Quotes
Quotes about Fools
Foolproof systems do not take into account the ingenuity of fools.
There are two fools in this world. One is the millionaire who thinks that by hoarding money he can somehow accumulate real power, and the other is the penniless reformer who thinks that if only he can take the money from one class and give it to another, all the world's ills will be cured.
Why fools are endowed by nature with voices so much louder than sensible people possess is a mystery. It is a fact emphasized throughout history.
Colleges don't make fools, they only develop them.
Fools build houses, and wise men buy them.
Lord, what fools these mortals be.
Seek but provision of bread and wine, fools to flatter, and clothing fine; and nothing of God shall ever be thine.
It is impossible to make anything fool- proof because fools are so ingenious.
Wise people talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.
Of all the fools that pride can boast, A Coxcomb claims distinction most.
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeits of our own behavior, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars; as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star.
Rare gift! but oh, what gift to fools avails!
At Athens, wise men propose, and fools dispose.
God's Wisdom and God's Goodness!--Ah, but fools Mis-define thee, till God knows them no more. Wisdom and goodness they are God!--what schools Have yet so much as heard this simpler lore. This no Saint preaches, and this no Church rules: 'Tis in the desert, now and heretofore.
Of all The fools who flock'd to swell or see the show Who car'd about the corpse? The funeral Made the attraction, and the black the woe; There throbb'd not there a thought which pierc'd the pall.
If solid happiness we prize, Within our breast this jewel lies, And they are fools who roam; The world has nothing to bestow, From our own selves our bliss must flow, And that dear hut,--our home.
History: An account, mostly false, of events unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
The multitude of fools is a protection to the wise.
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
Imitators are a slavish herd and fools in my opinion. [Fr., C'est un betail servile et sot a mon avis Que les imitateurs.]
INTIMACY, n. A relation into which fools are providentially drawn for their mutual destruction.
A parliament speaking through reporters to Buncombe and the Twenty-seven millions, mostly fools.
Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; Who sows a field, or trains a flower, Or plants a tree, is more than all.
HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
Yet all that I have learn'd (hugh toyles now past) By long experience, and in famous schooles, Is but to know my ignorance at last, Who think themselves most wise are greatest fools.
