Fool

“ The little mouth laughed.
"Who are you, seigneur dwarf?" she said.
"Bran is my name, and a man am I, and what is more a fool."
"How are you more than a man?"
"I weep when I laugh and laugh when I weep. I see what is not. What I know that I do not believe." ”

“ KENT.
Why, fool?
FOOL.
We’ll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there’s no labouring i’the winter. All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and there’s not a nose among twenty but can smell him that’s stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it. ”

“ Now we must hasten on to our destination; and if you see any of the modish people nudge each other whispering, ‘Old fool!’ as we pass, you will only smile, knowing as you now do that they are the fools and that I am none. ”

“ A fool there was and his goods he spent
(Even as you and I!)
Honour and faith and a sure intent
(And it wasn't the least what the lady meant)
But a fool must follow his natural bent
(Even as you and I!) ”

“ Ah, now I know that you are Teigue the Fool. You say that I am wise, and yet I say, there are no angels.
Fool I have seen plenty of angels.
Wise Man No, no, you have not.
Fool They are plenty if you but look about you. They are like the blades of grass.
Wise Man They are plenty as the blades of grass—I heard that phrase when I was but a child and was told folly.
Fool When one gets quiet. ”

“ Of old, your Fool did make your sage one tremble; but my foolship hath not found it so. Times must indeed be bad, when fools lack wit to battle wise men’s ire. Nay, but I have legs, therefore, can run; a heart, that’s merry, but would be more so, an ’twas drench’d with sack from my ladle: but no matter, that’s empty, till you gentles choose to fill it: then, by your leaves, we’ll walk, and carry our wits where they’ll chance meet better fare. ”

“ The King smiled.
“Well!—it would be better to make a fool of yourself generally than particularly! Folly is not so harmful when spread like jam over a whole slice of bread,—but it may cause a life-long sickness, if swallowed in one secret gulp of sweetness!” ”

“ The foolish nurse their hearts within the screen Of this familiar world, where all we do Or have is old, for there is nothing new: Yet elder far that world we have not seen; God's Presence antedates what else hath been: Many the foolish seem, the wise seem few. Oh foolishest fond folly of a heart Divided, neither here nor there at rest! That hankers after Heaven, but clings to earth; That neither here nor there knows thorough mirth, Half-choosing, wholly missing, the good part:-- Oh fool among the foolish, in thy quest. ”

“ Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield!
Against stupidity the very gods.
Themselves contend in vain. Exalted reason,
Resplendent daughter of the head divine,
Wise foundress of the system of the world,
Guide of the stars, who art thou then if thou,
Bound to the tail of folly's uncurbed steed,
Must, vainly shrieking with the drunken crowd,
Eyes open, plunge down headlong in the abyss.
Accursed, who striveth after noble ends,
And with deliberate wisdom forms his plans!
To the fool-king belongs the world. ”

“ Take him, thou, to be valet to thy temperance!" by which gibe he seeks to cover a gracious act. And, lo! I have a Fool for servant, a most notable Fool and auxiliary, who, having sworn himself to abstinence, would unplug and sink to the bottomless abyss every floating hogshead. In sooth the good soul is my shadow, and so they call him. "Well," says he, "so be it. But what sort of fool art thou, to cast a fool for shadow?" "Why, look," says I, for it was sunset on the grass—"at least not so great a fool as thou." "That may well be," says he, "for you do not serve Messer Bembo." ”

“ See what a fool's talk is. 1. It takes rise from his own weakness and wickedness: The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, the foolishness bound up in his heart, that is the corrupt spring out of which all these polluted streams flow, the evil treasure out of which evil things are brought. As soon as he begins to speak you may perceive his folly; at the very first he talks idly, and passionately, and like himself. 2. It rises up to fury, and tends to the hurt and injury of others: The end of his talk, the end it comes to, is madness. ”

“ In many other proverbs is the fool gibbeted. “As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool.” “The legs of the lame are not equal; so is a parable in the mouth of fools.” “As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, making a dangerous [Pg 114] weapon, so is he that giveth honor to a fool.” “As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.” “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool.” ”

“ OLIVIA. Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: besides, you grow dishonest.
CLOWN. Two faults, madonna, that drink and good counsel will amend; for, give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry: bid the dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if he cannot, let the botcher mend him. ”

“ The fool is he who, not yet at life's meridian, has exhausted it and himself; who thinks every man "green" who has not taken his diploma in wickedness. For whom existence is as weary as a thrice-told tale. ”

“ I've been a fool—a thousand times. I've done silly things often and once or twice bad, rotten things, but all these others—these virtuous people who are so ready to judge me, have they been any better? ”

“ The world, if it knew the facts, would, as you say, call me a quixotic fool. But if I took your money it would have the right to call me a mercenary knave. I have always suffered fools gladly, myself the greatest. ”

“ Fool. Nay, then, ye are gone and ha’ left your poor Fool behind. Methinks, I love that young master; nay, I know not how ’tis, but my legs would needs go follow him: yet, master Fool, is this wisdom? for they say the legs should ne’er carry away the brains. Yet, let me see: cannot I, in my folly, new form this saying, and turn it to mine own conceit? I ha’ hit it: for it matters not what comes o’ my brains; for men say they are good for nought, but my legs are; therefore, let the better o’th’ two serve as guide for the other. ”

“ And in all the years I have known you, you would ever be doing."
"Why, look you now, what ill have I done you ever?"
"You wish me well, brother fool. But you wish all men well. What would you have of me now?" ”

“ To feign the fool when fit occasions rise, Argues the being more completely wise.
It is easy therefore to collect how great a value ought to be put upon real folly, when the very shadow, and bare imitation of it, is so much esteemed. ”

“ It doth, good Mosca. MOS: Then it was, sir. NANO AND CASTRONE [SING.] : Fools, they are the only nation Worth men's envy, or admiration: Free from care or sorrow-taking, Selves and others merry making: All they speak or do is sterling. Your fool he is your great man's darling, And your ladies' sport and pleasure; Tongue and bauble are his treasure. E'en his face begetteth laughter, And he speaks truth free from slaughter; He's the grace of every feast, And sometimes the chiefest guest; Hath his trencher and his stool, When wit waits upon the fool: O, who would not be He, he, he? ”

“ Well I am glad I have something of the fool in my disposition,—foolishness being the only quality that makes wisdom possible. ”

“ Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits?
MALVOLIO. Fool, there was never man so notoriously abused; I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art.
CLOWN. But as well? then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a fool. ”

“ This fellow's wise enough to play the fool; And, to do that well, craves a kind of wit: He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time; And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practice As full of labour as a wise man's art: For folly, that he wisely shows, is fit; But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit. ”

“ I would rather be a fool Living in my Paradise, Than the leader of a school, Sadly sane and weary wise. O you Cynics with your sneers, Fallen brains and hearts of brass, Tweak me by my foolish ears, Write me down a simple ass! ”

“ I protest I take these wise men, that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better than the fools’ zanies.
OLIVIA.
O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite. To be generous, guiltless, and of free disposition, is to take those things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon bullets. There is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail; nor no railing in a known discreet man, though he do nothing but reprove. ”

“ If there is a witness to my little life,
To my tiny throes and struggles,
He sees a fool;
And it is not fine for gods to menace fools. ”

“ Out with it, Dunciad! let the secret pass, That secret to each fool, that he's an ass: The truth once told (and wherefore should we lie?) The Queen of Midas slept, and so may I. You think this cruel? take it for a rule, No creature smarts so little as a fool. ”

“ The method by which the fool arrives at his folly was as dear to him as the ultimate wisdom of the wise. ”

“ It was idle, he knew, to get between a fool and his folly; while two or three fools more or less would not alter the scheme of things. ”

“ A fool is he that comes to preach or prate
When men with swords their right and wrong debate. ”

“ The fool, that is to say, the sinner, "is changed as the moon;" he increases today, he lessens tomorrow; today he laughs, tomorrow he cries; today he is bright and altogether cheerful, tomorrow he is afflicted and morose ”

“ The people outside pity us poor fools here."
"Poor fools!" she echoed. "I don't care if I am a fool. God tells us that there are mansions in Heaven for those who are fools on earth for His sake."
"Won't you go with me?" ”

“ A fool multiplieth words. A man cannot tell what hath been before him: and what shall be after him, who can tell him?
10:15. The labour of fools shall afflict them that know not how to go to the city.
10:16. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and when the princes eat in the morning. ”

“ A fool with a heart and no brains is just as unhappy as a fool with brains and no heart. ”

“ In the next place, there are so many sorts of fools, such an infinite variety of fools, and so hard it is to know the worst of the kind, that I am obliged to say, "No fool, ladies, at all, no kind of fool, whether a mad fool or a sober fool, a wise fool or a silly fool; take anything but a fool; nay, be anything, be even an old maid, the worst of nature's curses, rather than take up with a fool." ”

“ So the fool told him about the wise woman and the coat o’ clay.
“Ha, ha!” laughed the squire, “whoever heard of a wise man lying in the middle of the highroad to be ridden over? Lad, take my word for it, you’re a bigger fool than ever,” and he rode on laughing. ”

“ Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.
TOUCHSTONE.
Why, thou sayst well. I do now remember a saying: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth, meaning thereby that grapes were made to eat and lips to open. You do love this maid? ”

“ Bran whined.
"A man may be a fool yet have a man's spirit," and she rated him fiercely for serving a robber lord, a knight unknightly, a hunter of the weak, a foreigner—till the fool broke out in that queer laugh of his. ”

“ Fool. Ay, and a righteous one, too: dost mark me? ’tis your Fool alone will make a true report.
Pas. I understand thee not.
Fool. The more’s the pity. He that doth, or well speak, or write, will be praised by fools only: for look ye: envy doth sting those that have knowledge, and makes them fear lest their wise heads should be outwitted; therefore, again, ’tis your Fool alone that is your upright judge; cause, forsooth, his brains are not in plenty; but, those which he hath are at’s own disposal.
Pas. This road, methinks, should lead us on our way
To the prince’s camp! Fool, go you on before. ”