Motivational Quotes

Fools and foolishness

If a man fools me once, shame on him. If he fools me twice, shame on me.

- Proverb, Chinese

Fools and foolishness Motivational Quotes

Best Quotes about Fools and foolishness

It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

The haste of a fool is the slowest thing in the world.

Shadwell, Thomas

The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs of his neighbor.

Franklin, Benjamin

Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

No one but a fool would measure their satisfaction by what the world thinks of it.

Goldsmith, Oliver

The great God endows His children variously. To some he gives intellect -- and they move the earth. To some he allots heart -- and the beating pulse of humanity is theirs. But to some He gives only a soul, without intelligence -- and these, who never grow up, but remain always His children, are God's fools, kindly, elemental, simple, as if from His palette the Artist of all had taken one color instead of many.

Rinehart, Mary Roberts

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

Butler, Samuel

Commend a fool for his wit, or a rogue for his honesty and he will receive you into his favor.

Fielding, Henry

Greatest fools are the most often satisfied.

Boileau, Nicholas

10.

Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side.

Proverb, Jewish

11.

The fool has to do at last what the wise did at first.

Proverb, Italian

12.

Fools build houses, and wise men buy them.

Proverb, English

13.

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

14.

He who knows he who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool, shun him; He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child, teach him. He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep, wake him. He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise, follow him.

Proverb, Persian

15.

Foolproof systems do not take into account the ingenuity of fools.

Brown, Gene

16.

The fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. [Measure For Measure]

Shakespeare, William

17.

It is rude to silence a fool, and cruelty to let him go on.

18.

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.

Horace

19.

A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.

Boileau, Nicholas

20.

Nature makes only dumb animals. We owe the fools to society.

Balzac, Honore De

21.

A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.

Frost, Robert

22.

The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his way.

Billings, Josh

23.

A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectible and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

24.

Colleges don't make fools, they only develop them.

Lorimer, Geroge

25.

A fool often fails because he thinks what is difficult is easy.

Collins, John Churton

26.

Most fools think they are only ignorant.

Franklin, Benjamin

27.

That's the penalty we have to pay for our acts of foolishness -- someone else always suffers for them.

Sutro, Alfred

28.

Spinoza Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

Franklin, Benjamin

29.

The biggest fool in the world is he who merely does his work supremely well, without attending to appearance.

Korda, Michael

30.

Seek but provision of bread and wine, fools to flatter, and clothing fine; and nothing of God shall ever be thine.

Smith, Wes

31.

What a fool does in the end, the wise do in the beginning.

Proverb, Spanish

32.

In life, each of us must sometimes play the fool.

Proverb, Yiddish

33.

In days gone by, we were afraid of dying in dishonor or a state of sin. Nowadays, we are afraid of dying fools. Now the fact is that there is no Extreme Unction to absolve us of foolishness. We endure it here on earth as subjective eternity.

Baudrillard, Jean

34.

Men who know themselves are no longer fools. They stand on the threshold of the door of Wisdom.

Ellis, Havelock

35.

You ask whether I have ever been in love: fool as I am, I am not such a fool as that. But if one is only to talk from first-hand experience, conversation would be a very poor business. But though I have no personal experience of the things they call love, I have what is better -- the experience of Sappho, of Euripides, of Catallus, of Shakespeare, of Spenser, of Austen, of Bronte, of anyone else I have read.

Lewis, C. S.

36.

Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.

Proverb, African

37.

In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can't long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly.

Erasmus, Desiderius

38.

He is a fool that kisseth the maid when he may kiss the mistress.

Proverb, English

39.

The wise make proverbs, and fools repeat them.

Disraeli, Isaac

40.

There are four types of men in this world: 1. The man who knows, and knows that he knows; he is wise, so consult him. 2. The man who knows, but doesn't know that he knows; help him not forget what he knows. 3. The man who knows not, and knows that he knows not; teach him. 4. Finally, there is the man who knows not but pretends that he knows; he is a fool, so avoid him.

Gabirol, Ibn

41.

Fools are without number.

Erasmus, Desiderius

42.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.

43.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

Eliot, George

44.

A foolishness is inflicted with a hatred of itself.

Seneca

45.

Every fool finds a greater one to admire them.

Bioleau

46.

When he said we were trying to make a fool of him, I could only murmur that the Creator had beat us to it.

Chase, Ilka

47.

Sometimes the fool who rushes in gets the job done.

Bernstein, Al

48.

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.

Heimel, Cynthia

49.

There are two kinds of fools: those who can't change their opinions and those who won t.

Billings, Josh

50.

A fool despises good counsel, but a wise man takes it to heart.

Confucius