Folly Quotes

717 Folly quotes by 471 unique authors

Everything, in retrospect, is obvious. But if everything were obvious, authors of histories of financial folly would be rich . . . — Michael Lewis
for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men — Herman Melville
I had paid for my folly and, as a reward, was invited to take part in the nest builder’s performance piece. The script was great.… — David Sedaris
What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps,… — Julian Barnes
A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are,… — RyÅ«nosuke Akutagawa
When Eleanor's arm touched his he felt his hands grow cold with deadly fear lest he should lose the shadow brush with which his imagination… — F. Scott Fitzgerald
To get back one's youth one has merely to repeat one's follies. — Oscar Wilde
Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have… — Baltasar Gracian
Let us think often that our only business in this life is to please God. Perhaps all besides is but folly and vanity. — Brother Lawrence
For there is no folly so great as keeping one's sorrows hidden. — Anthony Trollope
It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false… — J.R.R. Tolkien
There, he had seen every thing to exalt in his estimation the woman he had lost, and there begun to deplore the pride, the folly,… — Jane Austen
[Robin Stewart] was your man. True for you, you had withdrawn the crutch from his sight, but still it should have been there in your… — Dorothy Dunnett
I saw myself. . . in the time I watched, I saw strength and frailty, pride and vanity, courage and fear. Of wisdom, a little.… — Lloyd Alexander
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… — Douglas Adams
The god which the vast majority of professing Christians love is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish… — Arthur W. Pink
Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord… — Chinua Achebe
Worshiping the Devil is no more insane than worshiping God...It is precisely at the moment when positivism is at its high-water mark that mysticism stirs… — Joris-Karl Huysmans
What distressed me most - more even than my own folly - was the perplexing question - How can beauty and ugliness dwell so near?… — George MacDonald
To love with understanding and without understanding. To love blindly, and to folly. To see only what is loveable. To think only of these things.… — Dorothy Day
We are all of us obliged, if we are to make reality endurable, to nurse a few little follies in ourselves. — Marcel Proust
Life knows us not and we do not know life—-we don’t know even our own thoughts. Half the words we use have no meaning whatever… — Joseph Conrad
Dolgan: ’Tis a wise thing to know what is wanted, and wiser still to know when ‘tis achieved. Rhuagh: True. And still wiser to know… — Raymond E. Feist
Too much of water hast thou poor Ophelia, and therefore I forbid my tears. But yet it is our trick, let shame say what it… — William Shakespeare
Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky, the sea,… — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Who Wrote These Folly Quotes

471 authors contributed a total of 717 Folly Quotes, led by these top contributors: