It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.
But satire, ever moral, ever new, Delights the reader and instructs him, too. She, if good sense refine her sterling page, Oft shakes some rooted folly of the age.
It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.
There are many trials in life which do not seem to come from unwisdom or folly; they are silver arrows shot from the bow of God, and fixed inextricably in the quivering heart - they are meant to be borne - they were not meant, like snow or water, to melt as soon as they strike; but the moment an ill can be patiently borne it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain.
One does not simply tell an archangel they have devoted their life to a folly.
Nothing is difficult to mortals; we strive to reach heaven itself in our folly. [Lat. , Nil mortalibus arduum est; Coelum ipsum petimus stultitia. ]
It is folly to put the plough in front of the oxen.
To be bowed by grief is folly; Naught is gained by melancholy; Better than the pain of thinking, Is to steep the sense in drinking.
The gayety of life, like the beauty and the moral worth of life, is a saving grace, which to ignore is folly, and to destroy is crime. There is no more than we need; there is barely enough to go round.
It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.
All through my boyhood I had a profound conviction that I was no good, that I was wasting my time, wrecking my talents, behaving with monstrous folly and wickedness and ingratitude-and all this, it seemed, was inescapable, because I lived among laws which were absolute, like the law of gravity, but which it was not possible for me to keep.
Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can’t be good, be careful.
Apathy borders upon folly.
To get back one's youth one has merely to repeat one's follies.
The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.
If were not foolish young, were foolish old.
Frivolous sorrow is folly. Frivolous enjoyment is not.
Courage and folly are cousins, or so I’ve heard.
Quantum est in rebus inane! How much folly there is in human affairs.