Foolishness Quotes - Page 12

• We must accustom ourselves to the follies of others and not be astonished at the foolishness that takes place in our presence.

  Madeleine de Souvre, marquise de Sable

  Folly

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• Maybe it’s not, in the end, the virtues of others that so wrenches our hearts as it is the sense of almost unbearably poignant recognition when we see them at their most base, in their sorrow and gluttony and foolishness. You need the virtues, too—some sort of virtues—but we don’t care about Emma Bovary or Anna Karenina or Raskolnikov because they’re good. We care about them because they’re not admirable, because they’re us, and because great writers have forgiven them for it.

  Michael Cunningham

  Heart, Sorrow, Needs

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• The wonder of marriage is woven into the wonder of the gospel of the cross of Christ, and the message of the cross is foolishness to the natural man, and so the meaning of marriage is foolishness to the natural man.

  John Piper

  Men, Woven, Messages

  John Piper (2013). “This Momentary Marriage”, p.18, SPCK

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• Penology...has become torture and foolishness, a waste of money and a cause of crime...a blotting out of sight and heightening of social anxiety.

  Paul Goodman

  Sight, Anxiety, Waste

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• In circumstances as dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, ...at the same time all confidence must be withheld from the means we use; and reposed only on that God rules in the armies of Heaven, and without His whole blessing, the best human counsels are but foolishness.

  John Hancock

  Christian, Taken, Mean

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• I believe in those whom I love and trust. All else is foolishness. This god is as empty as his church. His followers choose to attribute all of their good fortune to him, but when he ignores their pleas or leaves them to suffer, they say only that he ignores their pleas or leaves them to suffer, they say only that he is beyond their understanding and abandon themselves to his will. What kind of god is that?

  John Connolly

  Believe, Understanding, Suffering

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• My mother used to tell me when I went somewhere, "Please leave your foolishness at home." But how could I do that? It was stuck on me.

  Naomi Shihab Nye

  Mother, Home, Used

  Naomi Shihab Nye (2009). “I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven”, p.8, Harper Collins

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• Writing long books is a laborious and impoverishing act of foolishness: expanding in five hundred pages an idea that could be perfectly explained in a few minutes. A better procedure is to pretend that those books already exist and to offer a summary, a commentary.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Book, Writing, Ideas

  "The Garden of Forking Paths". Book by Jorge Luis Borges, 1942.

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• Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Freedom, Government, Principles

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

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• Burning the candle at both ends for God's sake may be foolishness to the world, but it is a profitable Christian exercise-for so much better the light. Only one thing in life matters. Being found worthy of the Light of the World in the hour of His visitation. We need have no undue fear for our health if we work hard for the kingdom of God; God will take care of our health if we take care of His cause. In any case it is better to burn out than to rust out.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  Christian, Hard Work, Exercise

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• My humor had changed from foolishness to making sense.

  Bernie Mac

  Changed, Make Sense

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• I thought that continence was a matter of our own strength, and I knew that I had not the strength: for in my utter foolishness I did not know the word of Your Scripture that none can be continent unless You give it.

  Saint Augustine

  Giving, Matter, Scripture

  Saint Augustine, F. J. Sheed (2007). “Confessions (Second Edition)”, p.110, Hackett Publishing

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• Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
  - Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha "We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us from.

  Marcel Proust

  Wise, Journey, Men

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• One of the greatest evils is the foolishness of a good man. For the giving man to withhold helping someone in order to first assure personal fortification is not selfish, but to elude needless self-destruction; martyrdom is only practical when the thought is to die, else a good man faces the consequence of digging a hole from which he cannot escape, and truly helps no one in the long run.

  Mike Norton

  Thanksgiving, Running, Selfish

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• I want the Brahmins to realize that the Dravidian people today are very much hating those who cunningly cheated them with absurdities. They are now aware of the particular community making a living by spreading the foolishness. People have begun to hate god, religion, caste, mythologies (puranas) and so on.

  Periyar E. V. Ramasamy

  Hate, People, Community

  Collected works of Periyar E.V.R., p. 517, 2005.

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• It is supposed to true that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. I don't believe knowing can save us. What is constant in history is greed and foolishness and love of blood.

  Cormac McCarthy

  Believe, Blood, Knowing

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• A foolish man tells a woman to stop talking, but a wise man tells her that her mouth is extremely beautiful when her lips are closed.

  Robert Bloch

  Beautiful, Wise, Men

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• [When thinking about the new relativity and quantum theories] I have felt a homesickness for the paths of physical science where there are ore or less discernible handrails to keep us from the worst morasses of foolishness.

  Arthur Eddington

  Science, Thinking, Path

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• Nature, it appears, has been rather more bountiful to Paul's body and purse than to his intellect; above the ears, speaking bluntly, the boy is strictly tapioca.

  S. J. Perelman

  Funny, Humor, Boys

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• If all the fools in this world should die, lordly God how lonely I should be.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Lonely, Humor

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• If you send a damned fool to St. Louis, and you don't tell them he's a damned fool, they'll never find out.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Humor, Fool

  Mark Twain (1995). “Mark Twain: Selected Writings of an American Skeptic”

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• People say the truth hurts. Hell no, it hurts even more if you do a whole bunch of foolishness to try and avoid it.

  Tyler Perry

  Hurt, People, Trying

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• Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety.

  Tryon Edwards

  Wisdom, Procrastination, Safety

  Tryon Edwards (2015). “The New Dictionary of Thoughts”, p.298, Ravenio Books

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• There's nothing like mixing with women to bring out all the foolishness in a man of sense.

  Thornton Wilder

  Men, Mixing, Men And Women

  "Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater".

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• It would be a great reform in politics if perception could be made to spread as easily and as rapidly as foolishness.

  Winston Churchill

  Wisdom, Perception, Intelligence

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