FOOL QUOTES III

quotations about fools

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


There is one way for a fool to appear wise, that is, to be silent.

NORMAN MACDONALD

Maxims and Moral Reflections


The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools.

DOUG LARSON

attributed, Quotable Quotes


A man who tells you he's no fool has his suspicions.

KEN ALSTAD

Savvy Sayin's


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


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

EDWARD YOUNG

Love of Fame: The Universal Passion in Seven Characteristical Satires


Silence is the virtue of fools.

FRANCIS BACON

De Augmentis Scientiarum


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


The greater idiot ever scolds the lesser

HERMAN MELVILLE

Moby Dick


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


Old fools are greater fools than young ones.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims


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


Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.

ELIZABETH GASKELL

Wives and Daughters


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


Fools may our scorn, not envy raise,
For envy is a kind of praise.

JOHN GAY

Fables


A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Maxims for Revolutionists


Fine clothes may disguise, but silly words will disclose a fool.

AESOP

Aesop's Fables


The greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon


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 intimacies, as the lighter kinds of woods are the most closely glued together.

WILLIAM SHENSTONE

Essays on Men and Manners