Wisdom from the Fool

I recently read The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus, and I have to say that I found a lot of it to be quite humorous. Not much has changed from his day to ours. Anyway, as I was reading through, I came across a line and said to myself, "That would be great for the quote page." Well, I started seeing a lot of those great lines, so I decided to put compile them together, instead of putting a lot of quotes by Erasmus on the quote page. Erasmus wrote this book from the perspective of folly or foolishness personified, so keep that in mind as you read these.

"The flatterer adorns a crow with other birds' feathers, washes the Ethiopian white, and, in sum, makes an elephant out of a gnat."

"To know nothing affords the happiest life." -Sophocles

"What is it in children, that we should kiss them the way we do, and cuddle them, and fondle them--so that even an enemy would give aid to one of that age--except this enchantment of folly, which prudent nature carefully bestows on the newly born; so that by this pleasure, as a sort of prepayment, they win the favor of their nurses and parents and make these forget the pains of bringing them up."

"Men who really are among the most foolish have thought that by nights without sleep, and by their sweat, they could purchase fame--I know not what sort of fame, but certainly nothing could be more empty."

"Indeed, we distinguish a wise man from a fool by this, that reason governs the one, and passion the other."

"Men everywhere teem with so many forms of folly and daily devise so many new ones that a thousand Democrituses would not suffice for laughing at them--and there would be work, then, for one more Democritus to laugh at the laughers."

"Here is a fellow dying for love of a sweet young thing, and the less he is loved in return, the more helplessly he is in love."

"Let me turn to those who maintain among mortals an appearance of wisdom and, as the saying is, seek for the golden bough. Among these the grammarians hold first place."

"A prince is in such a position that if he lapses ever so slightly from honesty, straightway a dangerous and vital infection spreads to many people."

"Fortune loves those who are less than discreet, she loves the rasher sort, and the ones who are fond of that saying, 'The die is cast.' But wisdom makes men meticulous, which is why you commonly see that the traffic of wise men is with poverty, hunger, and smoke; you see them living neglected, inglorious, and disliked."

"If you don't have a thing, simulate it."

"To pretend to be a fool is sometimes the highest wisdom."

"It is sweet to play the fool in season." -Epicurus

"Be giddy and taken for a dolt, than be wise and fret." -Epicurus

"Everything is full of fools." -Cicero

"Human life is nothing but a sport of folly."

"Solomon, Chapter 15: 'A fool,' he says, 'delights in his folly,' that is, he clearly acknowledges that without folly nothing in life is sweet."

"No fools seem to act more foolishly than do the people whom zeal for Christian piety has got possession of; for they pour out their wealth, they overlook wrongs, allow themselves to be cheated, make no distinction between friends and enemies, shun pleasure, glut themselves with hunger, wakefulness, tears, toils, and reproaches; they disdain life and dearly prefer death; in short, they seem to have grown utterly numb to ordinary sensations, quite as if their souls lived elsewhere and not in their bodies."

"Plato defined philosophy as 'a study of death,' because it leads the mind away from visible and bodily things, and certainly death does the same."

"Even a foolish man will often speak a word in season." -Greek proverb