James A. Garfield, as quoted in Many Thoughts of Many Minds : A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age (1896) edited by Louis Klopsch, p. 116
Misattributed
“All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.”
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)
Letter to B. A. Hinsdale, (21 April 1880), in The Nation's Hero — In Memoriam : The Life of James Abram Garfield (1881) by J. M. Bundy, p. 216 http://books.google.com/books?id=mlTUAAAAMAAJ <br class="br">1880s
Stephen A. Douglas (1813–1861) American politician
Speech in Chicago, Illinois http://www.bartleby.com/251/1002.html (9 July 1858) <br class="br">1850s
W. Edwards Deming (1900–1993) American professor, author, and consultant
The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993)
“When ignorance is bliss, there's folly in wisdom.”
David Eddings (1931–2009) American novelist
“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
“I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the wisdom of indifference.”
Anatole France book The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard
J'ai toujours préféré la folie des passions à la sagesse de l'indifférence.
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)
Variant: I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the wisdom of indifference.
“I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.”
Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer
“Love calls it folly, what so wisdom saith.”
Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet
Nè consiglio d'uom sano Amor riceve.
Canto V, stanza 78 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
“To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
