quotations about fools
Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
The learned Fool writes his Nonsense in better Language than the unlearned; but still 'tis Nonsense.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1754
The difference between a puppy and a fool is this--the one is born blind and continues so for nine days only, while the other remains with his eyes shut all his life.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY
Proverbs
Fools, when their roof-tree falls, think it doomsday.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
"The Voyage to Vinland"
My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
Harper's magazine, Aug. 1990
O! I am Fortune's fool.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
Fashion! -- a word which knaves and fools may use,
Their knavery and folly to excuse.
CHARLES CHURCHILL
The Rosciad
Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any direction.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
The angels must tremble when a fool is in the right.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
Fine clothes may disguise, but silly words will disclose a fool.
AESOP
Aesop's Fables
Man is so perfectable and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook F", Aphorisms
He must be a thorough fool who can learn nothing from his own folly.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Children and fools speak true.
JOHN LYLY
Endymion
There are two indiscretions that generally distinguish fools: a readiness to report whatever they hear, and a practice of communicating with secrecy what is commonly understood.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Ten gods cannot change the opinion of one fool, especially if another fool agrees with him.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.
ELIZABETH GASKELL
Wives and Daughters
The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
Bobok
Because other people are fools, must you be so too?
MARCUS AURELIUS
Meditations
The difference between a wise and foolish man is this--the former sees much, thinks much, and speaks little; but the latter speaks more than he either sees or thinks.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY
Proverbs
When a fool dies there is much shedding of tears in the land whither he is bound.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims