April Fools’ Day: 45 Best Quotes about Foolishness
“When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.”
April Fools’ Day is an annual custom on the first day of April consisting of playing pranks, jokes, or surprises on other people.
Key Takeaways
- Although there are many theories, the origin of April Fools’ is unknown.
- April Fools’ Day is celebrated worldwide.
- One of the most famous quotes about fools is, “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
Here is our collection of the best quotes about fools and foolishness from your favorite authors, books, TV shows, and movies.
Before God we are relatively all equally wise – equally foolish.Albert Einstein, From 'Miscellaneous,' Cosmic Religion (1931)
Name and fame! to fly sublime thro’ the courts, the camps, the schools, is to be the ball of Time, bandied by the hands of fools.Alfred Tennyson, The Vision of Sin (1842)
I have great faith in fools: self-confidence my friends will call it.Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia (Southern Literary Messenger, June 1849), Number 246
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.Henry David Thoreau, The Journal (February 3, 1860)
The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.Mark Twain, More Maxims of Mark by Merle Johnson (1927)
The wisest of all, in my opinion, is he who can, if only once a month, call himself a fool.Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Bobok (1873)
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.Voltaire, Le dîner du comte de Boulainvilliers (1767)
The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.Rudyard Kipling, Three and - an Extra, Plain Tales from the Hills (1888)
If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis (Princeton University Press, ed. 1963), Page 125
If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.Lord Byron, Journal (November 27, 1813)
The young people think the old people are fools; but the old people know the young people are fools!Agatha Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage (1930)
And what is your definition of a fool? A man who doesn’t realize that Time, Structure and Flesh are being mostly wasted. Who then is a wise man? There aren’t any wise men, sir. Then there can’t be any fools, if there isn’t any night there can’t be any day; if there isn’t any white there can’t be any black.Charles Bukowski, Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days (1914)
The fool who recognizes that he is a fool is no longer a fool.Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Insulted and the Injured (1861)
The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords (2000)
The fool who loves giving advice on our garden never tends his own plants at all.Paulo Coelho, Like the Flowing River (2006)
The first thing you learn in life is you’re a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you’re the same fool.Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine (1957)
What makes a fool is an inability to take even his own good advice.William Faulkner, Light in August (1932)
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.William Shakespeare, As You Like It (1623)
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Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)
The wise in all ages have always said the same thing, and the fools, who at all times form the immense majority, have in their way, too, acted alike, and done just the opposite; and so it will continue.Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life (1851)
A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903)
A fool who says nothing cannot be distinguished from a wise man who holds his tongue.Molière, The Love-Tiff (1656)
A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools, if we live long enough.Robert Jordan, Winter's Heart (2000)
It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous. Resign yourself to be the fool you are.T. S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party (1950)
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790)
In me there have always been two fools, among others, one asking nothing better than to stay where he is and the other imagining that life might be slightly less horrible a little further on.Samuel Beckett, Molloy (Grove Press, ed. 1955), Part I, Page 64
I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter 1, Page 21
A deal will always wait. And a fool will always rush in.Arnold Rothstein, Boardwalk Empire, S3.Ep10: A Man, a Plan...
It is the clever man who plays the fool. And a foolish woman who does not recognize it.Madame Gao, Daredevil, S1.Ep8: Shadows in the Glass
A foolish man lives for himself. A wise man lives with a purpose.Giovanni de' Medici, Medici: Masters of Florence, S1.Ep2: The Dome and the Domicile
We’re all fools. And when our closest friend is in trouble, we do foolish things.Mikhael, (to Dubrov), Shadow and Bone, S1.Ep2: We're All Someone's Monster
You know what they say? “Fool me once, strike one. But fool me twice, strike three.” Michael Scott, The Office, S3.Ep12: Traveling Salesmen
No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it.William 'Will' Turner, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
It’s easy to fool people when they’re already fooling themselves.Quentin Beck, Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Wise in measure should each man be, yet wise enough to be the fool.Heimir The Fool, The Northman (2022)