folly

All my joys to this are folly, Naught so sweet as melancholy.

—Burton, Robert pseudonym DemocritusJunior

Hence vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly without father bred, How little you bestead, Or fill the fixe'  d mind with all your toys; Dwell in some idle brain, And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless As the gay motes that people the sunbeams.

—Milton,John

The root of Evil, Avarice That damn'd ill-natur'd, baneful Vice, Was Slave to Prodigality, That noble Sin; whilst Luxury Employed a Million of the Poor, And odious Pride a Million more; Envy itself, and Vanity, Were Ministers of Industry; Their darling Folly, Fickleness, In Diet, Furniture and Dress That strange ridic'lous Vice, was made That very Wheel that turned theTrade.

—Mandeville, Bernard

   A dead reign†a strange epoch of folly and shame.

—Zola, EŁ  mile

Fashion, though Folly's child, and guide of fools, Rules e'en the wisest, and in learning rules.

—Crabbe, George

There are as many fools at a university as anywhere† But their folly,I admit, has a certain stampöthe stamp of university training, if you like. It is trained folly.

—Gerhardie,William Alexander

Dead flies causethe ointment of theapothecary tosend forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.

—Bible (Old Testament)

It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to makethantobuy.Thetaylordoesnot attempttomakehis ownshoe†All ofthemfind itfor their interestto employ their whole industry in a way in which they have some advantage over their neighbours and to purchase with a part of its produce†whatever else they have occasion for† What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom† Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines, merely to encourage the making of claret and burgundy in Scotland?

—Smith, Adam

Idonot know whether itoughttobe so, butcertainlysilly things do cease to be silly if theyare done by sensible people in an impudent way.Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly. It depends upon the character of those who handle it.

—Austen,Jane

This mad, wicked folly of 'Women's Rights' with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor sex is bent, forgetting everysense of womanly feeling and propriety. Lady Amberley ought to get a good whipping.

—Victoria in full  Alexandrina Victoria

To each his suff'rings, all are men, Condemned alike to groan; The tender for another's pain, Th'unfeeling for his own. Yet ah! why should they know their fate? Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies. Thought would destroy their paradise. No more; where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.

—Gray,Thomas

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Historians spend their lives and lavish ink Explaining how great commonwealths collapse From great defects of policyöperhaps The cause is sometimes simpler than they think. † Have more states perished, then, For having shackled the enquiring mind, Than those who, in their folly not less blind, Trusted the servile womb to breed free men?

—Hope, A(lec) D(erwent)

Fashionöa word which knaves and fools may use, Their knavery and folly to excuse.

—Churchill, Charles

   All higher knowledge in her presence falls Degraded, wisdom in discourse with her Loses discount'nanced, and like folly shows.

—Milton,John

Goldsmith tells us, when a lovely woman stoops to folly, shehasnothing to do but die; and when shestoopsto be disagreeable, it is equally to be recommended as a clearer of ill-fame. See Goldsmith 361:47.

—Austen,Jane

When lovely woman stoops to folly And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy, What art can wash her guilt away?

—Goldsmith, Oliver

It is often seen that bad husbands have very good wives; whether it be that it raiseth the price of their husband's kindness when it comes, or that the wives take a pride in their patience. But this never fails, if the bad husbands were of their own choosing, against their friends' consent; for then they will be sure to make good their own folly.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

A man hates to be moved to folly bya noise.

—Arabia

O ye wha are sae guid yoursel, Sae pious and sae holy, Ye've nought to do but mark and tell Your Neebours'fauts an folly!

—Burns, Robert

Sweet bird that shunn'st the noise of folly, Most musical, most melancholy!

—Milton,John

The obstinancy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinancy of follyand inanity.

—Stowe, Harriet (Elizabeth) ne¤  e Beecher

Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate, That few, but such as cannot write, translate.

—Denham, SirJohn

Do not let me hear Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

   Eye Nature's walks, shoot Folly as it flies, And catch the Manners living as they rise. Laugh where we must, be candid where we can; But vindicate the ways of God to man. See Milton 580:93.

—Pope, Alexander

Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.

—Huxley, Aldous Leonard

And on that grave where English oak and holly And laurel wreaths entwine, Deem it not all a too presumptuous folly, This spray of Western pine!

—Harte, (Francis) Bret

The passionate heart of the poet is whirled into folly and vice.

—Tennyson