojan Women, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Ion
Create image

“This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well craves a kind of wit: He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time, And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practise As full of labour as a wise man's art For folly that he wisely shows is fit; But wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit.”

MenWellsKindPersonsArtEnoughPlayShowsEyeFallQualityWiseFoolFitFellowsWitMoodChecksHis EyesFollyLabourFeathersCravePractiseViolaHaggard
Book:Twelfth Night, Or, What You Will
Create image

“Everybody's heart is like a cup. They stumble from place to place and person to person, trying to get them filled. They get cracked, those cups, and even broken. Some people throw them away, thinking that it will stop the pain. Poor fools. Nobody can fill a cup but Almighty God Himself. Nobody.”

PeopleThinkingTryingHeartPersonsPainPoorBrokenFoolFilledCupsAlmightyCrackedAlmighty God
Book:McKettrick Men Complete Collection: McKettrick's Luck\McKettrick's Pride\McKettrick's Heart
Create image