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“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
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“A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry. But were we burd'ned with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain: So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me; But if thou live to see like right bereft, This fool-begged patience in thee will be left.”

IfsShouldSoulPainLeftCryFoolQuietWeightAdversityComplainingTheeGrievingMatesHelplessWretchedUnkindBruisedBereft
Book:The Complete Works
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“I wonder, whether, if I had had any education I should have been more, or less, of a fool than I am. It would have deprived me surely of those exquisite moments of mental flatulence which every now and then inflate the cerebral vacuum with a delicious sense of latent possibilities-of stretching oneself to cosmic limits, and who would ever give up the reality of dreams for relative knowledge?”

IfsGivingShouldHas BeensMomentsDreamRealityWonderPossibilityFoolLimitsGiving UpShould HaveOneselfRelativeCosmicNow And ThenDeliciousDeprivedExquisiteShould Have BeenVacuumsStretchingLatentCerebralFlatulence
Book:Her Brothers Her Journal
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“You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin-just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain.”

IfsKnowsWorldShouldBelieveChildrenFacesLife IsDiesChristEnemyFireHeardDyingSweetFoolGunShotsCrossesSlaveryRoundsDearIsraelChainsVainBridgesThrownPatriotNaziHonoredMartyrMosesPharaohs
Author:Ronald Reagan
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“People will tell us that without the consolations of religion they would be intolerably unhappy. So far as this is true, it is a coward's argument. Nobody but a coward would consciously choose to live in a fool's paradise. When a man suspects his wife of infidelity, he is not thought the better of for shutting his eyes to the evidence. And I cannot see why ignoring evidence should be contemptible in one case and admirable in the other.”

PeopleMenShouldWould BeEyeCasesWifeFoolEvidenceArgumentUnhappyParadiseHis EyesSuspectsCowardInfidelityConsolationAdmirable
Book:Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68
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“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
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“On Bill Clinton: "If left to my own devices, I'd spend all my time pointing out that he's weaker than bus-station chili. But the man is so constantly subjected to such hideous and unfair abuse that I wind up standing up for him on the general principle that some fairness should be applied. Besides, no one but a fool or a Republican ever took him for a liberal.”

IfsMenShouldLeftMy OwnPrinciplesHe ManWindFoolRepublicanStandingAbuseBillsClintonMy TimeDevicesStationsBusFairnessUnfairPointingHideousChili
Author:Molly Ivins
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“I Have often thought if the minds of men were laid open, we should see but little difference between that of the wise man and that of the fool. There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagances, and a perpetual train of vanities which pass through both. The great difference is, that the first knows how to pick and cull his thoughts for conversation, by suppressing some, and communicating others; whereas the other lets them all indifferently fly out in words.”

IfsKnowsMenShouldMindFirstsLittlesDifferencesKnow HowWiseFoolConversationPicksInfiniteTrainCommunicateVanityPerpetualExtravaganceReverieSuppressing
Book:Works, including the whole contents of Bp. Hurd's edition: withletters and other pieces not found in any previous collection; and Macaulay's essay on his life and works
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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.”

IfsThinkingMenShouldHappensStrongImaginationCasesFoolOughtWeakShould HaveConvictionStupidityBeing TrueReverseCompensationObstinateObstinacy
Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“"And when you had made sure of the poor little fool," said my aunt - "God forgive me that I should call her so, and she gone where YOU won't go in a hurry - because you had not done wrong enough to her and hers, you must begin to train her, must you? begin to break her, like a poor caged bird, and wear her deluded life away, in teaching her to sing YOUR notes?"”

LoveShouldLittlesMadeSaidDoneEnoughPoorBreakGoneTeachingFoolBirdForgivingTrainNotesAuntForgive MeDeludedCagedGod ForgivesCaged BirdsGod Forgive Me
Book:David Copperfield
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“The poet presents the imagination with images from life and human characters and situations, sets them all in motion and leaves itto the beholder to let these images take his thoughts as far as his mental powers will permit. This is why he is able to engage men of the most differing capabilities, indeed fools and sages together. The philosopher, on the other hand, presents not life itself but the finished thoughts which he has abstracted from it and then demands that the reader should think precisely as, and precisely as far as, he himself thinks. That is why his public is so small.”

ThinkingMenShouldHumansCharacterHandsAbleTogetherPoetryImaginationSituationPoetFoolReaderDemandPhilosophicalPhilosopherFinishedPermitCapabilitySageBeholderMental Power
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
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“The multiplication of individual sects should not fool us: the important point is that the whole of America is preoccupied with the sect as a moral institution, with its immediate demand for beatification, its material efficacity, its compulsion for justification, and doubtless also with its madness and frenzy.”

ShouldImportantWholeAmericaIndividualMoralMaterialsFoolDemandMadnessInstitutionsJustificationCompulsionSectsFrenzyMultiplication
Book:America
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“In the drawing room [of the Queen's palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupid's foot between Venus's thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied "Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be.”

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Author:Horace Walpole
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“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.”

ThinkingMenShouldLooksArtSometimesProblemMovingUsedSimpleTreeCrazyFoolGeniusSmartOppositesBiggerIntelligentComplexesSolveBranchesArt And ScienceHazySame Thinking
Author:Albert Einstein
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“Four. That's what I want you to remember. If you don't get your idea across in the first four minutes, you won't do it. Four sentences to a paragraph. Four letters to a word. The most important words in the English language all have four letters. Home. Love. Food. Land. Peace. . .I know peace has five letters, but any damn fool knows it should have four.”

IfsKnowsWantShouldFirstsImportantIdeasHomeRememberLanguageFiveFourLandMinutesFoolLettersShould HaveSentencesDamnI Want YouEnglish LanguageParagraphFood LoveImportant Words
Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
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“With money we really fool ourselves. We are our biggest enemies with money and there are some things we can do about it. Automatic deductions are a wonderful thing. But ideally, you should wait until the end of the month, you can see how much extra money you had, and you should put that in your savings account. We don't do that too well, and if we did that, we would never save. So, what we do, is we take money out of our pocket into the saving account at the beginning of the month, take it outside of our control and as a consequence, we spend less and we save more.”

IfsShouldWellsEndsWaitingCan DoEnemyWonderfulFoolMonthsConsequenceAccountsSavingExtrasPocketsWonderful ThingsSavingsDeductionsSavings Accounts
Author:Dan Ariely
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“When I abandoned the smoking habit of more than three decades I was given a supposedly helpful pill called Wellbutrin. But as soon as I discovered that this was the brand name for an antidepressant, I tossed the bottle away. There may be successful methods for overcoming the blues but for me they cannot include a capsule that says: 'Fool yourself into happiness, while pretending not to do so.' I should actually want my mind to be strong enough to circumvent such a trick.”

WantShouldMindMayEnoughThreeNamesStrongGivenSuccessfulFoolHabitOvercomingMethodDecadesTricksBrandsSmokingBeing SuccessfulHelpfulBottlesPretendingAbandonedPillsStrong EnoughAntidepressantsBrand Names
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“One thing should be put firmly. Where people have commented on that novel [The Paper Men], they generally criticize the poor academic, Rick L. Tucker, who is savaged by the author, Wilfred Barclay. I don't think people have noticed that I have been far ruder about Barclay than I have been about Tucker. Tucker is a fool, but Barclay is a swine. The author really gets his come-uppance.”

PeopleThinkingMenShouldHas BeensPoorNovelOne ThingFoolPaperCriticizeAcademicSwine
Author:William Golding
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“I think what all actors share is that, somewhere down in your solar plexus, there's this fear that you're not going to be able to come up with the goods, that this is the one movie where you're going to look like a fool, and they should have cast someone else. And you feel ugly, and you've got three chins, and you've gained too much weight, and you're losing your hair, and there are so many better actors who could do this. But if you've got chops, what you realize is that everybody feels that way, so just show up and do the job.”

IfsThinkingWayFeelsShouldLooksShowsAbleJobsThreeActorsRealizingToo MuchShareHairFoolLosingShould HaveWeightCastsCome UpUglyGoodsChins
Author:William H. Macy
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“may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living whatever they sing is better than to know and if men should not hear them men are old may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it's sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young and may myself do nothing usefully and love yourself so more than truly there's never been quite such a fool who could fail pulling all the sky over him with one smile”

IfsKnowsMenShouldMindHeartMayLittlesYoungSecretFailingSkyFoolMy HeartBirdAnd LoveHungryFearlessSundayLove YourselfPullingThirstySupple
Book:100 Selected Poems
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“In my view, the pro-life movement at this point should focus on seeking to reduce the number of abortions. At times it will require political education and legal fights, at times it will require education and the establishment of alternatives to abortion, such as adoption centers. Unfortunately, such measures are sometimes opposed by so-called hard-liners in the pro-life movement. These hard-liners are fools. Because they want to outlaw all abortions, they refuse to settle for stopping some abortions; the consequence is that they end up preventing no abortions.”

WantShouldEndsSometimesHardPoliticalFightingViewsNumbersFocusMovementFoolConsequenceSeekingRefuseLawyerAlternativesSettlingAbortionEstablishmentAdoptionStoppingPreventingPro LifeOutlawPolitical Education
Author:Dinesh D'Souza
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