quotations about fools
There is one way for a fool to appear wise, that is, to be silent.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Ah, well, I am a great and sublime fool. But then I am God's fool, and all His works must be contemplated with respect.
MARK TWAIN
letter to W. D. Howells, 1877
A man who tells you he's no fool has his suspicions.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
Silence is the virtue of fools.
FRANCIS BACON
De Augmentis Scientiarum
The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.
DOUG LARSON
attributed, Quotable Quotes
Be wise with speed;
A fool at forty is a fool indeed.
EDWARD YOUNG
Love of Fame: The Universal Passion in Seven Characteristical Satires
Some are contented to wear the mask of foolishness in order to carry on their vicious schemes.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
The greater idiot ever scolds the lesser
HERMAN MELVILLE
Moby Dick
As a fish out of his native element, so is the fool in the society of the wise.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY
Proverbs
Fools are very often found united in the strictest intimacy, as the lighter kinds of wood can be the most closely glued together.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Contend not in wisdom with a fool, for thy sense maketh much of his conceit;
And some errors never would have thriven, had it not been for learned refutation.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Maxims for Revolutionists
The greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
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
Man is so perfectable and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook F", Aphorisms
Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.
ELIZABETH GASKELL
Wives and Daughters
Ordinary fools are all right; you can talk to them, and try to help them out. But pompous fools -- guys who are fools and are covering it all over and impressing people as to how wonderful they are with all this hocus pocus -- THAT, I CANNOT STAND! An ordinary fool isn't a faker; an honest fool is all right. But a dishonest fool is terrible!
RICHARD FEYNMAN
Surely You're Joking
There may be no fool like an old fool, but our observation has been that the young fool runs him a pretty close second.
ROBERT ELLIOTT GONZALES
Poems and Paragraphs
Fools are very often found united in the strictest intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.
WILLIAM SHENSTONE
Essays on Men and Manners