Fools

“We assemble parliaments and councils, to have the benefit of their collected wisdom; but we necessarily have, at the same time, the inconvenience of their collected passions, prejudices, and private interests. By the help of these, artful men overpower their wisdom, and dupe its possessors; and if we may judge by the acts, arrêts, and edicts, all the world over, for regulating commerce, an assembly of great men is the greatest fool upon earth.”

“It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.”

“The world is filled with fools, but none of them considers himself one, or tries not to be one.”

“There are two kinds of fools: one says, "This is old, therefore it is good"; the other says, "This is new, therefore it is better."”

“The foolish have us far more in their power than the wise.”

“If people keep opposing you when you are right, you think them fools; and after a time, right or wrong, you think them fools simply because they oppose you.”

“All men are fools, if truth be told, but the ones in motley are more amusing than the ones with crowns.”

“The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.”

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

“What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.”

“A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.”

“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.”

“There are three kinds of fools in this world, fools proper, educated fools and rich fools. The world persists because of the folly of these fools.”

“I have great faith in fools — self-confidence my friends will call it.”

“Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.”

“For, as blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.”

“Some old men, by continually praising the time of their youth, would almost persuade us that there were no fools in those days; but unluckily they are left themselves for examples.”

“No creature smarts so little as a fool.”

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

“A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth.”

“Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.”

“Often I look back and see that I had been many kinds of a fool - and that I had been happy in being this or that kind of fool. I can see too that often I changed from being one kind of fool into another kind fo fool I was happy about it because I didn't know what had happened.”

“No Man is so much a Fool as not to have Wit enough sometimes to be a Knave ; nor any so cunning a Knave, as not to have the Weakness sometimes to play the Fool.”

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

“Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?”

“'Tis an old maxim in the schools,Will condescend to take a bit.”

“When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool.”

“To bankrupt a fool, give him information.”

“Education makes the wise slightly wiser, but it makes the fool vastly more dangerous.”

“We learn the most from fools ... yet we pay them back with the worst ingratitude.”

“Any fool can make a rule And any fool will mind it.”

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and the angels are all in heaven, but few of the fools are dead.”

“Now and then there's a fool such as I am over you Now and then there's a fool such as I.”

“The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.”

“The world is made up, for the most part, of fools and knaves, both irreconcilable foes to truth.”

“The best way in which to silence any friend of yours whom you know to be a fool is to induce him to hire a hall. Nothing chills pretense like exposure.”

“I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking. It cannot be so easily discovered if you allow him to remain silent and look wise, but if you let him speak, the secret is out and the world knows that he is a fool.”

“Be wise with speed; A fool at forty is a fool indeed.”

“At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan.”

“Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side.”

“Face a bear robbed of her cubs,”

“Of what use is money in the hands of fools”

“As dogs return to their vomit,”

“The fool is garrulous.”

“He who knows but does not speak is a fool.”

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”

“A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.”

“It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.”

“Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it's compounding a felony.”

“Trouble comes looking for you if you’re a fool.”

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”

“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”

“The three greatest fools of History have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote . . . and me!”

“Foolproof systems do not take into account the ingenuity of fools.”

“The reason why fools and knaves thrive better in the world than wiser and honester men is because they are nearer to the general temper of mankind, which is nothing but a mixture of cheat and folly.”

“Twenty-seven millions, mostly fools.”

““So the princes thought, the fools!”...“Because they confuse that which they wish to be true with that which is true.””

“Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.”

“Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.”

“Someone who believes in all the stories of the Baal Shem Tov and the other mystics and holy men is a fool; someone who looks at any single story and says “That one could not be true” is a heretic.”

“'Tis hard if all is false that I advance,A fool must now and then be right by chance.”

“I can tell you that only a fool destroys useful things merely because he doesn’t like them.”

“For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.”

“A man is a golden impossibility. The line he must walk is a hair's breadth. The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.”

“Every man is made a fool through his own wisdom.”