“"Fools rush where Angels fear to tread!" Angels and Fools have equal claim
To do what Nature bids them do, sans hope of praise, sans fear of blame!”

The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

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Do you have more details about the quote ""Fools rush where Angels fear to tread!" Angels and Fools have equal claim To do what Nature bids them do, sans hope o…" by Richard Francis Burton?
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Richard Francis Burton 78
British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, … 1821–1890

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“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

At the hazard of being thought one of the fools of this quotation, I meet that argument — I rush in — I take that bull by the horns. I trust I understand and truly estimate the right of self-government. My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me. I extend the principle to communities of men as well as to individuals. I so extend it because it is politically wise, as well as naturally just: politically wise in saving us from broils about matters which do not concern us. Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of self-government is right, — absolutely and eternally right, — but it has no just application as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such application depends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man may as a matter of self-government do just what he pleases with him.
But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government — that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that "all men are created equal," and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another.
1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Source: An Essay on Criticism

Richard Francis Burton photo

“Fools rush where Angels fear to tread!”

Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, lin…

Angels and Fools have equal claim
To do what Nature bids them do, sans hope of praise, sans fear of blame!
The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Source: 1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Context: At the hazard of being thought one of the fools of this quotation, I meet that argument — I rush in — I take that bull by the horns. I trust I understand and truly estimate the right of self-government. My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me. I extend the principle to communities of men as well as to individuals. I so extend it because it is politically wise, as well as naturally just: politically wise in saving us from broils about matters which do not concern us. Here, or at Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of self-government is right, — absolutely and eternally right, — but it has no just application as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such application depends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man may as a matter of self-government do just what he pleases with him.
But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government — that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that "all men are created equal," and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another.

Bob Dylan photo

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, both of their futures so full of dread.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Jokerman

David Wood photo

“Language steps in where the angels of experience fear to tread.”

David Wood (1946) British philosopher, born 1946

Source: Philosophy At The Limit (1990), Chapter 1, The Faces of Silence, p. 5

Kate Bush photo

“Where angels fear to tread,
You go rushing in.
Stay out of this
You must not interfere
Don't you see this is
Between a man and a woman?”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Sensual World (1989)

Herb Caen photo

“Isn't it nice that people who prefer Los Angeles to San Francisco live there?”

Herb Caen (1916–1997) American newspaper columnist

Winokur, Jon. The Portable Curmudgeon, p. 174. http://books.google.com/books?id=V0DUAXBkf_0C Plume, 1992. ISBN 0452266688
Attributed

Aung San Suu Kyi photo

“If you're feeling helpless, help someone. ”
― Aung San Suu Kyi (from Freedom from Fear)”

Variant: If you're feeling helpless, help someone.
Source: Freedom from Fear

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