On this day of traditional foolishness, a few thoughts — not mine own — about foolishness, fools, and folly:

He who hesitates is a damned fool. — Mae West

If a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking. It cannot be so easily discovered if you allow him to remain silent and look wise. But if you let him speak, the secret is out. — Woodrow Wilson

Wise men don’t need advice. Fools don’t take it. — Benjamin Franklin

Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs Than a fool in his folly. — Proverbs 17:12

Nature never makes any blunders; when she makes a fool, she means it. — Josh Billings

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. — Benjamin Franklin

The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way. — Josh Billings

If at first you don’t succeed, then quit. There’s no use in being a fool about it. — W. C. Fields

A thing can be true and still be desperate folly. — Richard Adams

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. — Benjamin Franklin

Let us be thankful for fools; but for them the rest of us could not succeed. — Mark Twain.

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes. — Winston Churchill

Anyone can make a mistake. A fool insists on repeating it. — Robertine Maynard

There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise. — Francis Bacon

Silence is the virtue of fools! — Bacon

You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time. — Abraham Lincoln, 1858

A learned fool is one who has read everything, and simply remembered it. — Josh Billings

Shall we their fond pageant see? Lord, what fools these mortals be! — A Midsummer Night’s Dream, III:ii

Foolish behavior cannot be programed out of the system. — Ken Harris

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. — Anatole France

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of their folly, is to fill the world with fools. — Herbert Spencer

Who is more foolish: the child afraid of the dark, or the man afraid of the light? — Maurice Freehill

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. — Emerson

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. — Goethe

Even a fool is thought wise if he is silent, And Discerning if he holds his tongue. — Proverbs 17:28

Any man is liable to err; only a fool persists in error. — Cicero

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool can ask more than the wisest man can answer. — Charles Caleb Colton

The world is made up for the most part of fools and Knaves. — George Villiers

Even the fool is wise after the event. — Homer

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men and the fools know it. — Oliver Wendell Holmes