Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who cannot foresee the future.
 Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1670). copy citation

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Author Blaise Pascal
Source Pensées
Topic future king
Date 1670
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by W. F. Trotter
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm

Context

“And on Psalm xxxvi, 1: "The wicked has said within his own heart, Let not the fear of God be before me." That is to say that the malignity natural to man has said that to the wicked. Midrasch el Kohelet: "Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who cannot foresee the future." [169] The child is virtue, and the king is the malignity of man. It is called king because all the members obey it, and old because it is in the human heart from infancy to old age, and foolish because it leads man in the way of” source