36 Folly Quotes

His folly has not fellow Beneath the blue of day That gives to man or woman His heart and soul away.

There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.

'When an alluring woman comes in at the door,' warningly traced the austere Kien-fi on the margin of his well-known essay, 'discretion may be found up the chimney'. It is incredible that beneath this ever-timely reminder an obscure disciple should have added the words: 'The wiser the sage, the more profound the folly.'

What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn't come every day.

The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.

The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject but man only.

The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.

The moon is made of greene cheese.

He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.

Men are contented to be laughed at for their wit, but not for their folly.

You see, many of the troubles going on in the world right now are being supervised by people with very good intentions whose attempts are to keep things in order, to clean things up, to forbid this, and to prevent that. The more we try to put everything to rights, the more we make fantastic messes. Maybe that is the way it has got to be. Maybe I should not say anything at all about the folly of trying to put things to right but simply, on the principle of Blake, let the fool persist in his folly so that he will become wise.

Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield! Against stupidity the very gods Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason, Resplendent daughter of the head divine, Wise foundress of the system of the world, Guide of the stars, who art thou then if thou, Bound to the tail of folly's uncurbed steed, Must, vainly shrieking with the drunken crowd, Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss. Accursed, who striveth after noble ends, And with deliberate wisdom forms his plans! To the fool-king belongs the world.

Green indiscretion, flattery of greatness, Rawness of judgement, wilfulness in folly, Thoughts vagrant as the wind, and as uncertain.

O fol of alle foles, Thou farst as he betwen tuo stoles That wolde sitte and goth to grounde.

Hence vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly without father bred!

Worldly people are in the habit of censuring those who give themselves up in earnest to God, regarding them as extravagant, in their withdrawal from the world, and in their manner of life. They say also of them that they are useless for all matters of importance, and lost to everything the world prizes and respects! This reproach the soul meets in the best way; boldly and courageously despising it with everything else that the world can lay to its charge. Having attained to a living love of God, it makes little account of all this; and that is not all: it confesses it itself in this stanza, and boasts that it has committed that folly, and that it is lost to the world and to itself for the Beloved.

'I feel goofy tonight. I had a pixie stick before the show.'

H'aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?

Brilliant young people who were nevertheless silly with love-or youth, as if it made a difference.

The combination was irresistible even if he hadn't loved her desperately. (more than she loves me, he sometimes admitted to himself.) He did love her desperately, however, and while this did not mean that he utterly lost his own will, it did mean that he would go along with her, for a while at least, in almost anything. Even if she was a damned fool sometimes 'You're a damned fool sometimes I love you too'

Nor mourn the unalterable Days That Genius goes and Folly stays.

Im allgemeinen freilich haben die Weisen aller Zeiten immer dasselbe gesagt, und die Toren, d.h. die unermessliche Majoritat aller Zeiten, haben immer dasselbe, namlich das Gegenteil getan; und so wird es denn auch ferner bleiben.

Il y a des gens niais qui se connaissent et qui emploient habilement leur niaiserie.

La vivacite qui augmente en vieillissant ne va pas loin de la folie.

Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world.

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

Stultum facit fortuna, quem vult perdere.

The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool!