Source: 1960s, Julian (1964), Chapter 1, Libanius to Priscus, Antioch April 380
“No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.”
“The obstinancy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinancy of folly and inanity.”
Source: Little Foxes (1865), Ch. 4.
“A book is like a man — clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly.”
On Publishing
Writers at Work (1977)
Context: A book is like a man — clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.
“Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.”
Source: Emma
“For what is there more hideous than avarice, more brutal than lust, more contemptible than cowardice, more base than stupidity and folly?”
Quid enim foedius auaritia, quid immanius libidine, quid contemptius timiditate, quid abiectius tarditate et stultitia dici potest?
Book I, section 51; (Translation by C.D. Yonge) http://books.google.com/books?id=AdAIAAAAQAAJ&q=%22For+what+is+there+more+hideous+than+avarice+more+brutal+than+lust+more+contemptible+than+cowardice+more+base+than+stupidity+and%22&pg=PA420#v=onepage
De Legibus (On the Laws)
“More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness”
“Folly is often more cruel in the consequence, than malice can be in the intent.”
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Moral Thoughts and Reflections
“It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.”
Prejudices, Second Series (1920) Ch. 1
1920s
“He is not mad. He is only more clever than you. It is not the same.”
Volume 4, Ch. 10
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)
“For present joys are more to flesh and blood
Than a dull prospect of a distant good.”
Pt. III, lines 364–365.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)
