Folly Quotes. S. Austin Allibone, comp. 1880. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay

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S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880.

Folly


There is nothing which one regards so much with an eye of mirth and pity as innocence, when it has in it a dash of folly. Joseph Addison.	1

So a fool is one that hath lost his wisdom, and right notion of God and divine things which were communicated to man by creation; one dead in sin, yet one not so much void of rational faculties as of grace in those faculties, not one that wants reason, but abuses his reason. In Scripture the word signifies foolish. Stephen Charnock: Attributes.	2

No man should so act as to take advantage of another’s folly. Cicero.	3

The wise man has his follies, no less than the fool; but it has been said that herein lies the difference,—the follies of the fool are known to the world, but are hidden from himself; the follies of the wise are known to himself, but hidden from the world. A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition. Charles Caleb Colton: Lacon.	4

Of all thieves fools are the worst; they rob you of time and temper. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.	5

Conscience, and the fear of swerving from that which is right, maketh them diligent observers of circumstances, the loose regard of which is the nurse of vulgar folly. Richard Hooker.	6

Some things are done by men, though not through outward force and impulsion, though not against, yet without, their wills; as in alienation of mind, or any like inevitable utter absence of wit and judgment. Richard Hooker.	7

Folly consists in the drawing of false conclusions from just principles, by which it is distinguished from madness, which draws just conclusions from false principles. John Locke.	8

The greatest of fools is he who imposes on himself, and in his greatest concern thinks certainly he knows that which he has least studied, and of which he is most profoundly ignorant. Earl of Shaftesbury.	9

Foolishness, being properly a man’s deviation from right reason, in point of practice must needs consist in his pitching upon such an end as is unsuitable to his condition, or pitching upon means unsuitable to the compassing of his end. Robert South.	10

Men when their actions succeed not as they would, are always ready to impute the blame thereof unto the heavens, so as to excuse their own follies. Edmund Spenser.	11

He that provides for this life, but takes no care for eternity, is wise for a moment, but a fool forever; and acts as untowardly and crossly to the reason, of things as can be imagined. John Tillotson.	12

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