110 Human Folly Quotes

Following is our list of human folly quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about folly.

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Famous Human Folly Quotes

The utter folly of our time is lamentable, that men should think to assist God with human help and to protect the Church of Christ by worldly ambition. — Hilary of Poitiers

How foolish is man! He ruins the present while worrying about the future, but weeps in the future by recalling his past! — Ali ibn Abi Talib

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly. — Anatole France

...and I wonder if there is any way to adequately describe the folly that causes us to undo all the great gifts of both Earth and Heaven. — James Lee Burke

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Anger begins in folly, and ends in repentance. — Pythagoras

Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness. — Sophocles

Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly. — Horace

Broadly speaking, we are in the middle of a race between human skill as a means and human folly as an end. — Bertrand Russell

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgement, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is PRIDE, the never-failing vice of fools. — Alexander Pope

All our experience with history should teach us, when we look back, how badly human wisdom is betrayed when it relies on itself — Martin Luther

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance. — Akhenaton

Better foolish by all than wise by yourself. — German proverbs

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Human Folly Quotes

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature. — Voltaire

My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. — Yann Martel

There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. — Carl Sagan

Human folly quote I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation
I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.

These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Crusades - the most signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age or nation. — David Hume

History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive. It knows the names of the king's bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat. This is the way of human folly. — Jean-Henri Fabre

Human folly quote All human unhappiness comes from not facing reality squarely, exactly as it is.
All human unhappiness comes from not facing reality squarely, exactly as it is.

Clever people are never credited with their follies: what a deprivation of human rights! — Friedrich Nietzsche

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. — Isaac Asimov

Is there in all the history of human folly a greater fool than a clergymen in politics? — Pat Robertson

Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn't -it's human. — Desiderius Erasmus

Folly Quotes

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. — Jim Rohn

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. — Leo Tolstoy

Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep. — Alexander Hamilton

Human folly quote Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

To overcome the intelligent by folly is contrary to the natural order of things; to overcome the foolish by intelligence is in accord with the natural order. To overcome the intelligent by intelligence, however, is a matter of opportunity. — Zhuge Liang

And so, being young and dipt in folly, I fell in love with melancholy. - Edgar Allan Poe

And so, being young and dipt in folly, I fell in love with melancholy. — Edgar Allan Poe

Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority. — Arthur Schopenhauer

Human folly quote It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.
It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.

The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Women's Rights'. It is a subject which makes the Queen so furious that she cannot contain herself. — Queen Victoria

Keep alive within you and bring under wise control that courage which makes you long to undertake great works, which others might consider it folly to attempt. — Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

We cannot rely on ourselves, for we have learned by bitter experience the folly of self-confidence. We are compelled to look to the Lord alone. Blessed is the wind that drives the ship into the harbor. Blessed is the distress that forces us to rest in our God. — Charles Spurgeon

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. — George Bernard Shaw

Man's Folly Quotes

Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God. It doesn't comfort man. On the contrary, it encourages him in his folly, it transports him to the supreme regions where he is master of his own destiny. — Marguerite Duras

Meddling with another man's folly is always thankless work. — Rudyard Kipling

The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also. — Mark Twain

Human folly quote Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.
Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.

To speak less of oneself than what one really is, is folly, not modesty; and to take that for current pay which is under a man's value, is pusillanimity and cowardice. — Michel de Montaigne

One man's folly is another man's wife. — Helen Rowland

One man's justice is another's injustice; one man's beauty another's ugliness; one man's wisdom anpther's folly. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Human folly quote The way of the miracle-worker is to see all human behavior as one of two things: either love, or a c
The way of the miracle-worker is to see all human behavior as one of two things: either love, or a call for love.

In the dark colony of night, when I consider man's magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, envy, rage, and destructiveness, and I wonder whether we shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed. — Leo Rosten

For take thy ballaunce if thou be so wise, And weigh the winds that under heaven doth blow; Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise; Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow. — Edmund Spenser

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. — Alexander Pope

FOLLY, n. That "gift and faculty divine" whose creative and controlling energy inspires Man's mind, guides his actions and adorns his life. — Ambrose Bierce

Foolishness Quotes

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. — Bruce Lee

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life. — Frank Lloyd Wright

Fear of the devil is nonsense. Fear of demons is foolish. The Spirit of God anointing the Christian heart makes the soul impregnable to the powers of darkness. — John G. Lake

Human folly quote The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.
The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.

Whatever your determination or will power, it is foolish to try to change the nature of things. Things work the way they do because that is the way of things — Miyamoto Musashi

Stay hungry, stay foolish. You've got to find what you love! - Steve Jobs

Stay hungry, stay foolish. You've got to find what you love!Steve Jobs

I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been. — William Golding

Human folly quote Laughter is the greatest weapon we have and we, as humans, use it the least.
Laughter is the greatest weapon we have and we, as humans, use it the least.

There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy. — Blaise Pascal

The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. — Chinua Achebe

Our religion seems foolish to you, but so does yours to me. The Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and the Catholics all have a different God. Why cannot we have one of our own? — Sitting Bull

They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil. — Paul the Apostle

Human Frailties Quotes

Let him who elevates himself above humanity . . . say, if he pleases, "I will never compromise"; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromise. — Henry Clay

You'll never be a wonderful woman or even a wonderful human being until you learn to have some regard for human frailty. — Bing Crosby

The solution to our human frailty is not to try harder, but to turn Godward. — Dillon Burroughs

Human folly quote When humanity measures wealth by love, truth and wisdom we will all be rich.
When humanity measures wealth by love, truth and wisdom we will all be rich.

A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties. — Anne Stevenson

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty. — Albert Einstein

Artists instinctively want to reflect humanity, their own and each other's, in all its intermittent virtue and vitality, frailty and fallibility. — Tom Hiddleston

Human folly quote One thing that defines humans: if we can imagine it, we can do it.
One thing that defines humans: if we can imagine it, we can do it.

The longer I live the more conscious I am of human frailty, and of the constant, overwhelming need we all have of God’s grace. — Elizabeth Prentiss

I don’t deny that there can be an element of escapism in mountaineering, but this should never overshadow its real essence, which is not escape but victory over your own human frailty. — Walter Bonatti

Never attribute to malice or other deliberate decision what can be explained by human frailty, imperfection, or ignorance. — Harold S. Kushner

Snow makes cities innocent again, reveals the frailty of the human gesture against the void. — Glen Duncan

People Writing About Human Folly

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero
quotes on law

1036 10824
Read quotes by Hilary of Poitiers

Hilary of Poitiers
quotes on death, slavery and education

11 289
Read quotes by Ali ibn Abi Talib

Ali ibn Abi Talib
quotes on love, friendship and life

158 13517
Read quotes by Anatole France

Anatole France
quotes on education

171 1373
Read quotes by James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke
quotes on leadership, leadership james lee burke and government

71 560
Read quotes by Pythagoras

Pythagoras
quotes on music, love and education

158 4423

More Human Folly Quotes

Magic has power to experience and fathom things which are inaccessible to human reason. For magic is a great secret wisdom, just as reason is a great public folly. — Paracelsus

As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors. — William James

There are three things in life which are real: God, human folly and laughter. Since the first two are beyond our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third. — John F. Kennedy

The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable not only of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting 100 impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations. — Adam Smith

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. — Voltaire

None of us is guaranteed against failure or corruption of any kind; witness what's going on in the world in this moment, the follies of human nature and the failures of human nature. — Morris West

What is toleration? It is the prerogative of humanity. We are all steeped in weaknesses and errors: Let us forgive one another's follies, it is the first law of nature. — Voltaire

Such is the uncertainty of human affairs, that security and despair are equal follies; and as it is presumption and arrogance to anticipate triumphs, it is weakness and cowardice to prog-nosticate miscarriages. — Samuel Johnson

Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer can do. — Charles Spurgeon

A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired. This maxim, drawn from the experience of all ages, makes it the height of folly to intrust any set of men with power which is not under every possible control; perpetual strides are made after more as long as there is any part withheld. — Alexander Hamilton

Why was the human race created? Or at least why wasn't something creditable created in place of it? God had His opportunity. He could have made a reputation. But no, He must commit this grotesque folly -- a lark which must have cost Him a regret or two when He came to think it over and observe effects. — Mark Twain

Childhood: the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth - two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age. — Ambrose Bierce

I can measure the motion of bodies but I cannot measure human folly. — Isaac Newton

Human folly does not impede the turning of the stars. — Tom Robbins

Beauty is the greatest of human powers. Any power without counterbalance or control becomes autocratic and leads to abuse and to folly. Despotism in a government is insanity; in woman, fantasy. — Honore de Balzac

Quantum est in rebus inane! How much folly there is in human affairs. — Aulus Persius Flaccus

Never for a moment do we lay aside our mistrust of the ideals established by society, and of the convictions which are kept by it in circulation. We always know that society is full of folly and will deceive us in the matter of humanity. ... humanity meaning consideration for the existence and the happiness of individual human beings. — Albert Schweitzer

What you mean by 'peace' is nothing more than the endless repetition of human folly. — Hayao Miyazaki

A world war - God forbid! - will leave only smoldering ashes as a mute testimony of a human race whose folly led inexorably to untimely death. Yet there are those who sincerely feel that disarmament is an evil and international negotiation is an abominable waste of time. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

It begins with skepticism. The history of human folly, and our own susceptibility to illusions and fallacies, tell us that men and women are fallible. — Steven Pinker

If the [Vestiges] be true, the labours of sober induction are in vain; religion is a lie; human law is a mass of folly, and a base injustice; morality is moonshine; our labours for the black people of Africa were works of madmen; and man and woman are only better beasts! — Adam Sedgwick

Human nature, at its best, had always been based on a deep heroic restlessness, on wanting something-something else, something more, whether it be true love or a glimpse just beyond the horizon. It was the promise of happiness, not the attainment of it, that had driven the entire engine, the folly and glory of who we are. — Will Ferguson

I should attempt to treat human vice and folly geometrically... the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from the necessity and efficacy of nature... I shall, therefore, treat the nature and strength of the emotion in exactly the same manner, as though I were concerned with lines, planes, and solids. — Baruch Spinoza

I am the One, and I see all. But the blind man in Apartment 1-A is blind in many ways, as are all human beings, even those with functioning eyes. They are blind to their folly, to their ignorance, to their history, to the future that they will make for themselves. A future born of self-loathing. — Dean Koontz

Folly is perennial, yet the human race has survived. — Bertrand Russell

The essence of forgiveness is seeing our humanness and seeing that we all have our limitations and follies. — Mark Coleman

Comedy is grievances. It's a recitation of grievances - whether they're inconsequential, superficial - like "my wife shops too much", or "kids today", all those old-fashioned themes - or, if it's deeper, and somewhat more thoughtful, about social imbalance and inequities, and the folly of human behavior. It's usually a complaint. — George Carlin

He who has been impoverished for a long timewho has long stood before the door of the mighty in darkness and begged for alms,has filled his heart with bitterness so that it resembles a sponge full of gall; he knows about the injustice and folly of all human action and sometimes his lips tremble with rage and a stifled scream. — Stefan Zweig

Human progress is not an uninterrupted march forward. It is a slow and devious movement with haltings and twistings. The pathway of man ascends and descends, wanders off into mazes. At times the trail seems to lose itself in the wilderness of human passion and folly. But inch by inch it goes forward with halting steps. — Joseph Alexander Leighton

The current perception I get from the evening news is that the world is dominated by human failure, crime, catastrophe, corruption, and tragedy. We are all tuning in to see how the human mind is evolving, but the media keeps hammering home the opposite, that the human mind is mired in darkness and folly. — Deepak Chopra

There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thousand others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely DESPERATE. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity. — Antonin Artaud

Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn't --it's human. — Desiderius Erasmus

The wisest is he that knows only that he knows nothing. God only knows. We mortals are only troubled with morbid little ideas, sired by circumstance and damned by folly. The human head can absorb only the flavorings of its surroundings. We assume that our faith political and our creed religious are founded upon our reason, when they are really made for us by social conditions over which we had little control. — William Cowper Brann

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