“It is folly to anticipate evils, and madness to create imaginary ones.”
4 August 1796
1750s, Diaries (1750s-1790s)
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John Adams202
2nd President of the United States 1735–1826Related quotes
Simone Weil book Gravity and Grace
p. 120 http://books.google.it/books?id=lpuZIgerNroC&pg=PA120 (1997 edition) <br class="br">Gravity and Grace (1947)
“Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
“There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of man.”
Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
Variant: for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men
Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale
“Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.”
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer
Act I, Scene 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=sZloXETcr24C&q=%22Don't+let+us+make+imaginary+evils+when+you+know+we+have+so+many+real+ones+to+encounter%22&pg=PA21#v=onepage. <br class="br">The Good-Natured Man (1768)
“Perish with him the folly that seeks through evil good.”
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery
Brown of Ossawatomie, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Ernest Barnes (1874–1953) English mathematician and clergyman
Spiritualism and the Christian Faith (1918)
Michael Andrew Screech (1926–2018)
Source: Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (1998), p. 73
