Book III, chapter 34, section 142; J. S. Watson's translation
De Oratore – On the Orator (55 BC)
Malim equidem indisertam prudentiam quam stultitiam loquacem
“I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the wisdom of indifference.”
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.”
Le génie enfante, le goût conserve. Le goût est le bon sens du génie; sans le goût, le génie n'est qu'une sublime folie.
François-René de Chateaubriand, in "Essai sur la littérature anglaise (1836): Modèles classiques http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=NUMM-101390&M=tdm.
Misattributed
“I prefer to have some beliefs that don't make logical sense.”
La satire, en leçons, en nouveautés fertile,
Sait seule assaisonner le plaisant et l'utile,
Et, d'un vers qu'elle épure aux rayons du bons sens,
Détromper les esprits des erreurs de leur temps.
Satire 9
Satires (1716)
“Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it should be postponed.”
Source: My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 4 (Sandhurst), p. 72.
“I should therefore prefer to restrict my guidelines to the following:”
Don't believe that military interventions, no matter how morally justified, can succeed without clear military goals
Don't fall into the trap of imagining that the West can remake societies
Don't take public opinion for granted – but don't either underrate the degree to which good people will endure sacrifices for a worthwhile cause
Don't allow tyrants and aggressors to get away with it
And when you fight – fight to win.
Source: Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, p. 39
“Perish with him the folly that seeks through evil good.”
Brown of Ossawatomie, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
