Fool Quotes

Alek said, "Do you think I'm being a fool?"
"I think you're trying to do something good. But doing good is rarely easy, and no weapon has ever stopped a war. ~ Scott Westerfeld

What's the news of the war?' The doctor twisted the ends of his moustache and said, 'Germany is taking everything, the Italians are playing the fool, the French have run away, the Belgians have been overrun whilst they were looking the other way, the Poles have been charging tanks with cavalry, the Americans have been playing baseball, the British have been drinking tea and adjusting their monocles, the Russians have been sitting on their hands except when voting unanimously to do whatever they are told. Thank God we are out of it. Why don't we turn on the radio? ~ Louis De Bernieres

I think any writer is a fool if he doesn't do it for money. There needs to be some kind of incentive in addition to the project. It all goes together. It's fun to sit there and think of characters and get them into action, then be paid for it. ~ Elmore Leonard

It is a difficult question, my friends, for any young man
that question I had to grapple with, and which thousands are weighing at the present moment in these uprising times
whether to follow uncritically the track he finds himself in, without considering his aptness for it, or to consider what his aptness or bent may be, and re-shape his course accordingly. I tried to do the latter, and I failed. But I don't admit that my failure proved my view to be a wrong one, or that my success would have made it a right one; though that's how we appraise such attempts nowadays
I mean, not by their essential soundness, but by their accidental outcomes. If I had ended by becoming like one of these gentlemen in red and black that we saw dropping in here by now, everybody would have said: 'See how wise that young man was, to follow the bent of his nature!' But having ended no better than I began they say: 'See what a fool that fellow was in following a freak of his fancy! ~ Thomas Hardy

It's the old story. You might be able to fool your coaches, or your teammates, or your opponents. But, you can never fool yourself in anything. I believe that the more critical you are of your own performance- the higher standards you have-the better you become at what you do. ~ Don Maynard

A fool will always find banana skins ~ Robert Priest

Some things were inevitable. You'd have to be a fool to think otherwise. ~ Tayari Jones

Dear Night! this world's defeat; The stop to busy fools; care's check and curb; The day of spirits; my soul's calm retreat Which none disturb! Christ's progress, and His prayer-time; The hours to which high Heaven cloth chime. ~ Henry Vaughan

I can be a stupid girl inside of a crazy woman at times over you. If I weren't, you should be worried! We all do stupid shit. I might as well be a fool for someone worth it. ~ Crystal Woods

There is no greater fool than the man who thinks himself wise; no one is wiser than he who suspects he is a fool. ~ Margaret Of Valois

You had an image of life inside you, a belief or an ideal, that you were ready to do good deeds, to suffer, and to sacrifice – and by degrees you noticed that the world had no need of your good deeds, or sacrifices, and such like; that life was not an heroic tale, with roles for heroes, and such like, but a comfortable bourgeois parlour, where one is perfectly satisfied with eating and drinking, coffee and knitted stockings, tarot readings and music on the radio. And he who wants otherwise and has the heroic and the beautiful inside him, the veneration of great poets or the adoration of saints inside him, he is a fool and a knight errant, a latter day Don Quixote? ~ Hermann Hesse

Lady Rose, you grow lovelier every time I see you."
Had it been a stranger who spoke she might have been flustered, but since it was Archer, Grey's younger brother, she merely grinned in response and offered her hand. "And your eyesight grows poorer every time you see me, sir."
He bowed over her fingers. "If I am blind it is only by your beauty."
She laughed at that, enjoying the good-natured sparkle in his bright blue eyes. He was so much more easy-natured than Grey, so much more full of life and flirtation. And yet, the family resemblance could not be denied even if Archer's features were a little thinner, a little sharper.
How would Grey feel if she found a replacement for him in his own brother? It was too low, even in jest.
"Careful with your flattery, sir," she warned teasingly. "I am trolling for a husband you know."
Archer's dark brows shot up in mock horror. "Never say!" Then he leaned closer to whisper. "Is my brother actually fool enough to let you get away?"
Rose's heart lurched at the note of seriousness in his voice. When she raised her gaze to his she saw only concern and genuine affection there. "He's packing my bags as we speak."
He laughed then, a deep, rich sound that drew the attention of everyone on the terrace, including his older brother.
"Will you by chance be at the Devane musicale next week, Lord Archer?"
"I will," he remarked, suddenly sober. "As much as it pains me to enter that viper's pit. I'm ac ~ Kathryn Smith

When a man remains over after death,
His deeds are set beside him as treasure, And being yonder lasts forever.
A fool is who does what they reprove! ~ Miriam Lichtheim

When you can laugh at yourself no one can ever make a fool of you. ~ Joan Rivers

Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war. ~ John McCain

The Doobie Brothers' 'What a Fool Believes' makes me want to move. And I still haven't gotten over the Macarena. Who has? ~ Blake Shelton

I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher ... You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool ... or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. ~ C.S. Lewis

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

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. ~ Benjamin Franklin

This fellow is wise enough to play the fool;
And to do that well craves a kind of wit:
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time,
And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye. This is a practise
As full of labour as a wise man's art
For folly that he wisely shows is fit;
But wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit. ~ William Shakespeare

Egalitarianism trumps elitism. Only a selfish fool will tell you otherwise ~ Jonny Oates

I 'uz mos' to de foot er de islan' b'fo' I found' a good place. I went into de woods en jedged I wouldn' fool wid raffs no mo', long as dey move de lantern roun' so. I had my pipe en a plug er dog-leg, en some matches in my cap, en dey warn't wet, so I 'uz all right. ~ Mark Twain

How every fool can play upon the word! ~ William Shakespeare

Leadership can't be fabricated. If it is fabricated and rehearsed, you can't fool the guys in the locker room. So when you talk about leadership, it comes with performance. Leadership comes with consistency. ~ Junior Seau

The fact that the fool is often stubborn must not mislead us into thinking that he is independent. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I don't fool you, do I? Those others" - he waved a vague hand to indicate their
missing comrades - "they think I'm all that - but you know better, don't you."
"Know what?" she'd asked.
He leaned forward, smelling of beer and cigarettes. "You know I'm a fraud. I can
feel the beast inside me, screaming to get out. And if I loose it, it will pull me up to greatness despite myself."
"So why not let it free?" She hadn't been a werewolf then. The world had been a gentler place, the monsters safely in their closets, and she had been brave in her ignorance.
His eyes were old and weary, his voice slurring a bit. "Because then everyone would
see," he told her.
"See what?"
"Me. ~ Patricia Briggs

Everyone has the right to their opinions on a matter but make sure to do your research and know the facts before your opinion crown you an ignorant fool. Keep this in mind, do not be lazy with your research and have conversations with opposite minds from your opinions of the matter. ~ Jesus Apolinaris

Hey, I fool the camera. I'm a liar, a magician. ~ Janice Dickinson

A wise person is silent and rarely wants to show his wisdom. A fool is always vocal and uses every opportunity to show his foolishness. ~ Debasish Mridha

Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. ~ Alan Perlis

Only a fool would attack us. ~ Vyacheslav Molotov

The Library of Alexandria?" I ask. "Didn't that burn down?"
Mrs Philipoulus scoffs. "Damn fool Hypatia. Athena tried to convince her to install a sprinkler system. But no-o-o, no one was going to tell the librarianatrix how to run her library. ~ Tera Lynn Childs

how we think of free will. While we all think that we first plan our actions and that they are then willfully carried out, in some cases a part of our frontal lobe may actually "decide" first, unconsciously, that we will perform an act, and after we carry out the act we fool ourselves into thinking we planned it. ~ James Fallon

There is no description of a fool that you fail to satisfy. ~ Cormac McCarthy

To Hades with you, fool, for God hath tired of you. ~ Sam Cheever

And a Fool is supposed to be wise? ~ Robin Hobb

Painters paint, and history continues to make fools of curators. ~ Robert Genn

Don't you long to shout to those youths who are bustling around you: Fools! Leave those worldly things that shackle the heart - and very often degrade it - leave all that and come with us in search of Love! ~ Josemaria Escriva

Every woman needs at least one of each of these friends (and all in one works): Someone who will drink and/or eat cookie dough in times of stress, someone who will take off her earrings and do battle, someone who will listen to all of your secrets, no matter how dark and NOT TELL, someone with the courage to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and someone who will play the role of fool to lift your spirits. ~ Susan Thatcher

But no, Potticary, poor fool, brushed his boots for love of it. He probably had a slave mentality; but had never read enough for it to worry him. ~ Josephine Tey

Do you think I am a fool, Masha? All this time, and you speak to me as though I were a flighty pinprick of a girl. I am a magician! Did you never think, even once, that I loved lipstick and rouge for more than their color alone? I am a student of their lore, and it is arcane and hermetic beyond the dreams of alchemists. Did you never wonder why I gave you so many pots, so many creams, so much perfume? ~ Catherynne M Valente

I don't fool myself. I can't see myself doing Shakespeare. ~ Sharon Tate

A fool conscious of her foolishness
Is to that extent wise.
But a fool who considers himself wise
Is the one to be called a fool. ~ Anonymous

He might be a very good liar, but I know when he's telling the truth. He doesn't fool me. ~ Paula Hawkins

No man is so much a fool as not to have wit enough sometimes to be a knave; nor any so cunning a knave as not to have the weakness sometimes to play the fool. ~ George Savile

Foolish people inflict pain upon them self which is worse than what an enemy can bring upon. ~ Thiruvalluvar

Sentiment makes fools of us all. ~ Traci Chee

I was the Fool and the Fool was me. He was the Catalyst and so was I. We were two halves of a whole, sundered and come together again. For an instant I knew him in his entirety, complete and magical, and then he was pulling apart from me, laughing, a bubble inside me, separate and unknowable, yet joined to me. "You do love me !" I was incredulous. He had never truly believed it before. "Before, it was words. I always feared it war born of pity. But you are truly my friend. This is knowing. This is feeling what you feel for me. So this is the Skill". For a moment he reveled in simple recognition. ~ Robin Hobb

I was laughing, she was laughing, and I decided to go in for the kiss. I leaned in and then she suddenly leaned back. Crap. I was so embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. I went in for it, and it wasn't good." I hung my head down.
"No, no, no, I panicked! Please, try again!" she said.
"No, I won't make a fool of myself twice in one night. We'll try again another day," I said and I changed the subject. I was talking about something else for a while and then she whispered, "Just kiss me." I did and it was incredible. Every moment I spent with this girl, I fell more and more in love with her. ~ Noah Galloway

Don't let ... anybody in the Cowboys organization fool you into thinking they support Greg Hardy. They don't. They support sacks. ~ Katie Nolan

Though Plente that is goddesse of rychesses hielde adoun with ful horn, and withdraweth nat hir hand, as many richesses as the see torneth upward sandes whan it is moeved with ravysshynge blastes, or elles as manye rychesses as ther schynen bryghte sterres in hevene on the sterry nyghtes; yit, for al that, mankende nolde nat cese to wepe wrecchide pleyntes. And al be it so that God resceyveth gladly hir preiers, and yyveth hem, as fool-large, moche gold, and apparayleth coveytous folk with noble or cleer honours; yit semeth hem haven igeten nothyng, but alwey hir cruel ravyne, devourynge al that they han geten, scheweth othere gapynges (that is to seyn, gapyn and desiren yit after mo rychesses.) What brydles myghte withholden to any certeyn ende the disordene covetise of men, whan evere the rather that it fletith in large yiftes, the more ay brenneth in hem the thurst of havynge? Certes he that qwakynge and dredful weneth hymselven nedy, he ne lyveth nevermo ryche. ~ Geoffrey Chaucer

I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a - a -"
"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," said Fred.
Percy swallowed.
"Yes, I was!"
"Well, you can't say fairer than that," said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy. ~ J.K. Rowling

The fool is looking for happiness far away. The wise man makes it grow under his feet. ~ James Oppenheim

All you've got is the word of a fool dog. It's been my experience that a bloodhound is the foolishest dog that is. I don't remember of anybody ever keeping a bloodhound for a yard dog. They're such dad blasted fools. ~ Laurence Stallings

Look, at the same time that I don't want to be a celebrity, I understand that when you make movies you put yourself out in the public eye. I'd be a baby and a fool to be like, 'Why are there cameras taking pictures of me?' when I'm on a billboard for a movie. I think that's a very absurd concept. ~ Jonah Hill

I didn't want to do it,' Kiala said. 'The universe just kind of conspired to force me to make a fool of myself. It does that quite a lot, actually. ~ Graham Parke

Don't let the case from 1995 fool you. Early Bil Gates Beige is just a color. Many wonders lurk therein."

"Many wonders?"

"A fast-as-hell processor. Shit-tons of memory. A hard drive that could crack nuts. And best of all, for our purposes, some very expensive audio editing software that I did not pay for."

"Ah. And the rest of this stuff--over here on the bookcase?"

"External drives. A CD burner. Extra parts. And that thing on the end that looks like a little hot plate is a mug-warmer my grandmother gave me for Christmas. So that's not part of FrankenHal. ~ Cherie Priest

Advice, then, young yeoman: When referring to the king's middle daughter, state that she is fair, speculate that she is pious, but unless you'd like to spend your watch looking for the box where your head is kept, resist the urge to wax ignorant on her naughty bits." -Pocket
I don't know what that means, sir." -Yeoman
Speak not of Regan's shaggacity, son" [ ... ] -Pocket ~ Christopher Moore

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise. ~ Montesquieu

The truth is, I like to engage with life fully. Given an opportunity to do something I don't often get a chance to do, I feel the need to try it, even if I suspect I'll make a fool out of myself. ~ Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

The Almighty can hardly be such a fool as the churches make out. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

All the quips in the world couldn't prevent Oscar Wilde from becoming a lovesick fool. ~ David Levithan

Busy old fool, unruly Sophie ~ Diana Wynne Jones

Is that it?" he demanded, in sudden rage. "Is that all that matters? Not that I am in love and tumbled like a fool into sin. Not that I can never be happy, married to a snake and in love with a heartbreaker, but only, only, that Mistress Anne Boleyn's reputation must be without blemish." At once she flew at him, her hands spread like claws, and he caught her wrists before she could rake his face. "Look at me!" she hissed. "Didn't I give up my only love, didn't I break my heart? Didn't you tell me then that it was worth the price?" He held her away but she was unstoppable. "Look at Mary! Didn't we take her from her husband and me from mine? And now you have to give up someone too. You have to lose the great love of your life, as I have lost mine, as Mary lost hers. Don't whimper to me about heartbreak, you murdered my love and we buried it together and now it is gone." George ~ Philippa Gregory

There's no need to get that way. It's your own thoughts that keep you young, Dick. And age hasn't anything to do with it. It's a question of your state of mind." "I don't care about all that. Oh! Jake - if I could live tremendously, and then die." "What do you call 'tremendously'?" "I don't know - but there are a whole lot of things I want to know and to feel. They won't ever happen though. Fate'll be against me." "Don't talk like a fool. There isn't such a thing as Fate. Everything depends on yourself," he said. "Everything?" "Yes." "I wish I could ~ Daphne Du Maurier

The force with which he wanted it both ways made him grit his teeth. What kind of fool wanted it only one way? ~ Maile Meloy

Advice is very easy to give, and even easier not to follow, so I don't fool with it. ~ Randy Pausch

Congress should know how to levy taxes, and if it doesn't know how to collect them, then a man is a fool to pay the taxes. ~ J. P. Morgan

Six hours' sleep for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool, ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

To bear adversity with an equal mind is both the sign and glory of a brave spirit. ~ Francis Quarles

The fool has said in his heart: pass me another Everlasting God-Stopper, please. ~ M.J. McGuire

Don't forget honey. Never let one man worry your mind. Find 'em, fool 'em and forget 'em. ~ Mae West

So now I'm going to forget the 400 years of lynching and killing raping and depriving my people feeding of justice and equality and the lowest of low last respect and I'm going to look at two or three white people who are trying to do right and don't see the other million who are trying to kill me? I'm not that big of a fool. ~ Muhammad Ali

The cripple gave him a look. 'I remember that just yesterday you told me I was a cretin and a fool and a disgrace to the memory of my ancestors.'
'Academic hyperbole.' Morg dismissed the complaint with the wave of one hand.'It was merely enthusiastic encouragement, I assure you.'
'Perhaps overenthusiastic would be a more accurate description' muttered the cripple. ~ Karen Miller

You stupid, conceited fool! You know nothing! You're like a child, blind to everything but its own empty stomach! Well, grow up, Carl, and join the real world. Until you do, for God's sake leave me be! ~ Amanda Browning

There is a small minority of well-educated people with relatively sensible views on economics, and an extremely tiny minority of economists with highly sensible views. Then there's everybody else ... To win, a politician needs to please the median voter. It makes little difference if a few thousand economists think you a fool. ~ Bryan Caplan

The mind is a curious thing, Abby. We see what we want to see, we hear what we're hoping to hear. The one thing we all do well is fool ourselves. ~ Shelley Peterson

Nevertheless, there are many respects, in tiny and contemptible matters, where our curiosity is provoked every day. How often do we slip, who can count? How many times we initially act as if we put up with people telling idle tales in order not to offend the weak, but then gradually we find pleasure in listening. I now do not watch a dog chase a rabbit when this is happening at the circus. But if by chance I am passing when coursing occurs in the countryside, it distracts me perhaps indeed from thinking out some weighty matter. The hunt turns me to an interest in the sport, not enough to lead me to alter the direction of the beast I am riding, but shifting the inclination of my heart. Unless you had proved to me my infirmity and quickly admonished me either to take the sight as the start for some reflection enabling me to rise up to you or wholly to scorn and pass the matter by, I would be watching like an empty-headed fool. When I am sitting at home, a lizard catching flies or a spider entrapping them as they rush into its web often fascinates me. The problem is not made any different by the fact that the animals are small. The sight leads me on to praise you, the marvellous Creator and orderer of all things; but that was not how my attention first began. It is one thing to rise rapidly, another thing not to fall. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

It seems to me that kings and queens can be fools when they forget what they are and act like who they are, but they're worse when they only remember what they are and forget who. ~ Robert Jordan

A jester unemployed is nobody's fool! ~ Danny Kaye

They hit you at school, they hate you if your clever, and they despise a fool. ~ John Lennon

Geoffrey: Why, you chivalric fool - as if the way one fell down mattered.
Richard: When the fall is all there is, it matters. ~ James Goldman

One day, you're in a physical landscape you share with this bizarre and fundamentally alien creature, not alien because she's female but alien because you're a fool in love and there's nothing not alien about that. And then when she's gone, you're alone and all the strangeness and wonder have gone out of the landscape and you're still a fool but now nobody notices how many days in a row you wear the same socks and cleaning the shower doesn't make the girl smile anymore so everything smells a little worse and doesn't get fixed when it breaks. I missed the feminine touch - not just hers, but mine. I missed being half-boy, half-girl, part of a whole. Now that I was male in a male environment, it was harder to manifest her physical chick presence, no matter how many of her MAC lipsticks I set out on the coffee table in a basket like so many M&Ms. ~ Rob Sheffield

Human life is inexplicable, and still without meaning: a fool may decide its fate. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Someone loved this girl, this utterly useless girl, loved her enough to go on wooing her, even though she was being paraded before all of Europe for takers. A moment of stark despair descended upon her that she would never know such love, that she would go through life sustained only by her facade of invincibility. Then she came to her senses. Love was for fools. Gigi Rowland was many things, but she was never a fool. ~ Sherry Thomas

Late in life, after his mother had died, his father cried at baptisms and funerals and sappy movies on TV, age stripping away a final protective layer. Now Henry could feel the same softening taking place inside him, a helpless grief for the past and boundless pity for the world, and that was right too. No fool like an old fool. ~ Stewart O'Nan

Through the lies the eyes can see, the truth in all eternity ~ Fool The Viking

Thanks a bunch, brother. Remind me to thank you with a fist in your fool face. ~ Sandra Hill

I want that child around for the rest of its life to remind Tom what a fool he is. ~ Nancy Pickard

Except for fools and madmen, everyone knows that nuclear war would he an unprecedented human catastrophe. ~ Carl Sagan

You fool," she says. "You eager, egotistical fool. Grand Moff. Pfah. You have so much, so wrong. The Ravager is not the last weapon. Nor do I even control it. There is ... another." His face twitches. "You don't mean ... " "I do mean. He's not dead." "But you said he was." "I lied." She shrugs. "This was ... all his plan. Wasn't it? I should've seen it. I fell for a trap. We all fell for your trap. You betrayer. You foul, wretched betrayer. ~ Chuck Wendig

Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters and these policemen and people from all over the country, literally with buckets, rebuilding ... that's extraordinary. And that's why we have already won ... they can't ... it's light. It's democracy. They can't shut that down. ~ Jon Stewart

Everyone has a bookplate these days, and the collectors are after it. The fool and his bookplate are soon parted. To distribute one's ex libris is inanely to destroy the only significance it has, that of indicating the past or present ownership of the volume in which it is placed. ~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I wasn't absolutely too sure where the Falklands was, and I didn't want to make a bloody fool of myself. ~ Denis Thatcher

For an actor who has the ability to take a chance, which may make him look like a fool, but may end in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow so to speak. So you have to take chances to be a bit dangerous and a bit silly every now and then and playful. ~ Max Irons

More times than I'm willing to admit I am my own worst enemy, which suggests that more times than I'm willing to admit I should allow God to be my own best friend. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

Is this different? Does love make lovemaking better? Does Nick feel this holy consummation, this wonder and beauty, this eternity, the way I do? Or is sex simply like this, designed by Nature to fool us all into multiplying? ~ Beatriz Williams

What an idiot he was! Had he really thought he could get away with kissing a marquess's daughter?
And not just any marquess's daughter, either. Celia looking oh so tempting in her sumptuous purple gown. Lovely, angry Celia.
Lady Celia, he reminded himself. But he'd never be able to think of her like that again, not when the taste and smell of her still filled his senses.
Hearing voices behind him, he slipped into an empty room to wrangle his emotions into some semblance of control. But it was no use. He could still feel her body yielding to his, still hear her rapid breathing as he'd taken every advantage.
Damn her and her soft mouth and her delicate sighs and her fingers curling into the nape of his neck so that all he wanted to do was press her down onto a bench...
"Hell and blazes!" He thrust his hands through his hair. What in thunder was he supposed to do about her?
And why had she let him kiss her, anyway? Why had she waited until he'd made a complete fool of himself before she'd drawn that damned pistol?
Oh. Right. That was why. To make a fool of him herself. To lull him into a false sense of security so she could prove she could control any situation.
Well, he'd stymied that, but it was little consolation. He'd behaved like a damned mooncalf, devouring her mouth as if he were a wolf and she were supper. If he'd allowed her to speak of their kiss, she probably would have pointed out exactly how insolent he'd been. Would have warn ~ Sabrina Jeffries

The greatest fool is he who thinks he is not one and all others are. ~ Baltasar Gracian

The greatest misfortune of the wise man and the greatest unhappiness of the fool are based upon convention. ~ Franz Schubert