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SCHOLAR ISLAND |
Fools
"Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. This is the first step toward becoming either estimable or agreeable; and until it is taken there is no hope."
Melbourne
Fool, n A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude, and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war-founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government....And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization."
-Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary,
"it is foolish to say sharp, hasty things, but it is a deal more foolish to write 'em. When a man sends you an impudent letter, sit right down and give it back to him with interest ten times compounded-and then throw both letters in the wastebasket."
-Elbert Hubbard
"The family of Fools is ancient."
-Ben Franklin
"He's a Fool that cannot conceal his Wisdom."
-Ben Franklin
"Any Fool can criticize, condemn and complain-and most fools do."
-Benjamin Franklin
"Men who know themselves are no longer fools; they stand on the threshold of the Door of Wisdom."
-Havelock Ellis
"God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents."
-William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
"He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool."
-Voltaire
"If there is one conclusion that seems clear; it is that smart people can act foolishly. If foolishness is in some sense the opposite of wisdom, it means that intelligence is no protection against it."
Robert J. Sternberg: "It's the Foolishness Stupid" American Interest Magazine Autumn 2008
"Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise."
-Cato
"A fellow who is always declaring he's no fool usually has his suspicions."
-Wilson Mizner
"Why fools are endowed by Nature with voices so much louder than sensible people possess is a mystery. It is a fact emphasized throughout history."
-Hertzler
"It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish."
-Aeschylus
"One fool at least in every married couple."
-Henry Fielding (1707-54)
"Nobody ever did anything very foolish except from some strong principle."
Viscount Melbourne
"The learned Fool writes his Nonsense in better Language than the unlearned; but still 'tis Nonsense."
-Ben Franklin
"It never occurs to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united."
-Goethe
"A learned fool is more foolish than ignorant fool."
-Moliere
"It is in the half fools and the half wise that the greatest danger lies."
-Goethe
"Fortunately for themselves and the world, nearly all men are cowards and dare not act on what they believe. Nearly all our disasters come of a few fools having the courage of their convictions."
Coventry Patmore
"For God's sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself."
-Stevenson
"The man who lives free from folly is not so wise as he thinks."
La Rochefoucauld
"If you wish to avoid seeing a fool you must first break your looking glass."
-Rebelais
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month."
-Feodor Dostoyevsky
A Writers Diary
"A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him."
-Boileau
"A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant fool."
-Moliere
"A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely fool-proof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
-Douglas Adams
"The Way of the Fool is a sort of balancing act on a tightrope. While the Fool has no wish to lose contact with his higher Self, he or she still wishes to gain experience of life: The Fool is pulled first this way, and then the next. Through such garnering of knowledge, he or she not only enriches the Ego, but also satisfies the need of the Godhead (of which the Ego is part) to explore the material plane. On the other hand, the Fool has no wish to gain experience of superficial life. His or her aim is always to pierce behind the surface, to penetrate the illusion of things, and to tap the reality hidden behind the snaring web of illusion. The Fool knows that the material plane, which so many people assume is the ultimate reality, is the most illusory of all things-a maya or shadow play. We may trace in this belief an underlying conflict of the one who has elected to follow the Path of the Fool: he or she wishes to explore the material world in the full knowledge that the material world is a minefield of unrealities."
David Ovason
The Zelator
"According to Mark Hedsel, the name ass, which is one of the names given to the body in the Way of the Fool, is intended to recall the Feast of Fools. Mark pointed out that, in the legends attached to the Christian Mysteries, the ass had been redeemed because it carried Christ in triumph into Jerusalem. As a sign of this redemption, Christ had left upon its shoulders a dark cross. This is the esoteric parable on the idea that our physical body, made from the Four Elements, is also the fourfold cross we must bear."
David Ovason
The Zelator
"....There are two kinds of Fools. The real Fool is the most sincere of mortal's: the Court Fool and his kind-the trifling, jesting buffoon-but simulate the family virtue, and steal the family name, for sordid purposes.
The life of the Fool proper is full of the poetry of faith. He may run after a will-o-the-wisp, while the Wise deride; but to him it is a veritable star of hope. He differs from his fellow-mortals chiefly in this, that he sees or believes what they do not, and consequently undertakes what they never attempt. If he succeed in his endeavor, the world stops laughing, and calls him a Genius: if he fail, it laughs the more, and derides his undertaking as A Fool's Errand."
A Fools Errand..by one of the Fools
Book: The Zelator..by David Ovason...the Secret Journals of Mark Hedsel
"The Fool is the one who looks through this material illusion- the mat sees through matter, so to speak. This makes him one who is prepared to suffer. Only a Fool would be prepared to suffer. I do not have in mind merely that the Fool is prepared-or at least, should be prepared-to jump into the unknown, into the great void, perhaps even into the mouth of a waiting crocodile.'
David Ovason
The Zelator
"To what purpose, we must ask, would anyone wish to follow the Way of the Fool? It is no easy role to play. The Way of the Fool is so open to misunderstanding and mockery. To the casual glance-which is the glance of most people-it does not even appear to be a Way at all. At least, not in a Way in the ancient meaning of a sacred Way, or an initiatory Way, like the the Isaac Ancient Road of Hermes, or the Way of the Monk, with its hidden pomp of outer clothes, pectoral crosses and other symbols, fronting its dour seriousness. Yet there is such a Way, even if it is only one followed by men and women striving to establish a Spiritual identity for themselves divested of outer trappings
The Zelator
And if you choose the Way of the Fool, do not fear appearing to be a Fool in the eyes of the world, for, if you do not stray too far from the ancient road, in the eyes of God you will always remain the beloved Fool.
The Zelator
"The most exquisite Folly is made of Wisdom spun too fine."
-Ben Franklin
"The public! the public! How many fools does it take to make up a public?"
-Chamfort
"Fortune makes him fool, whom she makes her darling."
-Bacon
"Lord! I wonder what fool it was that first invented Kissing."
-Swift Polite Conversation
"Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise."
-Cato the Censor
"He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool."
-Albert Camus
"Things are bad and getting worse, any fool can see that,"
-John Derbyshire
We Are Doomed
"It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish."
Aeschylus
"His soul will never starve for exploits or excitements who is wise enough to be made a fool of. To be "taken in" everywhere is to see the inside of everything."
G.K. Chesterton
"Many passenger stop to take their pleasure or make their profit in (Vanity) Faire, instead of going onward to the Celestial City. Indeed, such are the charms of the place that people often affirm it to be the true and only heaven; stoutly contending that there is no other, that those who seek further are mere dreamers, and that if the fabled brightness of the Celestial City lay but a bare mile beyond the gates of Vanity, they would not be fools enough to go thither."
Nathaniel Hawthorne
"....When the naive young Fool finally tumbles over the precipice, he falls into the world of experience. Now his journey has really begun. Along the way he'll meet all the teachers and tempters-the tempters are teachers, too-and challenging situations that a person is likely to meet in the task of his or her growing. The Fool is potentially everybody, but not everybody has the wisdom or the guts to play the Fool. A lot a folks don't know what's in that bag they're carrying. and they're all too willing to trade it for cash. Inside the bag, they have every tool they need to facilitate their life's journey, but they won't even open it up and glance inside. Subconsciously, the goal of all of us out-of-control primates is essentially the same, but let me assure you of this: the only ones who'll ever reach that goal are the one who have the courage to make fools of themselves along the way."
-Tom Robbins
Half Asleep in frog Pajamas
"A fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan."
T. Boone Pickens
"A wise man will be Master of His Mind
A Fool will be its slave."
-Publilius Syrus
"The Fool's journey ends on Sirius C"
-Tom Robbins
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Book: "Bouvard and Pecuchet" by Gustave Flaubert Translated by Mark Polizzotti