Talk sense to a fool
and he calls you foolish.[δόξει τις ἀμαθεῖ σοφὰ λέγων οὐκ εὖ φρονεῖν.]
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Bacchæ [Βάκχαι], l. 480 [Dionysus/Διόνυσος] (405 BC) [tr. Arrowsmith (1960)]
(Source)
Replying to Pentheus' charge that he's being foolishly evasive.
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:
He must seem devoid
Of reason, who mysterious truths unfolds
To those who lack discretion.
tr. Wodhull (1809)]
One will seem to be foolish if he speaks wisely to an ignorant man.
[tr. Buckley (1850)]
Who wiseliest speaks, to the fool speaks foolishness.
[tr. Milman (1865)]
Boors think a wise man’s words devoid of sense.
[tr. Rogers (1872), l. 457]
He were a fool, methinks, who would utter wisdom to a fool.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]
Wise answers seem but folly to a fool.
[tr. Way (1898)]
Wise words being brought
To blinded eyes will seem as things of nought.
[tr. Murray (1902)]
He who talks wisdom to an ignorant man will seem out of his senses.
[tr. Kirk (1970)]
A wise speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
[tr. Vellacott (1973)]
Talk truth to a deaf man and he
Begs your pardon.
[tr. Soyinka (1973)]
Wise speech seems thoughtless to the ignorant.
[tr. Neuburg (1988)]
What makes no sense is talking sense to a fool.
[tr. Cacoyannis (1982)]
To the ignorant, wisdom will seem folly.
[tr. Blessington (1993)]
To the ignorant man, any speaker of wisdom will seem foolish.
[tr. Esposito (1998)]
Speak wisdom to a fool and he'll think you have no sense at all.
[tr. Woodruff (1999)]
Wise things to the ignorant will sound like nonsense.
[tr. Gibbons/Segal (2000)]
Speak wisdom to a fool and he will think you foolish.
[tr. Kovacs (2002)]
Wise words spoken in the ear of a fool turn into nothingness.
[tr. Rao/Wolf (2004)]
It is not wise for someone to say anything wise to the ignorant.
[tr. Theodoridis (2005)]
Wise words will appear foolishness -- to an idiot.
[tr. Valerie (2005)]
Yes, but, then,
a man can seem really ignorant
when speaking to a fool.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]
Sense is nonsense to a fool.
[tr. Robertson (2014)]
Wisdom always sounds silly to the unwise.
[tr. Pauly (2019)]
Only a fool takes a warning for an insult.
[tr. Behr/Foster (2019)]
One will seem to be foolish if he speaks wise things [sopha] to a senseless man.
[tr. Buckley/Sens/Nagy (2020)]
Quotations about:
fool
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
A foolish man speaks foolishness.
[Μῶρα γὰρ μῶρος λέγει.]
Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Bacchæ [Βάκχαι], l. 369 [Tiresias/Τειρεσίας] (405 BC) [tr. Wodhull (1809)]
(Source)
To Cadmus, about his grandson, Pentheus. (Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:
Folly issues from the mouth of fools.
[tr. Buckley (1850)]
Fools still speak folly.
[tr. Milman (1865)]
Fools blurt their folly out.
[tr. Rogers (1872), l. 357]
The words of a fool are folly.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]
Fools alone speak folly.
[tr. Way (1898)]
Blind words and a blind heart.
[tr. Murray (1902)]
The words of fools finish in folly.
[tr. Arrowsmith (1960)]
He who speaks folly is himself a fool.
[tr. Kirk (1970)]
The things he has said reveal the depth of his folly.
[tr. Vellacott (1973)]
It is a fool who folly speaks.
[tr. Neuburg (1988)]
You can tell a dangerous fool by his own words.
[tr. Cacoyannis (1982)]
For a fool speaks folly.
[tr. Blessington (1993)]
For Pentheus is a fool and says foolish things.
[tr. Esposito (1998)]
He who speaks foolishness is a fool.
[tr. Woodruff (1999)]
The fool speaks foolish things.
[tr. Gibbons/Segal (2000), l. 435]
His talk is folly and he's a fool.
[tr. Kovacs (2002)]
Often a fool speaks foolishly.
[tr. Valerie (2005)]
A man who's mad tends to utter madness.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]
His foolish words will end in folly.
[tr. Robertson (2014)]
A fool says foolish things.
[tr. @sentantiq (2016)]
The speech of the fool is foolish.
[tr. @sentantiq (2018)]
The tongue of a fool makes a foolish noise.
[tr. Behr/Foster (2019)]
For a foolish man says foolish things.
[tr. Buckley/Sens/Nagy (2020)]
One half of the world laughs at the other, and fools are they all.
[La mitad del mundo se está riendo de la otra mitad, con necedad de todos.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 101 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:
One part of the world laughs at the other, and both laugh at their common folly.
[Flescher ed. (1685)]
Half the world laughs at the other half, even though the lot are fools.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]
Half the world is laughing at the other half, and folly rules over all.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]
Every fool stands convinced; and everyone convinced is a fool; and the faultier a man’s judgment, the firmer his conviction.
[Todo necio es persuadido, y todo persuadido necio; y quanto mas erroneo su dictamen, es mayor su tenacidad.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 183 (1647) [tr. Fischer (1937)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translation:
All Fools are Opiniatours, and all Opiniatours are Fools. The more Erroneous their Opinions are, the more they hug them.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]
Every fool is fully convinced, and every one fully persuaded is a fool: the more erroneous his judgment the more firmly he holds it.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]
Fools are stubborn, and the stubborn are fools, and the more erroneous their judgment is, the more they hold onto it.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]
I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking. It cannot be so easily discovered if you allow him to remain silent and look wise, but if you let him speak, the secret is out, and the world knows that he is a fool. So it is by the exposure of folly that it is defeated, not by the seclusion of folly, and, in this free air of free speech, men get into that sort of communication with one another which constitutes the basis of all common achievement.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) US President (1913-20), educator, political scientist
Speech, Institute of France, Paris (10 May 1919)
(Source)
I must learn to love the fool in me, the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity, but for my fool.
Theodore Isaac Rubin (1923-2019) American psychiatrist and author
Love Me, Love My Fool (1976)
Sometimes quoted in the second person.
For thee — if this my deed seems foolishness,
The fool has caught the foolish in her folly.[σοὶ δ᾽ εἰ δοκῶ νῦν μῶρα δρῶσα τυγχάνειν,
σχεδόν τι μώρῳ μωρίαν ὀφλισκάνω.]Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Antigone, l. 469ff [Antigone] (441 BC) [tr. Donaldson (1848)]
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
And if my present actions are foolish in your sight, it may be that it is a fool who accuses me of folly.
[tr. Jebb (1891)]
And if in this thou judgest me a fool,
Methinks the judge of folly's not acquit.
[tr. Storr (1859)]
This to thee may seem
Madness and folly; if it be, 'tis fit
I should act thus; it but resembles thee.
[tr. Werner (1892)]
But you! You think
I've been a fool? It takes a fool to think that.
[tr. Woodruff (2001)]
If you think I’m a mindless woman then perhaps it's a mindless man who recognises a mindless woman.
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]
If you think what I’m doing now is stupid,
perhaps I’m being charged with foolishness
by someone who’s a fool.
[tr. Johnston (2005), ll. 531-33]
And if you think my acts are foolishness
the foolishness may be in a fool's eye.
[tr. Wyckoff]
He used to say that states fail when they cannot distinguish fools from serious men.
[τότ’ ἔφη τὰς πόλεις ἀπόλλυσθαι, ὅταν μὴ δύνωνται τοὺς φαύλους ἀπὸ τῶν σπουδαίων διακρίνειν.]
Antisthenes (c. 445 - c. 365 BC) Greek Cynic philosopher
Fragment 103, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, sec. 11 [tr. @sentantiq]
(Source)
A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.
[Un sot savant est sot plus qu’un sot ignorant.]
Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
The Learned Ladies [Les Femmes Savantes], Act 4, sc. 3, l. 1296 [Clitandre] (1672)
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
When blithe to argument I come,
Though armed with facts, and merry,
May Providence protect me from
The fool as adversary,
Whose mind to him a kingdom is
Where reason lacks dominion,
Who calls conviction prejudice
And prejudice opinion.Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978) American author, poet
“Moody Reflections,” The New Yorker (13 Feb 1954)
(Source)
The ratio of damn fools to villains is high.
The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool!
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
Plain Tales from the Hills, “Three and — an Extra” (1888)
Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. It seems as if heaven had sent its insane angels into our world as to an asylum, and here they will break out into their native music and utter at intervals the words they have heard in heaven; and then the mad fit returns, and they mope and wallow like dogs.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“History,” Essays: First Series (1841)
(Source)
The certain way to be cheated is to fancy one’s self more cunning than others.
Pierre Charron (1541-1603) French Catholic theologian and philosopher
(Attributed)
Quoted in John Timbs, Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors, vol. 3, #308 (1829)
Of all the creatures that creep, swim, or fly,
Peopling the earth, the waters, and the sky,
From Rome to Iceland, Paris to Japan,
I really think the greatest fool is man.[De tous les animaux qui s’élèvent dans l’air,
Qui marchent sur la terre, ou nagent dans la mer,
De Paris au Pérou, du Japon jusqu’à Rome,
Le plus sot animal, à mon avis, c’est l’homme.]Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711) French poet and critic
Satires, Satire 8, l. 1 (1716)
A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.
[Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l’admire.]
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711) French poet and critic
The Art of Poetry [L’Art Poétique], Canto 1, l. 232 (1674)
Alt. trans.: "A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him."
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
Joseph Roux (1834-1886) French Catholic priest
Meditations of a Parish Priest: Thoughts, Part 1, #74 (1886)
(Source)
For as blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.
Call me a “rube” and a “hick,” but I’d a lot rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
(Attributed)
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Attributed)
The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.
Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960) American journalist and humorist
Nods and Becks (1944)
See Lincoln.
Nearly always, the best deception trades on the enemy’s own preconceptions. If he already believes what you want him to believe, you have merely to confirm his own ideas rather than to undertake the more difficult task of inserting new ones into his mind.
Ronald Lewin (1914-1984) British military historian, radio producer publishing editor
Ultra Goes to War, ch. 10 (1978)
You philosophers are sages in your maxims, and fools in your conduct.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
“Dialogue Between Franklin and the Gout” (22 Oct 1780)
Many talk like Philosophers, and live like Fools.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #3358 (1732)
(Source)
EDDIE: Kid, life’s hard. But it’s a lot harder if you’re stupid.
Paul Monash (1917-2003) American producer and screenwriter
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (movie) (1973)
Screenplay based on the novel by George V. Higgins (though the line is not in the book). Played in the movie by Robert Mitchum, to whom the quote is often attributed.
It is so pleasant to come across people more stupid than ourselves. We love them at once for being so.
Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
“On Cats and dogs,” The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1892)
Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise.
The Bible (14th C BC - 2nd C AD) Christian sacred scripture
Proverbs 17:28
When capable, feign incapacity; when active, inactivity.
Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, “Estimates” (18) [tr. Griffith (1963)]
There is no crime in the cynical American calendar more humiliating than to be a sucker.
Maxwell "Max" Lerner (1902-1992) American journalist, columnist, educator
Actions and Passions: Notes on the Multiple Revolution of Our Time (1949)
Don’t argue with idiots because they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.
Greg King (b. 1964) American author and biographer
(Attributed)
Often attributed to Twain (compare to this), Bob Smith, George Carlin, and John Guerrero, all without citation. See also Proverbs 26:4.
Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Spurious)
Frequently attributed to Twain and also to Immanuel Kant (but never, in either case, with any citation). The phrase first makes recognizable (if anonymous) appearance in the late 19th Century; attributions to Twain begin in the late 1990s. See also Proverbs 26:4. For more discussion (and a shout-out to WIST) see here.
I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) English historian
(Attributed)
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
The Bible (14th C BC - 2nd C AD) Christian sacred scripture
Proverbs 26:4 (KJV)
April 1. This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, ch. 21 epigraph: “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar” (1894)
Nor can a man dupe others long, who has not duped himself first.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1852)
(Source)
Often rendered: "A man cannot dupe others long, who has not duped himself first."
The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Attributed)
(Source)
Found in Merle Johnson, More Maxims of Mark (1927), and generally considered authentic.
Experience keeps a dear school, yet Fools will learn in no other.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Dec 1743)
(Source)
Franklin quotes Poor Richard as well in The Way to Wealth (1758).
More discussion of this quotation, and an image of the original page: Experience Keeps a Dear School; Yet Fools Will Learn In No Other – Quote Investigator.
For it is the characteristic of folly, to have eyes for the faults of others, and blindness for its own.
[Est enim proprium stultitiae aliorum vitia cernere, oblivisci suorum.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 3, ch. 30 (3.30) / sec. 73 (45 BC) [tr. Otis (1839)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
For it is the property of Folly, to look upon other mens Failings, and to forget their own.
[tr. Wase (1643)]
For it is the peculiar characteristic of folly to discover the vices of others, forgetting its own.
[tr. Main (1824)]
For it is the peculiar characteristic of folly to perceive the vices of others, but to forget its own.
[tr. Yonge (1853)]
It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.
[Source (1882)]
It is the property of folly to see the faults of others, to forget its own.
[tr. Peabody (1886)]
This is just how foolish people behave: they observe the faults of others and forget their own.
[tr. Graver (2002)]
It is a trait of fools to perceive the faults of others but not their own.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British fabulist
The Sandman, Vol. 9, The Kindly Ones, “Chapter 4” [Dream] (#60) (1994)
He that’s cheated twice by the same Man is an Accomplice with the Cheater.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #2281 (1732)
(Source)
“I don’t keer w’at you do wid me, Brer Fox,” sezee, “so you don’t fling me in dat brier-patch. Roas’ me, Brer Fox” sezee, “but don’t fling me in dat brier-patch,” sezee.
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) American writer
Legends of the Old Plantation, “How Mr. Rabbit was too sharp for Mr. Fox” (1886)
You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
A possible precursor to this quote is the widely-republished Jacques Abbadie, "Traité de la Vérité de la Religion Chrétienne," ch. 2 (1684): "One can fool some men, or fool all men in some places and times, but one cannot fool all men in all places and ages. [… ont pû tromper quelques hommes, ou les tromper tous dans certains lieux & en certains tems, mais non pas tous les hommes, dans tous les lieux & dans tous les siécles.]" A similar passage was used in Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, ed., Encyclopédie: ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers, Vol. 4 (1754).
First attributed to Lincoln by Fred F. Wheeler, interviewed in the Albany Times (8 Mar 1886): "You can fool part of the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time."
First cited in detail in Alexander K. McClure, “Abe” Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories, (1904), in the above form; it was cited as a speech in Clinton, Ill. (2 Sep 1858), but the passage is not found in any surviving Lincoln documents. No Lincoln reference is found in contemporary writings.
Also attributed to P.T. Barnum and Bob Dylan. See also Lawrence J. Peter. More detailed discussion of the quotation can be found here.
I do now remember a saying,
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man
knows himself to be a fool.”William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 30ff [Touchstone] (1599)
(Source)
Look around the table. If you don’t see a sucker, get up, because you’re the sucker.
"Amarillo Slim" Preston (1928-2012) American gambler [Thomas Austin Preston, Jr.]
(Attributed)
Though he used the phrase, he did not take credit for it. More information here. Variants:
- "If after ten minutes at the poker table you do not know who the patsy is -- you are the patsy."
- "If you sit in on a poker game and don't see a sucker, get up. You're the sucker."
- "If you enter a poker game and you don't see a sucker, get up and leave -- you’re it."
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous —
Almost, at times, the Fool.T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917)
