"Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me; now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass; so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself."

"For take thy ballaunce if thou be so wise, And weigh the winde 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."

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

"To wisdom he's a fool that will not yield."

"Be wise with speed; A fool at forty is a fool indeed."

"This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well craves a kind of wit."

"Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us."

"How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!"

"Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in 's own house."

"A fool's bolt is soon shot."

"The fool hath planted in his memory An army of good words; and I do know A many fools, that stand in better place, Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word Defy the matter."

"At thirty man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan."

"Rarely do we arrive at the summit of truth without running into extremes; we have frequently to exhaust the part of error, and even of folly, before we work our way up to the noble goal of tranquil wisdom."

"Quantum est in rebus inane! How much folly there is in human affairs."

"Whether the charmer sinner it, or saint it, If folly grow romantic, I must paint it."

"Die and endow a college or a cat."

"The fool is happy that he knows no more."

"A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him."

"So by false learning is good sense defac'd; Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools, And some made coxcombs Nature meant but fools."

"We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow; Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so."

"And when it is said to them, "Believe as the people have believed," they say, "Should we believe as the foolish have believed?" Unquestionably, it is they who are the foolish, but they know (it) not."

"For fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

"A fool and a wise man are alike both in the starting-place—their birth, and at the post—their death; only they differ in the race of their lives."

"The right to be a cussed fool Is safe from all devices human, It's common (ez a gin'l rule) To every critter born of woman."

"The first Degree of Folly, is to conceit one’s self wise; the second to profess it; the third to despise Counsel."

"The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow."

"Though all his life a fool associates with a wise man, he no more comprehends the Truth than a spoon tastes the flavor of the soup."

"The rest on outside merit but presume, Or serve (like other fools) to fill a room."