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Foolish Quotes

Browse 1719 quotes about Foolish.

Foolish Quotes

“The press is like a woman: sublime when it lies, it will not let go until it has forced you to believe it. The public, like a foolish husband, always succumbs.”

Believe Lying Husband Letting Go Presses Foolish Sublime

Author:Honore de Balzac

“A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.”

“No substance in nature, as far as yet known, has, when it reaches the brain, such power to induce mental and moral changes of a disastrous character as alcohol. Its transforming power is marvelous, and often appalling. It seems to open a way of entrance into the soul for all classes of foolish, insane or malignant spirits, who, so long as it remains in contact with the brain, are able to hold possession.”

Way Long Soul Character Seems Able Spirit Brain Known Moral Class Remains Possession Alcohol Foolish Contact Insane Substance Marvelous Transforming Entrances

Author:Timothy Shay Arthur

“Pray, do not mock me. I am a very foolish fond old man, Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less; And, to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind.”

Men Mind Age Hours Perfect Deals Praying Foolish Old Man Mock

Author:William Shakespeare

“Riches expose a man to pride and luxury, and a foolish elation of heart.”

Men Heart Rich Pride Riches Foolish Luxury Elation

Author:Joseph Addison

“It is foolish to pluck out one's hair for sorrow, as if grief could be assuaged by baldness.”

Ifs Grief Hair Sorrow Foolish Pluck Baldness

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“He is a foolish swimmer who swims against the stream, when he might take the current sideways.”

Might Simplicity Currents Foolish Streams Swim Sideways Swimmer

Author:Ovid

“It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.”

Thinking Heaven Foolish Entering Canaries

Author:Bill Vaughan

“Empty Chambers make foolish maides.”

Empty Foolish Chamber

Book:The Complete Works of George Herbert: Prose

Source: The Complete Works of George Herbert: Prose

“Foolish tongues talke by the dozen.”

Tongue Foolish Dozen

Book:The Works of George Herbert: In Prose and Verse

Source: The Works of George Herbert: In Prose and Verse

“The folly of others is ever most ridiculous to those who are themselves most foolish.”

Foolish Ridiculous Folly

Book:The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith

Source: The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith

“Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.”

Men Want Reason Animal Grief Virtue Foolish Irrational Consolation Insensibility

Book:Enchiridion

Source: Enchiridion

“All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought is therefore by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It must have strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that nothing is more ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects! But what is this thought? How foolish it is!”

Men Wonderful Strange Dignity Foolish Ridiculous Defects Incomparable

Book:Thoughts, Letters and Minor Works

Source: Thoughts, Letters and Minor Works

“Fashion is a tyrant from which nothing frees us. We must suit ourselves to its fantastic tastes. But being compelled to live under its foolish laws, the wise man is never the first to follow, nor the last to keep it.”

Men Firsts Lasts Law Wise Fashion Taste Foolish Suits Fantastic Tyrants Compelled

Author:Blaise Pascal

“All wars are sacred to those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars didn't make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight?”

People Ifs War Enough Would Be Fighting Sacred Foolish

Book:Gone with the wind

Source: Gone with the wind

“First loves are not necessarily more foolish than others; but the chances are certainly against them. Proximity of time or place, a variety of accidental circumstances more than the essential merits of the object, often produce what is called first love.”

Firsts Chance Objects Produce Circumstances Essentials Foolish Variety Merit First Love Chances Are Proximity

Book:Works

Source: Works

“of all the foolish Fears of Humankind, Fear of the Future is by far the most foolish.”

Fear Future Foolish Humankind Fear Of The Future

Author:Erica Jong

“The delusions of the past seem fond and foolish. The delusions of the present seem subtle and sane.”

Seems Past Foolish Subtle Delusion Sane

Author:Agnes Repplier

“We are foolish, and without excuse foolish, in speaking of the superiority of one sex to the other, as if they could be compared in similar things! Each has what the other has not; each completes the other; they are in nothing alike and the happiness and perfection of both depend on each asking and receiving from the other what the other only can give.”

Ifs Giving Sex Depends Perfection Asking Excuse Equality Foolish Receiving Superiority

Book:Sesame and Lilies

Source: Sesame and Lilies

“The instruction of the foolish is a waste of knowledge; soap cannot wash charcoal white.”

White Waste Foolish Instruction Soap Charcoal

Author:Kabir

“Intemperance is a dangerous companion. It throws many people off their guard, betrays them to a great many indecencies, to ruinous passions, to disadvantages in fortune; makes them discover secrets, drive foolish bargains, engage in play, and often to stagger from the tavern to the stews.”

People Play Passion Secret Dangerous Fortune Foolish Great Men Companion Betray Bargains Disadvantages Drunkenness Stew Taverns Intemperance

Book:Essays upon several moral subjects

Source: Essays upon several moral subjects

“the more a body tries to explode all the foolish myths that have grown up about Texas by telling the truth, the more a body will wind up adding to the mythology.”

Trying Body Wind Myth Foolish Mythology Telling The Truth Texas

Book:Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?

Source: Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?

“I have known several persons of great fame for wisdom in public affairs and councils governed by foolish servants. I have known great ministers, distinguished for wit and learning, who preferred none but dunces. I have known men of valor cowards to their wives. I have known men of cunning perpetually cheated. I knew three ministers who would exactly compute and settle the accounts of a kingdom, wholly ignorant of their own economy.”

“The moment you decide that you're a grownup now, and therefore must put away foolish things like staying out all night or cruising down strange highways is the moment you will lose that ineffable glow of youth. If you don't believe me, look around. Study those people who would rather go to shopping malls than dance halls, who think the height of depravity is bidding two no trump with only fifteen points. Every single one of these people has a stringy neck.”

“An infatuated man is not only foolish, but wild.”

Men Foolish Infatuation Infatuated

Author:George Crabbe

“I like better for one to say some foolish thing upon important matters than to be silent. That becomes the subject of discussion and dispute, and the truth is discovered.”

Important Matter Silence Subjects Truth Is Silent Foolish Discussion Disputes

Author:Denis Diderot

“I feel like the universe is so big it'd be foolish to pull out the "no" for it.”

Feels Bigs Universe Foolish

Author:Jim Parsons

“Avoid singularity. There may often be less vanity in following the new modes than in adhering to the old ones. It is true that the foolish invent them, but the wise may conform to, instead of contradicting, them.”

May Wise Fashion Following Foolish Vanity Conform Often Is Singularity Contradicting

Author:Joseph Joubert

“How foolish it would be if women did not obey men. The world would be all confusion!”

Ifs Men World Would Be Foolish Confusion

Book:Thelma: A Norwegian Princess

Source: Thelma: A Norwegian Princess

“War is wicked, beause it is murder and hate. And it is foolish, because hate and murder can only destroy people's bodies, not change their minds.”

People Mind War Body Hate Murder Foolish Wicked

Author:Margaret Deland

“We may admire people for being wise, but we like them best when they are foolish.”

People May Wise Foolish Admire Being Wise

Book:The Life of Mary Russell Mitford ; Related in an Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends. Ed. by A.G. Estrange

Source: The Life of Mary Russell Mitford ; Related in an Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends. Ed. by A.G. Estrange

“O foolish anxiety of wretched man, how inconclusive are the arguments which make thee beat thy wings below!”

Men Anxiety Beats Argument Wings Foolish Thee Wretched

Author:Dante Alighieri

“A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.”

Stills Fool Foolish Admire Folly Plus

Author:Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

“Of all the animals which fly in the air, walk on the land, or swim in the sea, from Paris to Peru, from Japan to Rome, the most foolish animal in my opinion is man.”

Men Humans Nature Walks Animal Opinion Air Sea Land Foolish Paris Japan Swim Rome Peru

Author:Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

“The foolish square calves pretend to be frightened of our train. Bluffers! Haven't they seen it every day since they were born? It's just an excuse to shake the joy out of their heels.”

Joy Born Havens Train Excuse Foolish Shakes Frightened Squares Heels Calves

Book:Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

Source: Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

“Whoever is wise is apt to suspect and be diffident of himself, and upon that account is willing to "hearken unto counsel"; whereas the foolish man, being in proportion to his folly full of himself, and swallowed up in conceit, will seldom take any counsel but his own, and for that very reason, because it is his own.”

Men Reason Wisdom Wise Willing Accounts Foolish Proportion Folly Suspects Conceit Foolish Man

Author:John Balguy

“If you embark on a project as magnificent in concept as the brotherhood of man, it is foolish not to anticipate difficulties of proportionate magnificence.”

Ifs Men Projects Concepts Difficulty Foolish Brotherhood Magnificent Anticipate Magnificence Brotherhood Of Man

Book:Color blind: a white woman looks at the Negro

Source: Color blind: a white woman looks at the Negro

“It's easy enough to make the truth look silly. A man never seems more foolish-like than he does when he's speaking his whole mind and heart.”

Men Mind Looks Heart Doe Enough Whole Seems Easy Foolish Silly Heart And Mind

Author:Margery Allingham

“Teachers have power. We may cripple them by petty economics; by Government regulations, by the foolish criticism of an uninformed press; but their power exists for good or evil.”

May Government Evil Teacher Teaching Economics Criticism Presses Foolish Regulation Petty Cripples Government Regulation Uninformed

Book:Letters to a Friend

Source: Letters to a Friend

“Those who only seek friends without seeking to be a good friend are selfishly needy and demanding. And those who only want to be a good friend but do not wisely seek good friends are bound to be taken advantage of, abused, neglected, and suffer from their foolish friend choices.”

Want Suffering Choices Taken Advantage Bounds Seeking Foolish Good Friend Neglected Needy Taken Advantage

Author:Mark Driscoll

“Foolish heart, hear me calling. Stop before you start falling. Foolish heart, heed my warning; you've been wrong before. Don't be wrong anymore.”

Heart Fall Calling Foolish Warning Heed Foolish Heart

Author:Steve Perry

“Lying contains the same hostile elements as a practical joke in that the 'victim' ends up looking foolish in his own eyes and laughable in everyone else's.”

Ends Eye Lying Elements Jokes Victim Foolish Practicals Hostile Laughable Practical Joke

Book:O

Source: O

“I am not so foolish as to murmur, if now, since I have drunk up my wine and beer, I have to put up with skimmed milk and sour.”

Ifs Wine Foolish Drunk Beer Milk Ups & Downs Sour

Book:The Bridal Wreath: Kristin Lavransdatter

Source: The Bridal Wreath: Kristin Lavransdatter

“If silence is good for the wise, how much better is it for the foolish!”

Ifs Silence Wise Foolish Silence Is

Author:Ivan Panin

“It's necessary in order to attract attention, to dazzle at all costs, to be disapproved of by serious people and quoted by the foolish.”

People Order Change Attention Serious Cost Foolish Dazzle

Book:Lesbian nation: the feminist solution

Source: Lesbian nation: the feminist solution

“You can make all the changes to the island of the tonal you want, you can take excursions into the nagual, but to push yourself into the reordering process is absolutely foolish.”

Want Process Buddhism Foolish Islands Push Yourself Excursions

Author:Frederick Lenz

“When in company with literary women, make no allusions to 'learned ladies,' or 'blue stockings,' or express surprise that they should have any knowledge of housewifery, or needle-work, or dress; or that they are able to talk on 'common things.' It is rude and foolish and shows that you really know nothing about them, either as a class or as individuals.”

Knows Should Shows Able Individual Common Company Class Should Have Dresses Blue Surprise Foolish Rude Needles Allusion Stockings Common Things

Book:Miss Leslie's Behaviour Book: A Guide and Manual for Ladies as Regards Their Conversation; Manners; Dress; with Full Instructions and Advice in Letter Writing [!]; Receiving Presents; Incorrect Words

Source: Miss Leslie's Behaviour Book: A Guide and Manual for Ladies as Regards Their Conversation; Manners; Dress; with Full Instructions and Advice in Letter Writing [!]; Receiving Presents; Incorrect Words

“This is life...Not a peace treaty, not an idealistic dream, but a grim dance of death and survival. The strong live on while the weak--the ones too small or too foolish to fight back--die in agony and blood.”

Dream Dies Fighting Strong Blood Survival Weak Foolish Agony Treaties Grim Idealistic Peace Treaties

Author:Dan Wells

“Zoologists have reckoned there are up to at least 750 species of animal that have been observed exhibiting same-sex behaviour, or gender role transformation (which is very common in a wide range of fauna). There is only one species on earth, however, which has exhibited homophobia or transphobia. And that is the species homo sapiens sapiens. Us. So let's not allow the foolish, ignorant or bigoted ever to use words like "natural."”

Has Beens Use Earth Sex Natural Animal Common Roles Transformation Species Gender Wide Foolish Ignorant Range Behaviour Homo Sapiens Homophobia Gender Roles Zoologist

Author:Stephen Fry

“You know what they say, 'You have to work at wisdom; you have to take pains to be reasonable, but to be foolish, just let yourself go.”

Knows Pain Foolish Reasonable

Author:Louise Colet