"Fool" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... kindness reaches me;—I can only offer you my simple thanks—but they are of the sort that one can give only once or twice in a life: all things considered, I think you are almost repaid, if you imagine what I must feel—and it will have been worth while to have made a fool of myself, only to have obtained a 'case' which leaves my fine fellow ...
— Life and Letters of Robert Browning • Mrs. Sutherland Orr
... you make no progress in your German; and as old Bauer thinks the world moves only for Germans, he has nothing good to say of one who makes no mark in his dear language. 'Ach!' says old Bauer, 'your Napoleon Bonaparte will never be anything but a fool. He ...
— The Boy Life of Napoleon - Afterwards Emperor Of The French • Eugenie Foa
... bed, not being able to keep up my spirits any longer. Soon after this, Mr. Cranstoun and I went up to Fawley, to pay a visit to the Rev. Mr. Stevens; and whilst we were there, I gave my uncle an account of this surprising affair. But he laughed at me, and called me little fool, for my pains. Then Mr. Cranstoun said, "Sir, I myself heard it." To which Mr. Stevens made no other reply than, "Sir, I don't doubt you think you heard it; but don't you believe there is a great deal in fancy? May ...
— Trial of Mary Blandy • William Roughead
... Prince," Metem said, in answer to his eager questions, "he is safe enough, for the soldiers have borne the fool away. Pardon me that I should speak thus of a holy man, but he has put all our ...
— Elissa • H. Rider Haggard
... believe that my education would not be complete without that experience—mine, understand. I am not speaking for women of other temperaments, opportunities, of less intellect, of humbler character, weaker will. . . . And if I had persisted in virtue at that time I should probably make a fool of myself today, an even more complete fool than women do when they feel youth slipping but still are able with the aid of art and arts ...
— Black Oxen • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... you. I am a daughter of that prison, my father was alcayde, and my son might hope to be so, were he not a fool. ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow
... story often told, yet never clear, of a man who seemed to possess several distinct and contradictory personalities, all strong but by no means all noble, which by a freak of fate were united in one man under one name, to make him by turns a hero, a fool, a Christian knight, a drunken despot and a philosophic Pagan. The Buddhist monks of the far East believe today that a man's individual self is often beset, possessed and dominated by all kinds of fragmentary personalities that ...
— Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 2 - Studies from the Chronicles of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford
... chapfallen. "What a fool I am!" he groaned. "The tale was unspeakable. It is enough to ruin any reputation. And Wilkie's not the man to retract either; he'll tell me the mistake's my own and I'll have to grin ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner
... half-a-mile off when we entered the bed of the river to get at this island. I told you," added he, "that we should have entered two miles higher up; but neither you nor Fabian wished it, and like a fool, I yielded to you." ...
— Wood Rangers - The Trappers of Sonora • Mayne Reid
... could reap them, died a good man, I believe, and went to heaven. Juno you know, and you can judge whether she is such as would delight a parent's heart; while Wilford, my only boy, to deceive me so; though I knew he was a fool in some ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes
... was not this which suddenly bowed his head and loudly admonished him that he had again behaved like a reckless fool. Cowardice was his least fault. He did not fear what might befall him in battle. Whether he would be barred out from the lists was the terrible question which darkened the bright morning already verging towards noon. He had charged Els with perfidy in the presence of ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... sight of so many gentlemen, which made him tremble: and the beadle gave him another tap behind, which made him cry. These two causes made him answer in a very low and hesitating voice; whereupon a gentleman in a white waistcoat said he was a fool. Which was a capital way of raising his spirits, and putting him ...
— Oliver Twist • Charles Dickens
... I was fool enough to think I liked that no-account Luella Thickins, and thought I'd go crazy because her wax-doll face wouldn't smile for me, you said: 'Don't you care, Eddie! You're much too good for her. I think you're the finest man ...
— In a Little Town • Rupert Hughes
... he said to himself; 'I need not show this danger-signal to Hamilton just yet. Hamilton is a hero-worshipper and an alarmist—and a fool.' ...
— The Dictator • Justin McCarthy
... explain matters to her; she won't care much about the story as long as she's got him again alive, and at that you've only got to stick to the truth, and I'm right there to back you up in it. Any fool could realize that you'd have produced him and claimed the reward, if you had known who he actually was. Whoever brought him here gave you the wrong dope and you fell for it, that's all—For the Lord's ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
... they may feel pity for thee, and offer up for thee such a prayer as may be accepted by the Almighty." Having formed this determination, he was about to step forward, when his judgment told him, O fool, do not be hasty! Look a little [before thee.] What dost thou know as to who they are, from whence they have come, and where they are going? How can we know but they may be Devs [78] or Ghuls [79] of the wilderness, who, assuming the appearance of men, are sitting together? In every ...
— Bagh O Bahar, Or Tales of the Four Darweshes • Mir Amman of Dihli
... gave up all for thee; myself, my fame, My hopes of fortune, ay, my very soul! And thou hast been my ruin! Now, go on! Laugh at my folly with thy paramour, And, sitting on the Count of Lara's knee, Say what a poor, fond fool Victorian was! ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... tripped off in triumph to the other end of the store with the black wings showing out stiffly on each side of her head. The mother remarked, with forced playfulness, as she watched her, "Elsie's a g-r-e-a-t girl, I tell you. You can't fool her." ...
— Dickey Downy - The Autobiography of a Bird • Virginia Sharpe Patterson
... and other officers laughed; but Martin didn't care—he was willing to be what St. Paul calls "a fool for Christ's sake." ...
— Stories of the Saints by Candle-Light • Vera C. Barclay
... Mr. Twist, he perceived he had been a fool. Why had he gone to the lawyer at all? Why not simply have announced to the world that he was the Twinkler guardian? The twins themselves would have believed it if he had come in one day and said it was settled, and nobody outside would ever have dreamed of questioning it. After all, ...
— Christopher and Columbus • Countess Elizabeth Von Arnim
... Who can explain his actions? He goes about through it all with his eyes in the air, his hands in his pockets, his mind on his famous invention, which unfortunately doesn't move fast. Look here! do you want me to give you my opinion?—He's either a knave or a fool." ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet
... thing. She, too, would be a very trivial thing when I had found a solution. It occurred to me that she wished me to regard her as a symbol, perhaps, of the future—as a type of those who are to inherit the earth, in fact. She had been playing the fool with me, in her insolent modernity. She had wished me to understand that I was old-fashioned; that the frame of mind of which I and my fellows were the inheritors was over and done with. We were to be compulsorily retired; to stand aside superannuated. It was obvious that she was better ...
— The Inheritors • Joseph Conrad
... being caught up by her questions. I tried to explain; but it was difficult. If I had told her that a maiden's mind ought to be as pure as the dewy rose she would not have understood me. Probably she would have thought me a fool. And indeed I am inclined to question whether it is an advantage to a maiden's after career to be dewy-roselike in her unsophistication. In order to play tunes indifferently well on the piano she undergoes the weary training of many years; but she is called upon ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke
... both the lawes, Retain'd by her in some important cause; Prompt and discreet both in his speech and action, And doth her business with great satisfaction. And think'st thou so? a horn-plague on thy head! Art thou so-like a fool, and wittol led, To think he doth the bus'ness of thy wife? He doth thy bus'ness, I dare lay ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Volume I. • Theophilus Cibber
... when I helped you on in your youth? What an old fool I have been! We oak-trees used to be lords in the land; and now, year after year, I have had to see my brothers all around perish in the struggle against you. I myself am almost done for; and not one of my acorns has sprouted, thanks to your shade. But, before I die, I should ...
— The Old Willow Tree and Other Stories • Carl Ewald
... more dogged and steady she would become. He therefore soon gave that up. He had already given it up when he threatened to accuse her of perjury, and resolved that as he could not shake her he would shake the confidence which the jury might place in her. He could not make a fool of her, and therefore he would make her out to be a rogue. Her evidence would stand alone, or nearly alone; and in this way he might turn her firmness to his own purpose, and explain that her dogged resolution to stick to one plain statement arose from her having been specially ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... he did not know how. Ricker went on: "Those charming little sarcasms and innuendoes of yours would have killed your article for really intelligent readers. They would have suspected a young fellow having his fling, or an old fool speaking out of the emptiness of his heart. As it is, we have got something unique, and I don't mind telling you I'm very glad to have it. I've never made any secret of my belief ...
— The Quality of Mercy • W. D. Howells
... I gave him a detailed account of my conversation regarding the disposition of the books to the postmaster the trip before, which conversation he put in the form of an affidavit and took it to the postmaster to verify. The postmaster refused to sign the document, saying that he was no such a fool as that. General Harney reported to the government who ordered the postmaster to rent a room in which to store the government books now in possession of the stage company. I knew that the postmaster was going to get these orders, so I told Mr. Parker, proprietor ...
— The Second William Penn - A true account of incidents that happened along the - old Santa Fe Trail • William H. Ryus
... now what I never knew before—the meaning of the common saying, A fool you can neither bend nor break. Pray heaven I may never have a wise fool for my friend! There is nothing more intractable.—"My resolve is fixed!"—Why so madman say too; but the more firmly ...
— The Golden Sayings of Epictetus • Epictetus
... a night as this—! Why, but a moment since you swore it was too cold! Besides, at the last tavern that we visited that fool of a Barton took my sword in jest. (Darkly.) He thought 'twas a rare bit of nonsense; but 'tis one I'll make him pay for! I'll not go roaming ...
— Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People • Constance D'Arcy Mackay
... the earthquake, hurricane and fire! Through them I speak with man as through the stars, The dews, the flowers, and every gentler thing; Some learn my lesson in the paths of peace; Some con it low at desolation's knee; Only the fool hath said: "There ...
— Pan and Aeolus: Poems • Charles Hamilton Musgrove
... groaning dismally, as if in a mournful obsession. Quaker women managed to obtain admission to the churches, and they jumped up in the quiet Puritan assemblies screaming out, "Parson! thou art an old fool," and, "Parson! thy sermon is too long," and, "Parson! sit down! thee has already said more than thee knows how to say well," and other unpleasant, though perhaps truthful personalities. It is hard ...
— Sabbath in Puritan New England • Alice Morse Earle
... if you prefer having the facts made known in that way," Holmes continued, coolly, "you have the option. I am not going to use physical force to persuade you to hand the package over to me, but you are a greater fool than I take you for if you choose that alternative. To use an expressive modern phrase, Mr. Billington Rand, you will be caught with the goods on, and unless you have a far better explanation of how those securities happen in your possession at this moment than I think you have, there is no power ...
— R. Holmes & Co. • John Kendrick Bangs
... term, in the concrete, was duped by men who had liberty every way. He is the cat's-paw. By much dragging of chestnuts from the fire for others to eat, his claws are burnt off to the gristle, and he is thrown aside as unfit for further use. As the fool said of King Lear, when his daughters had turned him out-of-doors, "He's a shelled ...
— Abraham Lincoln, A History, Volume 2 • John George Nicolay and John Hay
... blame me, and you would be right in doing so," said Vanel; "for a man must either be very imprudent, or a perfect fool, to undertake engagements which he cannot keep; and I, at least, have always regarded a thing agreed upon as ...
— The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three - Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" • Alexandre Dumas
... with their illusions, carrying their fool's caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque, while everybody else's were ...
— Slips of Speech • John H. Bechtel
... you!" Cateye ripped the shirt off. "But surely Benz wouldn't do that! He wouldn't dare for one thing, ... and he isn't quite a fool!" ...
— Over the Line • Harold M. Sherman
... if you will not sell your spectacles, perhaps you will agree to sell the use of them to me. That is, you shall only put them on when I direct you, and for my purposes. Hallo! you little fool!' cried he, impatiently, as he saw that I intended to make ...
— Prue and I • George William Curtis
... in the North, our triumph breeding unbounded conceit, we plunge the deeper in the vortex of voluptuous prosperity, our country forgotten by the people, its honors and dignities the sport and plunder of every knave and fool that can court or bribe the mob, the national debt repudiated, justice purchased in her temples as laws now are in the Legislature, the life and property of no man safe, the last relics of public virtue destroyed, anarchy will reign ...
— Phrases for Public Speakers and Paragraphs for Study • Compiled by Grenville Kleiser
... flashed through her mind that she had come upon a fool's errand. "Julian!" she said with something of humility in her voice, and she timidly reached out her little gloved hand towards him. Julian took it into the palm of his own and gazed at it with a sort of wondering tenderness, as though he had lighted upon a toy which ...
— Ensign Knightley and Other Stories • A. E. W. Mason
... you —— fool! You don't need coal every time a few drops of rain fall. Lie down in bed, you pack of swine, if you are cold, and leave me alone with ...
— A Little Garrison - A Realistic Novel of German Army Life of To-day • Fritz von der Kyrburg
... Durham, I'm all nerves. When I heard you riding to the house I was frightened lest it should be some more of the scoundrels coming to see what else they could rob from me. You see, I'm all alone here except for poor old Patsy Malone—he's just a poor half-witted fool who was with my husband and my husband's father before him, and he thinks, poor old creature, that wherever I go he has to go too. I had to bring him out here with me to save the scandal he would have made. Sure, he's harmless enough anywhere, but what could he do if ...
— The Rider of Waroona • Firth Scott
... are wrecked by two families of the same family trying to live under the same roof. Noah would have foundered with the Ark ten days after the flood started if he had taken more than two out of any one family with him. Cain would never have killed Abel if Adam hadn't made the fool blunder of trying to keep his two sons everlastingly with him. Of course there was some excuse in the fact that in those days New York and Paris were not brilliantly attractive cities. If there is any one thing outside a church row, that tickles the ...
— Supreme Personality • Delmer Eugene Croft
... myself at once in a condition of irritable opposition. He writes sensibly, acutely, epigrammatically; but there is a vile complacency about it all, an underlying assumption that every one who does not agree with him in the smallest particular is necessarily a fool—a sense that he feels that he has gone into the merits of a book, and that there is exactly as much and as little in it as he tells you. He is very often right; that is the misery of it. But this lack of urbanity, this unnecessary ...
— The Silent Isle • Arthur Christopher Benson
... hurriedly quitted Aggie's company on that occasion. He knew why Aggie always contrived to meet him in the street, and he thought that she was a poor fool of a girl to do it. And her brother Willie was a "great gumph of a fellow," to go capering up and down the road in the evenings after any girl that would say a civil word to him or laugh when ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine
... your story at all. I don't think Mr. Rockwell would be such a fool as to overpay ...
— Fame and Fortune - or, The Progress of Richard Hunter • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... had a great subject, and he rises to the level of his theme and makes the most of it. At times I have wondered if Boswell were not really a genius so great and profound that he was willing to play the fool, as Edgar in "Lear" plays the maniac, and allow himself to be snubbed (in print) in order to make his telling point! Millionaires can well afford to wear ragged coats. Second-rate man Boswell may have been, as he himself so oft admits, yet as a biographer he stands first in the front ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard
... she has told a lie she never thinks about it again one way or another. Her conscience does not trouble her in the matter. She does not tell lies for what she gets out of it, nor does it give her any particular pleasure to fool people. She does not invent her stories, but at the time of talking to people she simply says untrue things without any thought beforehand and without any consideration afterward. To one officer she flung the challenge, "Oh, I'm clever, you'll find that out.'' ...
— Pathology of Lying, Etc. • William and Mary Healy
... and came to the conclusion that the writer of Mandeville's relation was a profound liar, and that he was the Liege Professor of Medicine, John of Burgundy or a la Barbe. He adds: "If, in the matter of literary honesty, John a Beard was a bit of a knave, he was very certainly no fool." ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... Fool that he had been to let another thus lightly step in and win from under his very nose what might have been his if he had but known his own mind before ...
— Miss Billy Married • Eleanor H. Porter
... Co. Kildare. Subsequently a bequest from Colonel Robert Brooke enabled him to purchase an estate near his old home, and he spent large sums in attempting to reclaim the waste-land. His best-known work is the novel entitled The Fool of Quality; or the History of Henry Earl of Moreland, the first part of which was published in 1765; and the fifth and last in 1770. The characters of this book, which relates the education of an ideal nobleman by an ideal merchant-prince, are gifted with a "passionate ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various
... friend of Beverley as well as he. But I am rich it seems: and so I am; thanks to another's folly and my own wisdom. To what use is wisdom, but to take advantage of the weak? This Beverley's my fool: I cheat him, and he calls me friend. But more business must be done yet. ...
— The Gamester (1753) • Edward Moore
... cried a boatman, and "Shut up, you fool!" said a man near me to a yelping dog. Then the sound came again, this time from the direction of Chertsey, a muffled thud—the ...
— The War of the Worlds • H. G. Wells
... that most of the Anarchists in this city today are men who ran up against civil service examinations. Isn't it enough to make a man sour on his country when he wants to serve it and won't be allowed unless he answers a lot of fool questions about the number of cubic inches of water in the Atlantic and the quality of sand in the Sahara desert? There was once a bright young man in my district who tackled one of these examinations. The next I heard of him he had settled down in Herr Most's saloon smokin' and drinkin' beer ...
— Plunkitt of Tammany Hall • George Washington Plunkitt
... "Fool!" A second voice, that of a woman, spat the word from the brush which fringed the roadway. "Speak to Assha with a straight tongue. If he is a spirit, he will know that you do not tell him the truth. And if he has been spared by Lurgha...." She showed her wonderment ...
— The Time Traders • Andre Norton
... say back again day by day. Then it is an 'advantage,' to have an inexhaustible companion who talks wisdom of all things in heaven and earth, and shows besides as perpetual a good humour and gaiety as if he were—a fool, shall I say? or a considerable quantity more, perhaps. As to our domestic affairs, it is not to my honour and glory that the 'bills' are made up every week and paid more regularly 'than hard beseems,' while dear Mrs. Jameson laughs outright ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon
... de end of a log, A-watchin' of a tadpole a-turnin' to a frog. He sees Br'er B'ar a-pullin' lak a mule. He sees Br'er Tearpin a-makin' him a fool. ...
— Negro Folk Rhymes - Wise and Otherwise: With a Study • Thomas W. Talley
... compassionate impulses left in him which sometimes forced their way to the surface. A man of high intelligence—however he may misuse it, however unworthy he may be of it—has a gift from Heaven. When you want to see unredeemed wickedness, look for it in a fool. ...
— The Black Robe • Wilkie Collins
... annoyed me by not joining in my praises of you. Like an old fool, I thought that every one would have the same opinions as I had; and he evidently could not agree with me. I was puzzled at the time. But he must be perplexed, if the affair has never been in the least explained. ...
— North and South • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... a Mind-Reader. She knew that the Friends of her Youth were predicting a Hard Finish for her, so she decided to Fool them. And she knew that it Behooved her to Catch On before the Children started in to ...
— More Fables • George Ade
... "Oh, you fool," replied the stepmother, "if you refuse to do this, you know we must all four perish with hunger; you may as well go and cut the wood for our coffins." And after this she let him have no peace till he became quite worn out, and could ...
— Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know • Various
... himself by facetiae (audible throughout the whole shop) on the English pronunciation of the word 'scone,' and intimated his desire to treat the company to a ballad. This project was suppressed, but "a silly fool in a top hat threatened to report me for having given my men drink," said Corporal Smith. "Jock gave him the bird, not 'arf. But I thought it about ...
— Observations of an Orderly - Some Glimpses of Life and Work in an English War Hospital • Ward Muir
... in the man's tone. Scrope held the book and thought. He had seen Chasters once or twice. Chasters had the sort of face, the sort of voice, the sort of bearing that made one think of his possibly saying upon occasion, rudely and rejoicing, "More fool you!" Nevertheless Scrope perceived now with an effort of discovery that it was from Chasters that he had taken all the leading ideas of the new faith that was in him. Here was the stuff of it. He had forgotten how much of it was here. During those months of worried study while the threat of ...
— Soul of a Bishop • H. G. Wells
... indeed," repeats Mother, and falls a weeping. Thereon I must needs weepe too, but she says, "Begone to Bed; there is noe Neede that you shoulde sit by to heare your owne Father confesse what a Fool ...
— Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary • Anne Manning
... elephant with pointed lances. Endued with great energy of mind, Sahadeva, having afflicted his foe thus, addressed him, as if for calling back to mind (his past misdeeds), in these words, "Adhering to the duties of a Kshatriya, fight (with me) and be a man! Thou hadst, O fool, rejoiced greatly in the midst of the assembly, while gambling with dice! Receive now, O thou of wicked understanding, the fruit of that act! All those wicked-souled ones that had ridiculed us then have perished! Only that wretch of his race, Duryodhana, ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown
... of higher Quality new Ways of being uneasie and displeased. And this happens for no Reason in the World, but that poor Liddy knows she has no such thing as a certain Negligence that is so becoming, that there is not I know not what in her Air: And that if she talks like a Fool, there is no one will say, Well! I know not what it is, but every Thing pleases when she ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... struck the young fool a blow,' replied the Italian. 'She is in my power, and it will be easy for ...
— The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II (of 2) • Alexandre Dumas pere
... to calm him, as I had so often done before, and again I was the shield between Escovedo and the royal lightnings, of whose menace to blot him out the fool had no suspicion. For months things hung there, until, in January of '78, when war had been forced in earnest upon Spain by Elizabeth's support of the Low Countries, Don John won the great victory of Gemblours. This ...
— The Historical Nights' Entertainment • Rafael Sabatini
... fool, Bill Godfrey, is showin' them our sign," said he, in exasperation. "That's a nice thing, ain't it, for Eastern Capital, or a woman, ...
— Heart's Desire • Emerson Hough
... finest Company to wander round with. What I liked, was to sit drinking Up in the Elector's Castle, By our age's greatest marvel Which the German mind has wrought out, By the tun of Heidelberg. A most worthy hermit dwelt there, Who was the Elector's court fool, Was my dear old friend Perkeo; Who had out of life's wild whirlpool Peacefully withdrawn himself where He could meditate while drinking, And the cellar was his refuge. Here he lived, his care dividing ...
— The Trumpeter of Saekkingen - A Song from the Upper Rhine. • Joseph Victor von Scheffel
... a kind of white {110} fool's cap, with three points; the other persons, who consisted of men alone, had a kind of white cloth bound ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer
... stretched out his tail and ran quick into the wood. Then the young man went on his way, and toward evening he came to the village and there stood the two taverns; in one singing and revelry were going on, the other looked quite dull and wretched. "I should be a fool," said he, "to go into that dismal place while there is anything so good close by." So he went into the merry inn and there lived in clover, quite forgetting the bird and his father ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various
... mistress, dances for her, flutters constantly about her, helps her to lay on her rouge, and to place her patches. He attends her round the whole circle of amusements, chatters to her constantly, whistles and sings, and plays the fool with her. Whatever be his station, every thing gaudy and glittering within the sphere of it is called in to his assistance, particularly splendid carriages and tawdry liveries; but if, by the help of all ...
— Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World • Anonymous
... celestial empire, carried by the court fool, in a basket beautifully carved out of a wild cherry-stone; ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat
... some man of mark," he said to himself. "He is surely worth knowing. His face is not the face of a fool. He carries his head ...
— Viking Tales • Jennie Hall
... would be present would be in full sympathy with me, there was a still larger element of the audience which would consist of those who were going to be present for the purpose of hearing me make a fool of myself, or, at least, of hearing me say some foolish thing, so that they could say to the officials who had invited me to speak, "I ...
— Stories of Achievement, Volume III (of 6) - Orators and Reformers • Various
... we was going to ring the bell agen a man come walking quick down the street and went up to the door and rung the bell and jest as the bell rung old Hobbs opened the door quick and gumped out and grabed the man and said you rascul i have got you and the man said you old fool are you crasy and then old Hobbs he said i thougt it was that Purinton boy ringing my door bell and then the man went in the house and we wated til they had shet the door and we put for home and made sum sweet firn segars. tomorow old Hobbs ...
— 'Sequil' - Or Things Whitch Aint Finished in the First • Henry A. Shute
... love-sick fool! Tell your secrets. There'll be a way to teach you what you've never learned.... ...
— Riders of the Purple Sage • Zane Grey
... Marten were caused by the fact that he made money out of his propaganda; as numerous fool Germans and traitorous Americans contributed to his war chest, and by the fact that his work was so favourably received by the military that this husky coward was excused from ...
— My Four Years in Germany • James W. Gerard
... away. there is notHing a detective likes so much as a type riter with an idiosxz an idioynq damit an idiotyncrasy . for instance if i commit a murder i sLould not thinq of writing a litter about it with this of all typewriters becusa because that fool ofa L would give me away at once I daresay scotland Yard have got specimens of my trypewriting locked up in some pigeonhole allready. if they Lavent they ought to; it ought to ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, July 28th, 1920 • Various
... Taoism, scarcely less popular that Buddhism. The priests live with their families in ruined temples and practice all sorts of fool things. They have a mystic alchemy, prepare spells and incantations, and claim to hold communion with the dead. It is said that worthless foreigners travel about in the disguise of Taoist priests, just for the money there is in it, as fake spiritualist ...
— Boy Scouts on Motorcycles - With the Flying Squadron • G. Harvey Ralphson
... stupid and devoid of reason, but he judges of everything with an accuracy and precision that is truly wonderful; his bonmots are inimitable. None of the courtiers have so many privileges as he has, for he alone may speak the truth without adornment or softening. The courtiers call him the fool, but we call him our little Matthias; he certainly does not deserve the nickname he ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 1, July, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... much too prudent to speak except after a pause, during which presumably he was taking a careful mental copy of his coming observation—he said, much displeased, "But I am not a villa," and looked at her as he looks who hopes, for perhaps the hundredth time, that he may not have married a fool. ...
— The Enchanted April • Elizabeth von Arnim
... an equivocal look which the mistress cast over her shoulder at the girl. It might have said,—"Poor fool! singe your wings in the candle, if you will." It might have been only the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 10, August, 1858 • Various
... John, I wish you would tell us whether you are going to disallow our Jesuits' Estates Act or not.' Suddenly the old man unbent, his eyes brightened, his features grew mobile, as he half looked back over his shoulder and said in a stage whisper, 'Do you take me for a damn fool?' In a second it was all over, his figure again became erect, all trace of expression died out of his face, and with measured pace and serious mien the two men ...
— The Day of Sir John Macdonald - A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion • Joseph Pope
... dupe of fame? Dost thou with jealous anger pine Whene'er she sounds some other name, With fonder emphasis than thine? To thee I preach; draw near; attend! Look on these bones, thou fool, and see Where all her scorns and favours end, What Byron is, and thou ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 3. (of 4) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... rasping voice of the vulpine caller at Monte Carlo: "Messieurs! Faites vos jeux! Rien ne va plus! Le jeu est fait!" And, if a dismal failure in Lender had been his Leipsic, the black week at Monaco had been his long drawn-out Waterloo! "I was a rank fool to go there," he growled, "and a greater fool to come over here! I might have got on easily to Malta, and then chanced it from there ...
— A Fascinating Traitor • Richard Henry Savage
... been said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel; and apparently chivalry is the last refuge of a fool. Some of the advocates of birth control who have never thought the matter out, either passionately or dispassionately, claim to speak on behalf of women. They protest that "many women of the educated ...
— Birth Control • Halliday G. Sutherland
... mighty court of examiners, but had received on the occasion the personal warm congratulations of Abernethy and Sir Astley Cooper; the former of whom, indeed, before he asked M'Linnie a question, gave him confidence in his peculiar way, by requesting him "not to be a frightened fool, for Mr. Abernethy was not the brute the world was pleased to make him out;" and after a stiff and rough examination shook the student heartily by the hand, and pronounced him "not an ass, like all the world, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844 • Various
... "I don't claim that I'm a judge of character, but one can't make progress in Canada and be a fool. We had gone hungry in the bush together, and hauled the hand-sledge across the snow, when it was very doubtful if we'd make the settlements. Perhaps there isn't a better way of testing a partner than that. Then a man starts fair in the ...
— Carmen's Messenger • Harold Bindloss
... horse than he has on his wife. July's found rest at last,' says she, 'out in the graveyard; and every time I pass your house I thank the Lord that you've got to pay a good price for your cookin' now, as there ain't a woman in the country fool enough to ...
— Aunt Jane of Kentucky • Eliza Calvert Hall
... laughed Patty; "rather clever, I think, to dress as a fool, and then if you feel like a fool, you're ...
— Patty's Social Season • Carolyn Wells
... meditated he, "it won't do to get cocked up by it. Father said I was to be on my guard against fellows who flattered me, so I must keep my eyes open, or some one will be trying to make a fool of me. If Cresswell's a nice fellow, I'll have a talk with him to-morrow about young Aspinall, and see if we can't do anything to give him a leg up, poor young beggar. I wonder if I'm an ass to accept the whipping-in so ...
— Follow My leader - The Boys of Templeton • Talbot Baines Reed
... had gained him admission to, forming many an evanescent friendship, and taking many a graceful liberty for which his pleasant looks, confident manners, and free carriage were his indemnity—for Tom seemed to have been born to show what a nice sort of a person a fool, well put together, may be—with his high-bred air, and his ready replies, for he had also a little of that social element, once highly valued, now less countenanced, and ...
— Mary Marston • George MacDonald
... 'Why cannot you marry someone in your own rank? That would be far more fitting than to send a poor old woman like me a-wooing to the King's Court for the hand of a Princess. Why, it is as much as our heads are worth. Neither my life nor yours would be worth anything if I went on such a fool's errand.' ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang
... words of French origin did, by an apprenticeship at the fireside, in the field, the workshop, and the laboratory, equally fit themselves for taking their place in the language. Such words from French-Latin roots as "faith," "pray," "vein," "beast," "poor," "nurse," "flower," "taste," "state," and "fool" remain in our vocabulary because they were ...
— Halleck's New English Literature • Reuben P. Halleck
... strength. We once heard an enthusiastic and progressive orator, referring to the marvels of modern development, utter, with a sublime and audacious eloquence, the startling assertion that 'Experience is a fool.' There is a sense, no doubt, in which the sentiment is true. Neither the growth, nor the inherent power, nor the elasticity of the rebound from seeming exhaustion, nor the immense acceleration of the rapidity of the future career ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol V. Issue III. March, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... Charles Maurice Talleyrand. The latter used him as a stockbroker, and the former for anything he thought proper; and he was the humble and submissive valet of both. More ignorant than malicious, and a greater fool than a rogue, he was more laughed at and despised ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre
... back, my heart's own. And always I wait here for thee. Make me not wait long!" He had seemed too quiet then—too slow and too easily content. She had wanted quicker, busier, more individual life. And now her heart said, "O fool!" ...
— A Reversion To Type • Josephine Daskam
... that way; you are just the man for him —the likes of ye. Morning to ye, shipmates, morning! Oh, when ye get there, tell 'em I've concluded not to make one of 'em. Ah, my dear fellow, you can't fool us that way —you can't fool us. It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him. Morning to ye, shipmates, morning. Morning it is, said I. Come along, Queequeg, let's leave this crazy man. ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... grow old, and lose its bitter savor to Charlotte and Barney themselves. Sometimes Charlotte's mother looked at her inquiringly and said to herself, "I don't believe she ever thinks about it now." She told Cephas so, and the old man nodded. "She's a fool if she does," he ...
— Pembroke - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... he was gret Lord y now, and wel in pees, and hadde y nowghe of worldly ricchesse: and therfore he wolde wisshe non other thing, but the body of that faire lady, to have it at his wille. And sche answerde him, that he knew not what he asked; and seyde, that he was a fool, to desire that he myghte not have; for sche seyde, that he scholde not aske, but erthely thing: for sche was non erthely thing, but a gostly thing. And the kyng seyde, that he ne wolde asken non ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation. v. 8 - Asia, Part I. • Richard Hakluyt
... of the book is the extent to which it combines the shrewdest and most practical business capacity with the most exalted religious enthusiasm. The fanatic is usually regarded as somewhat of a fool; no one can read this book through and think that General Booth has the least deficiency in practical capacity, in shrewd common sense and enormous knowledge of men. From one point of view it is easy to be a saint, and it is easy to be a man of the world; the difficulty ...
— Darkest India - A Supplement to General Booth's "In Darkest England, and the Way Out" • Commissioner Booth-Tucker
... we?" he said. "All right, that suits me, only we'll fool her, Mary Jane; we'll get three! I believe in ...
— Mary Jane—Her Visit • Clara Ingram Judson
... should he be permitted to plead, in excuse for his transgressions, that especial malevolence had little or no part in them. It is not recorded, that the ancient, who set fire to the temple of Diana, had a particular dislike to the goddess of chastity, or held idolatry in abhorrence: he was a fool, an egregious fool, but not the less, on that account, a most odious monster. The tyrant who is described as having rattled his chariot along a bridge of brass over the heads of his subjects, was, no doubt, inwardly laughed at; but what if ...
— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth
... of his golden net hold the District Judge firmly. It will be easy to postpone, to weary out, to harass this strange faction. He has stores of coin ready. They are the heaped-up reserves of his "senatorial ammunition." And yet Joe Woods, that burly meddling fool. To placate Natalie! To induce her to leave at once for Paris! How shall this be done? Ha! The marriage is her dream in life! He is elected now. He fears not her Southern rival. The ambitious political ...
— The Little Lady of Lagunitas • Richard Henry Savage
... yells came from all the points of the circle about him, and once more and with deep content Henry laughed. He would fool them, he would play with them, and meanwhile his comrades, to keep the sport going, might sting them on the flank. After the yells, the night resumed its usual silence, and Henry, lying in his covert, watched on all ...
— The Eyes of the Woods - A story of the Ancient Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler |
