Folly Quotes - Page 7

• It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

  Epicurus

  Confidence, Power, Men

  Epicurus (1964). “Letters: Principles Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings Translated, with an Introd. and Notes, by Russel M. Geor. Indianapolis Merrill”

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• All things are in the hand of heaven, and Folly, eldest of Jove's daughters, shuts men's eyes to their destruction. She walks delicately, not on the solid earth, but hovers over the heads of men to make them stumble or to ensnare them.

  Homer

  Daughter, Eye, Men

  Homer (2015). “The Iliad”, p.262, Xist Publishing

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• Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.

  Jane Austen

  Laughing, Nonsense, Whim

  Jane Austen (1853). “Pride and Prejudice”, p.49

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• I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding— certainly too little for the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.

  Jane Austen

  Moving, Believe, Pride

  Jane Austen (2015). “Pride and Prejudice (Diversion Classics)”, p.64, Diversion Books

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• Now times had changed, and the inherited wisdom of the past had become folly.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Past, Changed

  Arthur C. Clarke (2012). “2001: A Space Odyssey”, p.36, RosettaBooks

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• Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.

  Nikos Kazantzakis

  Men, Every Man

  Nikos Kazantzakis, Carl Wildman (1953). “Zorba the Greek”, p.146, Simon and Schuster

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• It is folly to say you know what is happening to other people. Only they know, if they exist. They have their own Universes of their own eyes and ears.

  Douglas Adams

  Eye, People, Ears

  Douglas Adams (2009). “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, p.130, Pan Macmillan

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• We are all of us obliged, if we are to make reality endurable, to nurse a few little follies in ourselves.

  Marcel Proust

  Reality, Nurse, Littles

  Marcel Proust (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Marcel Proust (Illustrated)”, p.917, Delphi Classics

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• What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

  Adam Smith

  Invisible Hand, Kingdoms, Economic

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.4, ch.2.

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• What would you not have accomplished if you had been free?" "Possibly nothing at all; the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect. Compression is needed to explode gunpowder. Captivity has brought my mental faculties to a focus; and you are well aware that from the collision of clouds electricity is produced — from electricity, lightning, from lightning, illumination.

  Alexandre Dumas

  Illumination, Clouds, Light

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• Traditional religions practices are important.They allow us to share with others the communal experience of adoration and prayer,but we must never forget spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love,and with love,there are no rules some may try to control their emotions and develop strategies for their behavior,others may turn to reading books of advice from "experts" on relationships but this is all folly.The heart decides and what it decides is all that really matters.

  Paulo Coelho

  Spiritual, Prayer, Book

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• Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.

  Jane Austen

  Wickedness

  1816 Emma, ch.26.

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• Experience increases our wisdom but doesn't reduce our follies.

  Josh Billings

  Experience, Increase

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• My dreams are all follies.

  Taylor Caldwell

  Dream

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• Folly often goes beyond her bounds, but impudence knows none.

  Ben Jonson

  Rudeness, Impudence, Knows

  Ben Jonson (1756). “The Works of Ben. Jonson: Underwoods. Timber; or, Discoveries made upon men and matter. Horace, Of the art of poetry [with an English translation by Jonson]. The English grammar. Leges convivales, rules for the Tavern Academy. The case is altered”, p.78

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• The Party System was founded on one national notion of fair play. It was the notion that folly and futility should be fairly divided between both sides.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Party, Humor, Play

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• For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wit, Grain

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.287, Library of America

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• It is a proverbial expression that every man is the maker of his own fortune, and we usually regard it as implying that every man by his folly or wisdom prepares good or evil for himself. But we may view it in another light, namely, that we may so accommodate ourselves to the dispositions of Providence as to be happy in our lot, whatever may be its privations.

  Alexander von Humboldt

  Men, Light, Views

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• When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray, what charm can soothe her melancholy, what art can wash her guilt away?

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Love, Art, Betrayal

  The Vicar of Wakefield ch. 29 (1766)

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• It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.

  Jonathan Swift

  Mistake, Coffee, Echoes

  Jonathan Swift, Sir Walter Scott (1824). “-5. Tracts, historical and political, during the reign of Queen Anne”, p.365

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• There is perhaps no surer mark of folly, than to attempt to correct natural infirmities of those we love.

  Henry Fielding

  Love, Natural, Mark

  Henry Fielding (2015). “History of Tom Jones: the History Focus”, p.72, 谷月社

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• Most of the wisdom of one age, is the folly of the next.

  Charles Simmons

  Wisdom, Age, Next

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• It may be assumed as an axiom that Providence has never gifted any political party with all of political wisdom or blinded it with all of political folly.

  John George Nicolay

  Wisdom, Party, Political

  John George Nicolay (2008). “A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln (Volume 1 of 2 ) (EasyRead Comfort Edition)”, p.81, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• . . . Luddites were those frenzied traditionalists of the early 19th century who toured [England] wrecking new weaving machines on the theory that if they were destroyed . . . old jobs and old ways of life could be preserved . . . At certain times in his life each man is tempted to become a Luddite, for there is always something he would like to go back to. But to be against all change-against change in the abstract-is folly.

  James A. Michener

  Life, Jobs, Men

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• Golf being a cold, calculating sort of game gives perhaps more scope for folly than any other. We have all the time in the world to make up our minds as to what is the wise thing to do and then we do the foolish one.

  Bernard Darwin

  Wise, Golf, Games

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