Folly Quotes - page 9

There are buildings which will hold a few, but which will break down under the weight of a crowd. The ice of the river may be strong enough to bear a man, but would break through under the weight of an elephant. The ice under us in this country is very thin, and is made very weak by the warm fogs of prejudice... Our policy should be to unite with the great mass of the American people in all their activities, and resolve to fall or flourish with our common country. We cannot afford to draw the color-line in politics, trade, education, manners, religion, fashion, or civilization. Especially we cannot afford to draw the color-line in politics. No folly could be greater. A party acting on that basis would be not merely a misfortune, but a dire calamity to our people. (Frederick Douglass)
There is no absurdity or contradiction to which passion may not lead a man. When love or hate takes control, reason must submit and then discover justifications for their folly. View quote
André Maurois
Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom. View quote
Elizabeth Gaskell
The General is sorry to be informed -, that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American army, is growing into a fashion; - he hopes the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by impiety and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it. View quote
George Washington
Yes, well, life is a folly. If you live long enough, nothing is surprising. View quote
Tracy Chevalier
Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness. View quote
Cyril Connolly
Anger begins with folly, and ends with repentance. View quote
Beverly Sills
Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom, and perhaps more malice than either, that women are naturally incapable of acting prudently, or that they are necessarily determined to folly, I must by no means grant it. View quote
Mary Astell
The Steps to Folly as well as Sin are gradual, and almost imperceptible, and when we are once on the Decline, we go down without taking notice on't. View quote
Mary Astell
As long as we are in this life, what time that we by our folly turn us to the beholding of the reproved, tenderly our Lord God toucheth us and blissfully calleth us, saying in our soul: Let be all thy love, my dearworthy child: turn thee to me - I am enough to thee - and enjoy in thy Saviour and in thy salvation. And that this is our Lord's working in us, I am sure the soul that hath understanding therein by grace shall see it and feel it. View quote
Julian of Norwich
Perpetual peace is a dream,” he said, "as much as we may yearn for it-but war! War is an integral part of God's ordering of the universe, without which the world would be swamped in selfishness and materialism. War is the very vessel of honor, and who of us could endure a world without the divine folly of honor? That faith is especially true and adorable which leads a soldier to throw away his life in obedience to a blindly accepted duty, in a cause he little understands, during a campaign of which he has little notion, under tactics of which he does not see the use. On the field of battle, where a man lives or dies by the caprice of a bullet or the verdict of a bayonet, life is at its best and healthiest. (Robert Charles Wilson)
Resistance is folly or heroism-a virtue or a vice-in most cases, according to the probabilities there are of its being successful. The perils of change are so great the promise of the most hopeful theories is so often deceptive, that it is frequently the wiser part to uphold the existing state of things, if it can be done, even though, in point of argument, it should be utterly indefensible. View quote
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
All my joys to this are folly Naught so sweet as melancholy. View quote
Robert Burton
Why is it relatively easy for a few armament makers to persuade 'men to go to war, to give their lives; and quite impossible for the much larger group who would benefit by another form of general destruction to persuade men to destroy their property? It is broadly, of course, because the folly of burning down houses is plain; the folly of the policies which lead to war is not so plain. View quote
Norman Angell
Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
The vivacity which increases with old age is not so far removed from folly. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
How teach again, however, what has been taught correctly and incorrectly learned a thousand thousand times, throughout the millenniums of mankind's prudent folly? That is the hero's ultimate difficult task. View quote
Joseph Campbell
Because no battle is ever won. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools. Be different! View quote
Kim Peek
Those who ignore history's lessons in the ultimate folly of war are forced to do more than relive them...they may be forced to die by them. View quote
Dan Simmons
And it is a folly to try to craft a novel for the screen, to write a novel with a screen contract in mind. (Thomas Keneally)
It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do. View quote
Richard Whately
Let us think often that our only business in this life is to please God. Perhaps all besides is but folly and vanity. View quote
Brother Lawrence
Here was a strange but true fact: The closer you were to the market, the harder it was to perceive its folly. View quote
Michael Lewis (author)
I could be content that we might procreate like trees, without conjunction, or that there were any way to perpetuate the world without this trivial and vulgar act of coition; It is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life, nor is there anything that will more deject his cooled imagination, when he shall consider what an odd and unworthy piece of folly he hath committed. View quote
Thomas Browne