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Foolishness is lack of good judgement

• Foolishness: Lack of good sense or judgement; stupidity.  Oxford Dictionary
• Foolishness: Unwise, stupid, or not showing good judgment. Cambridge Dictionary
• Foolishness: Resulting from or showing a lack of sense; ill-considered; unwise.  Dictionary.com
• Stupidity,  Ignorance, Wisdom,  Intelligence,  Common sense

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There is no shortage of fools in the world

• There are more fools in the world than there are people. Heinrich Heine
• Folly is perennial and yet the human race has survived. Bertrand Russell
• The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor. Benjamin Franklin

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Life can make fools of us all at times

• Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. Elbert Hubbard
• None is a fool always, everyone sometimes. George Herbert
• The world is full of fools; and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking- glass. Nicolas Boileau
• There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man. Aristotle

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Our hearts can make fools of us

• The heart is forever making the head its fool. François de la Rochefoucauld
• The intellect is always fooled by the heart. François de la Rochefoucauld

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Our illusions can make fools of us

• People are so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fool’s caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque while everybody else’s are transparent, making themselves exceptions to everything, as if when all the world looked yellow under a lamp they alone are rosy. George Eliot
• You see, that is why it is so easy to fool people with our illusions, Yue. In this world, illusions are usually much kinder than the truth. Zoë Marriott
• Is not this whole world an illusion? And yet it fools everybody. Angela Carter
• Luck is merely an illusion, trusted by the ignorant and chased by the foolish. Timothy Zahn
• Illusion is the dust the devil throws in the eyes of the foolish. Minna Antrim
• The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. Henry Louis Mencken
• Illusion

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Anger can make fools of us

• Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools. Albert Einstein
• Anger glances in the breasts of wise men; but rests in the bosom of fools. Wellins Calcott
• Anger may be foolish and obsurd, and one may be irritated when in the wrong; but a man never feels outraged unless in some respect he is at bottom right. Victor Hugo
• They are fools who cannot be angry; but they are wise people who will not. Proverb
• Anger

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Money can make fools of us

• A fool and his money are easily parted. Proverb
• How foolish to spend our youth chasing after wealth only to spend our wealth chasing after our youth. Robert Brault
• Money is not the root of all evil…ignorance is the root of all evil. People do cruel and foolish things for money because they feel oppressed by a sense of lack. If people knew their power to generate wealth, they would never fight or hurt each other over money. Alan Cohen
• Money never made a fool of anybody; it only shows them up. Elbert Hubbard
• As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before. Jean de la Bruyere
• Penny wise, pound foolish. Robert Burton

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Impatience can make fools of us

• Impatience can cause wise people to do foolish things. Janette Oke
• Impatience

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Pride can make fools of us

• Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. Alexander Pope
• Nothing so obstinately stands in the way of all sorts of progress as pride of opinion; while nothing is so foolish and baseless. Jeffrey R. Holland
• With too much pride a man cannot learn a thing. In and of itself, learning teaches you how foolish you are. Criss Jami
• Pride,  Arrogance

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Ignorance can make fools of us, especially if combined with arrogance

• Foolishness is more than being stupid, that deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance. Paul David Tripp
• Ignorance

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Low moods can make fools of us

• Don’t allow yourself to be fooled by your low moods. People do not realise that their moods are always on the run. They think instead that their lives have suddenly become worse in the past day, or even the last hour. A low mood is not the time to analyse your life. In low moods we lose our perspective, and everything seems urgent. Life is almost never as bad as it seems when you’re in a low mood. The trick is to be grateful for our good moods and graceful in our low moods – not taking them to seriously. Richard Carlson
• Mood

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Foolishness, at times, can do much damage, even if well intentioned

• Fools are more to be feared than the wicked. Queen Christina
• Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness. Sophocles
• The blind fanaticism of one foolish honest man may cause more evil than the united efforts of twenty rogues. Baron Friedrich von Grimm, Friedrich Melchior
• Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• A thick head can do as much damage as a hard heart. W. Dodds
• A man’s wisdom is his best friend; folly, his worst enemy. William Temple, Sr.

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It’s easy to fool people, but not everyone

• You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising budget is big enough. Ed Rollins
• You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham Lincoln
• You are never so easily fooled as when trying to fool someone else. François de La Rochefoucauld
• You don’t have to fool all the people all of the time; you just have to fool enough to get elected. Gerald Barzan

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The easiest person in the world to fool is yourself …

• Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. Richard Feynman
• The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you’re the easiest person to fool. Richard Feynman
• You can fool yourself, you know. You’d think it’s impossible, but it turns out it’s the easiest thing of all. Jodi Picoult

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We’re fools never to listen to advice

• Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it. Benjamin Franklin
• A fool thinks he needs no advice, but a wise man listens to others. Proverbs 12:15
• No man is so foolish, but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master. Ben Johnson
• When a wise man is advised of his errors, he will reflect on and improve his conduct. When his misconduct is pointed out, a foolish man will not only disregard the advice but rather repeat the same error. Buddha
• Advice

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We’re fools not to learn from the mistakes of others …

• Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Benjamin Franklin
• Wise men learn by other men’s mistakes, fools by their own.
• Learning, Mistakes

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… especially the mistakes the foolish make …

• A fool follows his own wisdom and makes his own mistakes but a wise man learns from the mistakes of fools. Luelle Davis
• The foolish acts of others ought to serve more as a lesson to us than an occasion to laugh at those who commit them. Magdeleine Sable
• Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.

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… and even greater fools not to learn from our own

• Experience is a school where a man learns what a big fool he has been. Josh Billings
• Experience is that marvellous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. Franklin P. Jones
• The fool is not the man who merely does foolish things. The fool is the man who does not know enough to cash in on his foolishness. Elbert Hubbard
• Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error. Marcus Tullius Cicero
• You are not a fool just because you have done something foolish – only if the folly of it escapes you. Jim Fiebig

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We’re fools never to experiment

• I love fools’ experiments. I am always making them. Charles Darwin
• A fool is a man who never tried an experiment in his life. Erasmus Darwin
• Life is one long experiment in learning. Who can be perfect all the time? Sometimes I feel half- wise, sometimes half- stupid. Terri Guillemets
• Experimentation

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We’re fools when we look constantly to the future for our happiness

• The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. James Oppenheim
• So foolish is the heart of man that he ever puts his hope in the future, learning nothing from his past errors and fancying that tomorrow must be better than today. Mika Waltari
• There is nothing more miserable and foolish than anticipation. Seneca
• You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this. Henry David Thoreau
• Happiness,  The future

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We’re fools when we constantly worry about the future

• Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is to be expecting evil before it comes. Seneca
• Don’t be fooled into thinking worry is helpful. Turn worrying into problem-solving whenever you can. Kate Cavanagh
• Worry is evidence of an ill-controlled brain; it is merely a stupid waste of time in unpleasantness. If men and women practiced mental calisthenics as they do physical calisthenics, they would purge their brains of this foolishness. Arnold Bennett
• Worry

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We’re fools when we live in the past

• It is foolish to try to live on past experience. It is very dangerous, if not a fatal habit, to judge ourselves to be safe because of something that we felt or did twenty years ago. Charles Haddon Spurgeon
• The past

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We’re fools if we do nothing but work

• A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as ample reward. George Jean Nathan
• Balance,  Work

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We’re fools if we keep delaying life

• It is foolish to postpone enjoyment of your ordinary life until you are more successful, more secure, or more loved than you are today. Timothy Ray Miller
• The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live. Epicurus

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We’re fools when we don’t savour the pleasures of life at hand…

• Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation! Jane Austen
• A fool bolts pleasure, then complains of moral indigestion. Minna Antrim
• Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely, we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. Somerset Maugham
• Eating, loving, singing and digesting are, in truth, the four acts of the comic opera known as life, and they pass like bubbles of a bottle of champagne. Whoever lets them break without having enjoyed them is a complete fool.  Gioacchino Rossini
• Without pleasure man would live like a fool and soon die. Pierre de Beaumarchais
• Savouring,  Pleasure

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… so long as they don’t come at the expense of conscience …

• A physical gratification bought at the expense of conscience is the bargain of a fool. John A. O’Brien
• Conscience

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… and so long as we don’t become a slave to them

• It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them. Epictetus
• Slavery

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We’re fools when we’re nothing but idle …

• To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent. Buddha
• Idleness

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… and also fools when we’re nothing but busy

• None are so busy as the fool and the knave. John Dryden
• A foolish man is always doing, yet much remains to be done. Lao Tzu
• Busyness

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We’re fools not to reason

• Prejudices are what fools use for reason. Voltaire
• Reason is the wise man’s guide, example the fool’s. Welsh Proverb
• Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. George Gordon Byron
• He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave. William Drummond
• Reason

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We’re fools not to ever fear

• Only priests and fools are fearless and I’ve never been on the best of terms with God. Patrick Rothfuss
• Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done—that’s courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward. Piers Anthony
• If you fear nothing, then you are not brave. You are merely too foolish to be afraid. Laurell K. Hamilton
• A fool without fear is sometimes wiser than an angel with fear. Lady Nancy Astor
• The man who claims never to have known fear is either a fool or a liar.
• Fear

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Fools love to condemn, complain and criticise

• Instead of condemning people, try to understand them. Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain– and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving. Lawrence G. Lovasik
• Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk. Sir Francis Chichester
• Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do. Dale Carnegie
• Compaining,  Criticism

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Fools love to provide advice from the sidelines

• Extremely foolish advice is likely to be uttered by those who are looking at the laboring vessel from the land. Arthur Helps
• The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor. Benjamin Franklin
• Advice

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Fools love to make things bigger and more complex

• Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction. Albert Einstein
• Complexity,  Simplicity

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Here are more things that any fool can do

• Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep. Clive Barker
• Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count all the apples in one seed. Robert H. Schuller
• Life makes fools of all of us sooner or later. But keep your sense of humor and you’ll at least be able to take your humiliations with some measure of grace. In the end, you know, its our own expectations that crush us. Paul Murray
• Any fool can know. The point is to understand. Albert Einstein
• Any fool can make a rule and any fool will mind it. Henry David Thoreau
• Any damn fool can be spontaneous. Ezra Pound

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Fools never show up their foolishness more than when arguing with other fools

• Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. Mark Twain
• Never contend with one that is foolish, proud, positive, testy, or with a superior, or a clown, in matter of argument. Thomas Fuller
• One never needs their humor as much as when they argue with a fool. Chinese Proverb
• The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him. Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
• When you’re arguing with a fool, make sure he isn’t doing the same thing.

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There’s no greater fool than a learned fool

• Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. Ambrose Bierce
• An erudite fool is a greater fool than an ignorant fool. Jean Baptiste Moliére
• A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool. Moliere
• Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. Charles H. Spurgeon
• Useless wisdom is double foolishness. Icelandic Proverb
• You can educate a fool, but you cannot make him think. The Talmud

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Here are more signs of fools and foolishness

• A fool may be known by six things: anger, without cause; speech, without profit; change, without progress; inquiry, without object; putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends. Arabian Proverb
• A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Can there be greater foolishness than the respect you pay to people collectively when you despise them individually? Cicero
• Compromise is a stalling between two fools. Stephen Fry
• Despair is the conclusion of fools. Benjamin Disraeli
• Fools have a great advantage over the wise; they are always self-satisfied. Napoleon
• Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Alexander Pope
• Impossibility: a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools. Napoleon Boneparte
• It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. George Patton
• Only a fool expects to be happy all the time. Robertson Davies
• Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet. African Proverb
• Ridicule is the first and last argument of a fool. Charles Simmons
• The foolish and dead never change their opinions.
• The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it. George Washington
• When you have done a good deed that another has had the benefit of, why do you need a third reward–as fools do– praise for having done well or looking for a favor in return. Marcus Aurelius
• Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest. Benjamin Franklin
• The only thing more frustrating than slanderers is those foolish enough to listen to them. Criss Jami
• There are two kinds of fools. One says, “This is old, and therefore good.” And one says, ” This is new, and therefore better. John Brunner
• To expect life to treat you good is foolish as hoping a bull won’t hit you because you are a vegetarian. Roseanne Barr
• Fools act on imagination without knowledge. Pedants act on knowledge without imagination. William Arthur Ward
• Folly is the direct pursuit of happiness and beauty. George Bernard Shaw
• Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place. Moliere

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Dare to be a fool at times

• For God’s sake, give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself. Robert Louis Stevenson
• People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools. Alice Walker
• He is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things. Anton Chekhov
• We’re fools whether we dance of not, so we might as well dance. Japanese proverb
• If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. William Blake
• It is a fool’s prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak. William Shakespeare
• Mingle some brief folly with your wisdom. Horace

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Daring to be a fool is the first step to wisdom

• He dares to be a fool, and that is just the first step in the direction of wisdom. James Gibbons Huneker
• If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. Corinthians
• If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom. Lord (George Gordon) Byron
• Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness. Sacha Guitry
• Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain. Khalil Gibran
• Wisdom

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Discovering your own foolishness is often a sure sign of wisdom emerging

• Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it. William Lamb Melbourne
• With too much pride a man cannot learn a thing. In and of itself, learning teaches you how foolish you are. Criss Jami
• The fool doth think himself wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. William Shakespeare

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Daring to be a fool can be a path to inspiration, genius and even greatness

• In order to share one’s true brilliance one initially has to risk looking like a fool: genius is like a wheel that spins so fast, it at first glance appears to be sitting still. Criss Jami
• When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap. Cynthia Heimel
• Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great. Cher
• Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos. Before a brilliant person begins something great, they must look foolish in the crowd. I Ching
• Inspiration,  Genius,  Greatness

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Put on your fool’s cap in order to open your mind

• The fool is the reverse gear for your mind. He might not give the right answer or solve your problem, but he’ll get you out of the rut and put your thinking on the freeway where you might find a better solution yourself.  Roger von Oech
• The fool will reverse our standard assumptions. He is irreverent.  He might deny that the problem even exists and therefore reframe the situation.  The fool can be absurd.  The fool notices things that others might overlook.  The fool will apply the rules of one arena to another.  The fool loves to parody the rules.  Roger von Oech
• Give yourself a license to be foolish. Go ahead and put on your fool’s cap.  You’ll find it cleanses your judgement and opens up your mind.  Roger von Oech
• Open-mindedness

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Dare to be foolish enough to ask lots of questions …

• There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions. Charles Steinmetz
• The fool wonders, the wise man asks. Benjamin Disraeli
• Go around asking a lot of damn fool questions and taking chances. Only through curiosity can we discover opportunities, and only by gambling can we take advantage of them. Clarence Birdseye
• One of life’s best lessons is not being afraid to look foolish — to just ask the question. Melissa Senate
• Questions

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Dare to be foolish enough to be optimistic

• The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come. Peter Ustinov
• He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool. Albert Camus
• The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come. Peter Ustinov
• Optimism

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Dare to be foolish enough to be an idealist at times

• Idealists are foolish enough to throw caution to the winds. They have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.  Emma Goldman

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Dare to be foolish enough to dream

• Close your ears to all adverse suggestions. Never mind if people call you a fool and a dreamer. Dream on. Wallace D. Wattles
• Dreams

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Dare to say and do foolish things

• One is more apt to become wise by doing fool things than by reading wise sayings. Robert Brault
• True rebels hate their own rebellion. They know by experience that it is not a cool and glamorous lifestyle; it takes a courageous fool to say things that have not been said and to do things that have not been done. Criss Jami
• The follies which a man regrets most in his life, are those which he didn’t commit when he had the opportunity. Helen Rowland

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Dare to look for inspiration in foolish places

• Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish. Chuck Palahniuk
• Inspiration

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Dare to be foolish enough to let go of your seriousness

• This week, laugh a lot. Look for the humor in things: Sing in the shower, create shampoo sculptures with your hair in the bathtub, make funny faces while brushing your teeth, read humorous books, rent comedies, go to a karaoke club with a friend and join in, goof around with your kids, and play with your dog. In other words, get over your seriousness and let your hair down! Fake it if you have to but do a good job of it. Don’t worry if you look foolish—the more foolish you are, the more enlightened you’ll feel. Sonia Choquette
• Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears. Charles Caleb Colton
• Fools are my theme, let satire be my song. George Gordon

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Balance the serious aspects of life with a bit of foolishness and silliness

• Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness. May Sarton
• Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment. Horace
• Balance

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If daring to be a fool is hard, practice with your dog!

• You can say any fool thing to a dog and the dog will just give you this look that says, ‘My gosh, you’re right! I never would’ve thought of that! Dave Barry
• The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too. Samuel Butler
• Dogs

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Stay hungry; stay foolish

• On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Steve Jobs
• Stay hungry, stay young, stay foolish, stay curious, and above all, stay humble because just when you think you got all the answers, is the moment when some bitter twist of fate in the universe will remind you that you very much don’t. Tom Hiddleston

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Learn to love the fool in you

• I must learn to love the fool in me — the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self- controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of my human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my Fool. Theodore Isaac Rubin
• Self-love

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Sometimes it’s better to hide your cleverness and be thought a fool

• It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. Aeschylus
• It’s better to be thought of as a fool and to surprise people once in a while than to be thought of as a brain and to let people down when they need you the most. Julie Melanson
• If it is one’s lot to be cast among fools, one must learn foolishness. Alexandre Dumas
• So, rather than appear foolish afterward, I renounce seeming clever now. William of Baskerville
• Some people take more care to hide their wisdom than their folly. Jonathan Swift

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By all means, stay away from fools …

• If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool. Gautama Buddha

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… but never be too quick to label someone as such

• If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool. Carl Jung
• The apparent foolishness of others is but too frequently our own ignorance. Arthur Helps
• Labelled fools to the world are geniuses to the cosmos. Criss Jami
• Inventors and men of genius have almost always been regarded as fools at the beginning and very often at the end of their careers. Fyodor Dostoevsky
• And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly. Sophocles

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Fools talk incessantly; wise men listen

• For one word a man is often deemed to be wise, and for one word he is often deemed to be foolish. We should be careful indeed what we say. Confucius
• Fools talk, cowards are silent, wise men listen. Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• I would seriously question whether anybody is really foolish enough to really say what they mean. Sometimes I think that civilization as we know it would kind of break down if we all were completely honest. Elizabeth Hurley
• It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it. Maurice Switzer
• Wise people think all they say, fools say all they think.
• Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Plato
• The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. Benjamin Franklin
• The fool shouts loudly, thinking to impress the world. Marie de France
• Fools are wise until they speak. Randle Cotgrave
• When a fool is silent, he too is counted among the wise.
• Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish. Charles Colton
• A fool is like the big drum that beats fast but does not realize its hollowness. Malayan Proverb
• Listening

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Fools rail against misfortune; wise men learn from it

• If You Have A Lemon, Make A Lemonade. That is what a great educator does. But the fool does the exact opposite. If he finds that life has handed him a lemon, he gives up and says: “I’m beaten. It is fate. I haven’t got a chance.” Then he proceeds to rail against the world and indulge in an orgy of self-pity. But when the wise man is handed a lemon, he says: “What lesson can I learn from this misfortune? How can I improve my situation? How can I turn this lemon into a lemonade? Dale Carnegie

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Here are some more differences between fools and the wise

• A wise man has dignity without pride; a fool has pride without dignity. Confucius
• A wise man will be the master of his mind. A fool will be its slave. Publilius Syrus
• Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it. Benjamin Franklin
• Fools talk, cowards are silent, wise men listen. Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and wilful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter– an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy. Arthur Schopenhauer
• Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. Thomas Henry Huxley
• The fool wonders, the wise man asks. Benjamin Disraeli
• The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. Benjamin Franklin
• The silly when deceived exclaim loudly; the fool complains; the honest man walks away and is silent. La Coquette Corrigee
• The wise man does at once what the fool does finally. Baltasar Gracian
• They are fools who cannot be angry; but they are wise people who will not. Proverb
• Wise people think all they say, fools say all they think.
• True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance. Akhenaton
• Travel makes a wise man better, and a fool worse. Thomas Fuller
• Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.
• Wise men learn by other men’s mistakes, fools by their own.
• Wise men count their blessings; fools their problems.
• It is a wise person that adapts themselves to all contingencies; it’s the fool who always struggles like a swimmer against the current.
• A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. Baltasar Gracián
• In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes. Robert Jordan
• The fool’s mind wanders, the wise mind wonders. Patrick J. Mills
• The foolish man wonders at the unusual; the wise man at the usual. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The only difference between a wise man and a fool is that the wise man knows he’s playing. Fritz Peris
• Fools admire, but men of sense approve. Alexander Pope
• The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish defy it, the wise judge it, the skilful direct it. Jeanne-Marie Roland
• Wisdom and foolishness are practically the same. Both are indifferent to the opinions of the world. Joseph Campbell

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The problem with the world is that fools are always full of confidence while the wise are full of doubt

• Whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so sure of themselves, and wiser people are full of doubts. George Bernard Shaw
• The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell
• Some people are confident because they are fools. Leonard had the look of someone who was confident because, so far, he’d never found a reason not to be. Terry Pratchett
• Zeal is fit only for wise men but is found mostly in fools. Thomas Fuller
• True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubts often, and changes his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubts not; he knows all things but his own ignorance. Akhenaton
• Doubt,  Self-confidence

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Wisdom sounds foolish to fools

• To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish. Euripedes
• Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. Euripides

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As one grows older, one becomes both wiser and more foolish

• Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey’s end. Cicero
• Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot. Charles Bukowski
• As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish. François de la Rochefoucauld
• The foolishness of old age does not characterize all who are old, but only the foolish. Cicero
• Be wise with speed; a fool at forty is a fool indeed. Edward Young
• Getting older

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Most truly great ideas sound foolish at first …

• Almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are just produced. Alfred North Whitehead
• Ideas

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… while many ideas that sound exciting and new are foolish

• Beware when any idea is promoted primarily because it is “bold, exciting, innovative, and new.” There are many ideas that are “bold, exciting, innovative and new,” but also foolish. Donald Rumsfeld
• There are well-dressed foolish ideas, just as there are well-dressed fools. Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort
• No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there. Scott Fitzgerald

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Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side …

• The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. Bertrand Russell
• Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side.
• If a million people say a foolish thing – it is still a foolish thing. Anatole France
• Conformity

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… for fools love to admire, follow and encourage other fools

• A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him. Nicholas Boileau
• Who’s more foolish? The fool, or the one who follows him? Obi-Wan Kenobi
• The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools. Larry Niven

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Non-conformity can, at times, be just as foolish as conformity

• If you properly evaluate the circumstances and conclude that the masses are indeed correct, you would be foolish to run the other way, or practice any form of nonconformity. Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Conformity

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To love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all

• It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. William Thackeray
• One is easily fooled by that which one loves. Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere
• We all do foolish things when we are in love. Don’t we, your grace? Judith McNaught
• First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity. George Bernard Shaw
• Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other. Oscar Wilde
• The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love. Paulo Coelho
• Love

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Give others the space to be foolish if they wish for they’ll discover their folly soon enough

• He’s acting as foolish as a kitten… but then, everyone’s entitled to a little foolishness once in a while. Christopher Paolini
• Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. Mark Twain
• Most everyone seems willing to be a fool himself, but he can’t bear to have anyone else one. Josh Billings
• The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way. Josh Billings
• We must accustom ourselves to the follies of others and not be astonished at the foolishness that takes place in our presence. Magdeleine Sable
• True friends are those who, when you make a fool of yourself, don’t believe that this condition is permanent. Erwin T. Randall
• The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. Herbert Spencer
• Live and let live

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• A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Douglas Adams
• A fellow who is always declaring he’s no fool usually has his suspicions. Wilson Mizner
• A fishing rod is a stick with a worm at one end and a fool at the other. Samuel Johnson
• A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) Wall Street
• A fool and his money are soon elected. Walton’s Law of Politics
• A fool and his money are soon married. Carolyn Wells
• A fool and his money is a friend indeed.
• 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. Helen Rowland
• A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he’s talking about.
• A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married. H. L. Mencken
• A man shouldn’t fool with booze until he’s fifty; then he’s a damn fool if he doesn’t. William Faulkner
• All men are idiots…and I married their king.
• An author is a fool who not content with boring those he lives with insists on boring future generations. Charles de Montesquieu
• An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools. Ernest Hemingway
• Any fool can criticize condemn and complain and most fools do. Dale Carnegie
• Any fool can make a rule and every fool will mind it. Thoreau’s Rule
• Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell it. Samuel Butler
• Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. Samuel Butler
• Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget. Robert Jordan
• Anyone who has passed through the regular gradations of a classical education and is not made a fool by it may consider himself as having had a very narrow escape. William Hazlitt
• Are you an idiot, or an idiot?’ Gargarin hissed. ‘The first one. I really resent being called the second.’  Melina Marchetta
• Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. Abraham Lincoln
• Calling you an idiot would be an insult to all stupid people.
• Cigarette: A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other
• Confucius say never argue with a fool; he may be doing the same thing. Confucius
• Destiny: A tyrant’s authority for crime and a fool’s excuse for failure.
• Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
• Dog: An intelligent four-footed animal who walks around with an idiot on the end of his leash.
• Drinking makes such fools of people and people are such fools to begin with it’s just compounding the felony. Robert Benchley
• Egotism: An aesthetic that nature gives to a man to deaden the pain of being a darn fool.
• Eloquence, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white. Ambrose Bierce
• Every day, man is making bigger and better fool-proof things, and every day, nature is making bigger and better fools. So far, I think nature is winning.
• Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.
• Foolproof systems don’t take into account the ingenuity of fools. Gene Brown
• Fools rush in and get the best seats. Alfred E. Neuman
• Fools rush in where fools have been before.
• Get the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything. Frank Dane
• Go on get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough! Karl Marx
• He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot. Groucho Marx
• He who hesitates is a damn fool. Mae West
• He’s a fool that makes his doctor his heir. Benjamin Franklin
• History is an account mostly false of events mostly unimportant which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves and soldiers mostly fools. Ambrose Bierce
• How did a fool and his money get together in the first place? Steven Wright
• Howard Cosell is nobody’s fool. He’s everybody’s fool. Muhammad Ali
• I admit to spending a fortune on women booze and gambling the rest I spend foolishly. Charles ‘Chic’ Murray
• I always invest in companies an idiot could run because one day one will. Warren Buffett
• I am firm; you are obstinate; he is a pig-headed fool. Bertrand Russell
• I wasn’t born a fool. It took work to get this way. Danny Kaye
• I’m all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let’s start with typewriters. Frank Lloyd Wright
• I’m not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!
• I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish; God Almighty made ’em to match the men. George Eliot
• Idiot: A man who sees your point in an argument but refuses to see your way.
• Idiot: A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. Ambrose Bierce
• If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. W. C. Fields
• If fifty million people say a foolish thing it is still a foolish thing. Anatole France
• If women believed in their husbands they would be a good deal happier and also a good deal more foolish. L. Mencken
• In the first place God made idiots; that was for practice; then he made school boards. Mark Twain
• Insanity: Knowing that what you’re doing is completely idiotic but still somehow you just can’t stop it.
• Intimacy: A relation into which fools are providentially drawn for their mutual destruction.  Ambrose Bierce
• It ain’t what a man don’t know that makes him a fool but what he does know that ain’t so. Josh Billings
• It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it. Maurice Switzer
• It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Murphy’s Fourth Corollary
• It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
• It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time. Dr. Laurence J. Peter
• It isn’t necessary to be an idiot to be a senior officer but it sure helps. A Murphy’s Military Law
• It takes a woman twenty years to make a man of her son and another woman twenty minutes to make a fool of him. Helen Rowland
• It’s better to let someone think you are an Idiot than to open your mouth and prove it.
• It’s relaxing to go out with my ex-wife because she already knows I’m an idiot. Warren Thomas
• Jury: a group of twelve men who, having lied to the judge about their hearing, health and business engagements, have failed to fool him.     L.Mencken
• Laugh alone and the world thinks you’re an idiot.
• Learn of the skilful; he that teaches himself has a fool for his master. Benjamin Franklin
• Learned Fool: One who has read everything and simply remembered it.
• Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other. Oscar Wilde
• Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.
• Men are such idiots and I married their king. Katey Sagal
• Money never made a fool of anybody; it only shows them up. Elbert Hubbard
• Nature never makes any blunders when she makes a fool she means it. Archibald Alexander
• Never argue with a fool; people might not know the difference. First Law of Debate
• Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you. Joey Adams
• Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion. Thornton Wilder
• No woman can make a wise man out of a fool, but every woman can change a wise man into a fool. Argentinan Proverb
• Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
• Only a man who has loved a woman of genius can appreciate what happiness there is in loving a fool. Charles de Talleyrand-P’rigord
• Only priests and fools are fearless, and I’ve never been on the best of terms with God. Patrick Rothfuss
• Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat’s ear, but only the wisest of cats would think to look there. Scott Love
• People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don’t realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world. Bill Watterson
• Silence is foolish if we are wise but wise if we are foolish. Charles Caleb Colton
• Sometimes a majority simply means that all the fools are on the same side. Claude McDonald
• Sometimes the first step to forgiveness, is realising the other person was born an idiot.
• Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress but I repeat myself. Mark Twain
• Take all the fools out of this world and there wouldn’t be any fun living in it or profit. Josh Billings
• Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. Proverb
• The 100% American is 99% idiot. George Bernard Shaw
• The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way. Josh Billings
• The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are. Mark Twain
• The Dilbert Principle: People are idiots. Scott Adams
• The fellow that agrees with everything you say is either a fool or he is getting ready to skin you. Frank  …Kin’ Hubbard
• The first prerogative of an artist in any medium is to make a fool of himself. Pauline Kael
• The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. Richard Feynman
• The fools in this world make about as much trouble as the wicked do. Josh Billings
• The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. Samuel Butler
• The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot; the guy who invented the other three; he was a genius.   Sid Caesar
• The next time I send a damn fool for something I go myself. Samuel Goldwyn
• The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him. Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
• The only man who can fool all the women all the time is a fashion designer.
• The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. Arthur Schopenhauer
• The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come. Peter Ustinov
• The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool. Rudyard Kipling
• The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools. Doug Larson
• The word user is the word used by the computer professional when they mean idiot. Dave Barry
• There are a good many fools who call me a friend and also a good many friends who call me a fool. Winston Churchill
• There are more fools in the world than there are people. Heinrich Heine
• There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn’t fool with booze until he’s fifty; then he’s a damn fool if he doesn’t. William Faulkner
• There may be no fool like an old fool, but our observation has been that the young fool runs him a pretty close second. Robert Elliott Gonzales
• There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted but now it happens to everybody. Adlai E. Stevenson
• There’s nothing more dangerous than a resourceful idiot. Scott Adams
• Those wise decisions you make when you’re young are those foolish ones you’ll live with when your old. Country expression
• To expect life to treat you good is as foolish as hoping a bull won’t hit you because you are a vegetarian. Roseanne Barr
• Vanity is the food of fools.
• We have enough gun control. What we need is idiot control.
• We know that the nature of genius is to provide idiots with ideas twenty years later. Louis Aragon
• We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. Japanese Proverb
• When a man makes up his mind to become a rascal he should examine himself closely and see if he isn’t better constructed for a fool. Josh Billings
• When you left your home, you deprived the village of its idiot.
• Where ignorance is bliss, it’s foolish to borrow your neighbor’s newspaper. Frank ‘Kin’ Hubbard
• Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something. Plato
• Wise people think all they say, fools say all they think.
• Woman: A creature who is either making a fool out of man or making a man out of a fool.
• Women sometimes make fools of men, but most guys are the do-it-yourself type.
• You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time and that is sufficient. Murphy’s Law
• You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, ‘My God, you’re right! I never would’ve thought of that! Dave Barry
• You don’t have to fool all the people all of the time; you just have to fool enough to get elected. Gerald Barzan
• You’re just trying to make me admit something I didn’t do. I know all about reverse biology buddy. I’m not an idiot. Malaprop
• You’ve heard of people living in a fool’s paradise? Well Leonora has a duplex there.   George S. Kaufman
• Your kid may be an honors student, but you’re still an idiot.

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