Truly God isgood to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Psalms 73:1^3.

Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Ecclesiastes 4:13.

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built hishouseupona rock: And theraindescended, and thefloodscame, and thewindsblew, and beat uponthat house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew 7:24^7.

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Corinthians1:27.

Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

-Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett
  The Cynic's Word Book. Retitled  The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

Souvent femme varie, Mal habil qui s'y fie Woman is often fickle, Foolish the man who trusts her.

-Francis I
Couplet scratched by the King on the glass of a window at Chambord. Quoted in Vincent Cronin Louis XI V (1964), p.175.

Perhaps it is indeed time that I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, whenwethink about it, it isnot sucha foolishthing to indulge inöparticularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.

-Ishiguro, Kazuo
  The Remains of the Day,'Day SixöEvening'.

He has, indeed, done it very well; but it is a foolish thing well done.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Of Oliver Goldsmith, who had responded to Thomas Evans's uncomplimentary open letter with a physical assault, and then published an apology in the London Chronicle. Remark, 3  Apr. Collected in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.2.

Seulement les sots sont punis, et non les vicieux. Only the foolish are punished, never the truly vicious.

-Marguerite d'Angoule"  me
  Heptame¤  ron, pt.13.

These FoolishThings Remind Me of You.

-Marvell, Holt originally Eric Maschwitz
   Title of song.

God bless our good and gracious King Whose promise none relies on, Who never said a foolish thing Nor ever did a wise one.

-Rochester,JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of
Of Charles II (published1707).The verse was later changed to an epitaph ('Here lies a great and mighty king†').

'A soldier,'cried my uncleToby, interrupting the corporal, 'isno more exempt fromsaying a foolishthing,Trim, than a man of letters.'ö'But not so often, an'please your honour,'replied the corporal.

-Sterne, Laurence
^67  Tristram Shandy, bk.8, ch.19.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Forgive our foolish ways! Re-clothe us in our rightful mind, In purer lives thy service find, In deeper reverence praise

-Whittier,John Greenleaf
  'The Brewing of Soma'.

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid metake love easy, asthe leavesgrow on thetree; But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand. She bid metake life easy, as thegrassgrows on the weirs; But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

-Yeats,W(illiam) B(utler)
  'Down by the Salley Gardens', complete poem. Collected in Crossways.

Tout bonheur est un chef-d'½uvre: la moindre erreur le fausse, la moindre he¤  sitation l'alte'  re, la moindre lourdeur le de¤  pare, la moindre sottise l'abe"  tit. Happiness is always a work of art: the least fault distorts it, the least hesitation changes it, a little dullnessspoilsit, the smallest foolish act makes it idiotic.

-Crayencour
Me¤  moires d'Hadrien.