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There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.
quote by Samuel Butler
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You will be amused when you see that I have more than once deceived without the slightest qualm of conscience, both knaves and fools.
quote by Giacomo Casanova
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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He that has no fools, knaves, or beggars in his family was begot by a flash of lightning.
History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.
quote by Ambrose Bierce
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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History is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.
quote by Ambrose Bierce
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.
quote by Philip Stanhope
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.
quote by John Greenleaf Whittier
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike-and I don't think there really is a distinction between the two-are always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats. And that being the case, any human being, male or female, of whatever status, who has a voice of her or his own, is not going to be liked.
quote by Harold Bloom
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Love's Astrology
I know not if they erred
Who thought to see
The tale of all the times to be,
Star-character'd;
I know not, neither care,
If fools or knaves they were.
But this I know: last night
On me there shone
Two stars
that made all stars look wan
And shamèd quite,
Wherefrom the soul of me
Divined her destiny.
poem by William Watson
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Men may seem detestable as joint stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be; men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes.
Herman Melville in Moby Dick
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Bonnie Lass o' Dundee
O' a' the toons that I've been in,
I dearly love Dundee,
It's there the bonnie lassie lives,
The lass I love to see. Her face is fair, broon is her hair,
And dark blue is her e'e,
And aboon a' the lasses e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
I see her in my night dreams,
Wi' her bonnie blue e'e,
And her face it is the fairest,
That ever I did see;
And aboon a' the lassies e'er I eaw,
There's nane like her to me,
For she makes my heart feel lichtsome,
And I'm aye richt glad to see
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
Her eyes, they beam with innocence,
Most lovely for to see,
And her heart it is as free from guile,
As a child on its mother's knee;
And aboon a' the lasses e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me,
For she aye seems so happy, And has a blythe bhnk in her e'e
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
The lassie is tidy in her claes,
Baith neat and clean to see;
And her body's sma and slender,
And a neat foot has she;
And aboon a' the lassies e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
She sings like the nightingale,
Richt merrily, or a wee lintie,
Wi' its heart fou' o' glee,
And she's as frisky as a bee;
And aboon a' the lassies e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
The lassie is as handsome
As the lily on the lea,
And her mou' it is as red
As a cherry on the tree;
And she's a' the world to me,
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie
Wi' the bonnie blue e'e,
She's the joy o' my heart
And the flower o' Dundee.
poem by William Topaz McGonagall
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Neither trust or contend, nor lay wagers or lend, and you'll have peace to your end.
Whatever He Said
whatever he said to the mountain
he got it back through an echo
he said we are all fools and the
mountain gave it back to him
we are fools, we are fools,
we are fools, we are fools
he nodded and worshipped
the mountain his true teacher
the echoes have said it all.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Esther, A Sonnet Sequence: XXXVIII
``I do not doubt it. You have a look of truth
Which is beyond suspicion. But the world
Is as full of knaves as fools. You have your youth
And I my wisdom. Then your head is curled
Just as I like it, and your face is smooth,
And it can blush like your red innocent hands.
I saw it in an instant in the booth
That we should know each other and be friends.
It does not do to question. Look at me.
I am not pretty, yet the world's best sense
Has raved about my beauty foolishly
These five years past in every mood and tense!
Say. Would you like we should be friends for good?''
Not knowing what I said, I said I would.
poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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Fools haven
The haven of fools
This is the haven fools
Fools do not like greatness
So they hate to progress
Fools lack wisdom
They are far from freedom
Their heart attaineth riches
But they don't have riches
Fools will perish
But the upright will flourish
He will nourish
Has anybody seen
The end of the foolish
Think for wisdom excelleth folly
Whom will you like to be
The end of the upright
Is everlasting life
Like a tree
Planted by the river side
Marry it, let it be your bride
Keep it as your pride
Do away with ignorant
For the truth is important
Fools has pleasure in vanity
But the happiness
Of the wise is in eternity
poem by Matt Ancient
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Devoted and Truer Fools
Those who 'use' to be the ones,
Depicted as fools.
With a diminishing done,
To any influence they might have had...
Have not been the fools,
Many were led to believe.
With a choice to ruin their integrity!
It seems those fools,
Had always worn tailored made suits.
And deceived with fake impressions.
Diluting those minds without a conscious.
And it seems as though,
Those who have followed the ones...
Impressing with dress and promises,
Have been made devoted and truer fools.
And today they know this.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Prologue to the True Widow
Heaven save ye, gallants, and this hopeful age!
Y' are welcome to the downfall of the stage.
The fools have laboured long in their vocation,
And vice, the manufacture of the nation,
O'erstocks the town so much, and thrives so well,
That fops and knaves grow drugs, and will not sell.
In vain our wares on theatres are shown,
When each has a plantation of his own.
His cruse ne'er fails; for whatsoe'er he spends,
There's still God's plenty for himself and friends.
Should men be rated by poetic rules,
Lord, what a poll would there be raised from fools!
Meantime poor wit prohibited must lie,
As if 'twere made some French commodity.
Fools you will have, and raised at vast expense;
And yet, as soon as seen, they give offence.
Time was, when none would cry,—That oaf was me;
But now you strive about your pedigree.
Bauble and cap no sooner are thrown down,
But there's a muss of more than half the town.
Each one will challenge a child's part at least;
A sign the family is well increased.
Of foreign cattle there's no longer need,
When we're supplied so fast with English breed.
Well! flourish, countrymen; drink, swear, and roar;
Let every free-born subject keep his whore,
And wandering in the wilderness about,
At end of forty years not wear her out.
But when you see these pictures, let none dare
To own beyond a limb, or single share;
For where the punk is common, he's a sot,
Who needs will father what the parish got.
poem by John Dryden
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The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.
Larry Niven in Ringworld
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To release one’s hate
The wise are as much fools
To fools as fools are to them.
A man is as much irrational
To a child as it is to him.
A male is as much a stress
To woman as she is to him.
Each treats the other so
Just to release one’s hate.
21.08.2010.
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Ship Of Fools
Went to see the captain, strangest I could find,
Laid my proposition down, laid it on the line.
I wont slave for beggars pay, likewise gold and jewels,
But I would slave to learn the way to sink your ship of fools.
Ship of fools on a cruel sea, ship of fools sail away from me.
It was later than I thought when I first believed you,
Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools.
Saw your first ship sink and drown, from rockin of the boat,
And all that could not sink or swim was just left there to float.
I wont leave you drifting down, but woh it makes me wild,
With thirty years upon my head to have you call me child.
Ship of fools on a cruel sea, ship of fools sail away from me.
It was later than I thought when I first believed you,
Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools.
The bottles stand as empty, as they were filled before.
Time there was and plenty, but from that cup no more.
Though I could not caution all, I still might warn a few:
Dont lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.
Ship of fools on a cruel sea, ship of fools sail away from me.
It was later than I thought, when I first believed you,
Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools.
It was later than I thought when I first believed you,
Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools.
song performed by by Grateful Dead
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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