quotations about fools
Too many men are afraid of being fools.
HENRY FORD
"In Bondage to a Reputation," Ford Ideals
Fools and wise-folk are alike harmless. It is the half-wise, and the half-foolish, who are the most dangerous.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Tho' marriage makes man and wife one flesh, it leaves 'em still two fools.
WILLIAM CONGREVE
The Double Dealer
As a fish out of his native element, so is the fool in the society of the wise.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY
Proverbs
If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
W.C. FIELDS
Even a fool learns something once it hits him.
HOMER
The Iliad
Fools always lead a mob.
PAUL H. YARBROUGH
"A Congress of Fools", Communities Digital News, May 6, 2019
Like gold in the hands of a savage are the sayings of wisdom in the mouth of a fool.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Fools beget their own kind and here was the proof of it and that as only foolish women would have aught to do with them their progeny were twice doomed.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
The Crossing
What ails the fool to laugh? Does something please
His vain conceit? Or is 't a mere disease?
Fool, giggle on, and waste thy wanton breath;
Thy morning laughter breeds an ev'ning death.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Emblems
We must often consider, not what the wise will think, but what the foolish will be sure to say.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
When dunces call us fools, without proving us to be so, our best retort is to prove them to be fools, without condescending to call them so.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous.
Resign yourself to be the fool you are.
T. S. ELIOT
The Cocktail Party