Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Fool
A barber learneth to shave by shaving fools.
A fair promise makes a fool merry.
A fool always comes short of his reckoning.
A fool always finds a greater fool than himself.Boileau.
A fool always finds a greater fool that admires him.German.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
A fool can dance without a fiddle.
A fool cannot be silent.Demaratus, king of Sparta.
A fool demands much, but he is a greater that gives it.
A fool has not stuff enough to make a good man.Rochefoucauld.
A fool if he holds his tongue passes for wise.Spanish.
A fool is better than an obstinate man.
A fool is full of words.
A fool is like other men as long as he is silent.Danish.
A fool is one who gives, and greater fool one who will not take.German.
A fool is the wise man’s ladder.African.
A fool laughs when others laugh.
A fool loses his estate before he finds his folly.
A fool may chance to say a wise thing.Dutch.
A fool must now and then be right by chance.Cowper.
A fool never admires himself so much as when he has committed some folly.Chinese.
A fool only wins the first game.Danish.
A fool shoots; God guides the bullet.Russian.
A fool thinks nothing right but what he does himself.
A fool unless he knows Latin is never a great fool.Spanish.
A fool wants his cloak on a rainy day.
A fool when he hath spoken hath done all.
A fool who speaks the truth is better than a hundred liars.German.
A fool will laugh when he is drowning.
A fool will not be foiled.
A fool will not gie his bauble for the tower of London.
A fool’s head never whitens.
A fool’s bolt is soon shot.
A fool’s bolt may sometimes hit the mark.
A fool’s heart dances on his lips.
A fool’s lips are the snare of his soul.Bible.
A fool’s speech is a bubble of air.
A fool’s tongue is long enough to cut his own throat.
A fool’s voice is known by a multitude of words.Bible.
A nod from a lord is a beefsteak for a fool.
A pointless saying is a fool’s doing.Punch.
A prating fool shall fall.Bible.
A thorn in the foot and a fool’s answer, are two sharp things.Irish.
A wise look may secure a fool if he talk not.
All but fools know fear sometimes.Henry Hein.
All cry “fie” on the fool.
All fails that fools think.
All fools have still an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing side.Pope.
All places are filled with fools.Cicero.
All the fools are not dead yet.
All too good is every man’s fool.
An easy fool is a knave’s tool.
An ass will deny more in an hour than a hundred philosophers will prove in an hundred years.
An old fool is better than a young simpleton.Danish.
As the bell clinks so the fool thinks.
As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool.Bible.
Be wise with speed,
A fool at forty is a fool indeed.Young.
Bray a fool in a mortar, he’ll be never the wiser.
By his immoderate laughter you can always distinguish a fool.Latin.
Even a fool can bet a good hand at poker. (A game of cards.)
Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise.Bible.
Even fools sometimes speak to the purpose.
Everybody must wear out one pair of fool’s shoes if he wear no more.German.
Every fool is pleased with his bauble.
Every fool is wise when he holds his tongue.
Every fool thinks he is clever enough.Danish.
Every fool wants to give advice.Italian.
Every fool will be meddling.Bible.
Every man a little beyond himself is a fool.
Every man hath a fool in his sleeve.French, Italian.
Every man’s friend, every man’s fool.German.
Far fools hae fair feathers.
Fool is he who alone talks and is his only listener.Turkish.
Fools and madmen ought not to be left in their own company.
Fools are all the world over, as he said who shod the goose.
Fools are always resolute to make good their own folly.
Fools are free all the world over.German.
Fools are known by looking wise.Butler.
Fools are not to be convinced.
Fools are pleased with their own blunders.
Fools are plentier than philosophers because there is more demand for them.Durbin Ward.
Fools for arguments use wagers.Butler.
Fools go in throngs.French.
Fools grin on fools.Young.
Fools grow without watering.Italian.
Fools’ haste is no speed.
Fools laugh at their own sport.
Fools live poor to die rich.
Fools must not be set on eggs.German.
Fools refuse favors.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.Pope.
Fools set far trysts.
Fools shou’d na hae chopping sticks.
Fools should not see half-done work.
Fools will not part with their bauble for all Lombard street.
Fools worship mules that carry gold.
Forbid a fool a thing and that he’ll do.
From many questions one knows a fool.German.
“God help the fool!” said the idiot.
God sends fools fortune.
Great fools have great bells.Dutch.
Greater fools than those of Zago, who dunged the steeple to make it grow.Italian.
He does a good day’s work who rids himself of a fool.French.
He exposes himself to be thought a fool who reports the follies of others.French.
He has great need of a fool who makes himself one.French.
He is a fool who avoids the place where he has aforetime broken his nose.Russian.
He is a fool who boasts of four things: that he has good wine, a good horse, a handsome wife, and plenty of money.Italian.
He is a fool who buys an ox to have good cream.German.
He is a fool who makes his physician his heir.French.
He is a fool that makes a mallet of his fist.French.
He is a fool who only hears himself speak.German.
He is a fool who only sees the mischiefs that are past.Bryant.
He is a fool who spends more money than his receipts.French.
He is a fool who thinks that another does not think.Italian, German, Portuguese.
He is a great fool who forgets himself to feed another.Spanish.
He is fool enough himself who will bray against another ass.
He is nae the fool that the fool is, but he that wi’ the fool deals.
He shall have enough to do who studies to please fools.
He that cannot reason is a fool.
He that can turn his hand to anything hath not the mind of a fool.Chinese.
He that is only his own pupil shall have a fool for his tutor.
He that is well sheltered is a fool if he stir out into the rain.
He who is born a fool is never cured.
He who is very learned is a very learned fool.Tamil.
He who would make a fool of himself will find many to help him.Danish.
He is a fool that’s wiser abroad than at home.
I will not dance for every fool’s pipe.
If a fool have success it ruins him.
If all fools wore white caps we should look like a flock of sheep.
If every fool were to wear a bauble, fuel would be dear.
If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings.Welsh.
If every one were wise, the fool would be the prize.German.
If fools ate no bread, corn would be cheap.German, Dutch.
If fools went not to the market, bad wares would not be sold.
If there were neither fools or knaves in the world all people would be of one mind.Spanish.
If thou play the fool stay for a fellow.
If you play with a fool at home he’ll play with you in the market.
If you want to get into the bog, ask five fools the way to the wood.Livonian.
It is a cunning part to play the fool well.
It is better to be a beggar than a fool.
It is better to deal with a whole fool than a half fool.German.
It is better to please a fool than to anger him.
It is the part of a fool to say, “I should not have thought it.”Latin.
It is the property of fools to be always judging.
It needs a cunning hand to shave a fool’s head.Dutch.
Knaves and fools divide the world.
Learned fools are the greatest of all fools.German.
More fools, more fun.French.
Neither give to all nor contend with fools.German.
Never challenge a fool to do wrong.
Never defy a fool.French.
No fool like an old fool.
No one is a fool always: every one sometimes.
Nobody is twice a fool.Accra (Africa).
No creature smarts so little as a fool.Pope.
None but a fool is always right.
None is so wise but the fool overtakes him.
Nothing looks so much like a man of sense as a fool that holds his tongue.German.
Nothing so foolish as the laugh of a fool.Martial.
Old fools are more foolish than voting ones.Rochefoucauld.
One begins by being a fool and ends by being a knave.
One fool is enough in a house.
One fool praises another.
One should be born either a king or a fool.German.
Ordinarily I can bear the sensible knave better than the fool.Pope.
Send a fool to market and a fool he’ll return.
Silent fools may pass for wise.
Speak not of stones to a fool lest he cast them at thy head.Turkish.
The assistance of fools only brings an injury.Latin.
The false modesty of fools will conceal ulcers rather than have them cured.Horace.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction.Bible.
The feast passes and the fool remains.Italian, Spanish.
The first chapter of fools is to esteem themselves wise.
The fool and the brutish person die and leave their wealth to others.Bible.
The fool cuts himself with his own knife.French.
The fool discerns the faults of others and forgets his own.Cicero.
The fool has always wet weather in his calendar.German.
The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.Bible.
The fool hunts for misfortune.French.
The fool is busy in every one’s business but his own.
The fool runs away while his house is burning.
The fool saith, “Who would have thought it.”
The fool thinks nothing well done but what he has done himself.
The fool who falleth into the fire rarely falleth out of it.Arabian.
The fool who is silent passes for wise.French, Portuguese.
A fool’s life is half death.German.
The fool’s pleasure costs him dear.
The more riches a fool hath, the greater fool he is.
The older a fool the worse he is.German.
The poor fool that closeth his mouth never winneth a dollar.Spanish Gypsy.
The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.Bible.
The shadow of a lord is a cap for a fool.Italian.
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes.Bible.
The world is too narrow for two fools a quarrelling.
There are bearded fools.
There cannot be a more intolerable thing than a fortunate fool.
There is a fool at every feast.Dutch.
There is a medium betwixt all fool and all philosopher.
There is no art can make a fool wise.
There is no fool in this world but who is sure to find a greater fool than himself.French.
There is no fool like a learned fool.Italian.
There is no knife cuts keener than a fool turned doctor.German.
There is no man that hath not a vein of the fool in him.German.
There is no need to fasten a bell to a fool, he is sure to tell his own tale.Danish.
There is nothing blackens like the ink of fools.Pope.
There is nothing so intolerable as a fortunate fool.Latin.
There must be fools in the world.German.
This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool,
And to do that well craves a kind of wit.Shakespeare.
Though a coat be ever so fine that a fool wears, yet ’tis but a fool’s coat.
Though the fool waits, the day does not.French.
Thrust not thy finger into a fool’s mouth.Dutch.
’Tis sweet to play the fool in time and place.Homer.
To be a fool or knave in print doth but bring the truth to light.
To every fool his cap.Dutch.
To promise and give nothing is comfort to a fool.
To reprove a fool is but lost labor.
Two fools in one house are too many by a couple.
Unless a fool knows Latin he is never a great fool.Spanish.
We have all been fools in our time.Latin.
What gifts to fools avail?Homer.
When a fool finds a horseshoe, he thinks ay the like to do.
When a fool has spoken he has done all.
When a fool hath bethought himself the market is over.
When fools go to market, pedlers (hucksters) make money.Dutch, Danish.
When fools have nothing to talk about they talk about the weather.German.
When gods gave fools mouths, it was not that they might talk but eat.Turkish.
Where two fools meet the bargain goes off.
Where you see a jester a fool is not far off.
When fools shun one sort of vices they fall on their opposite extremes.Horace.
Who is born a fool is never cured.Italian.
Why thinks the fool with childish hope to see
What neither is, nor was, nor e’er shall be?Ovid.
Wise lads and old fools were never good for anything.Italian.
With fools it is always holiday.Latin.
Worthless is the advice of fools.Latin.
Young fools think that the old are dotards, but the old have forgotten more than the young fools know.Dutch.