“A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.”
Source: The Consolations of Philosophy (2000), Chapter IV, Consolation For Inadequacy, p. 168.
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Alain de Botton 146
Swiss writer 1969Related quotes

Letter to Nathaniel Macon (12 January 1819) http://books.google.com/books?id=oiYWAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Honesty+is+the+first+chapter+in+the+book+of+wisdom%22&pg=PA112#v=onepage
1810s

As quoted in 'Antoni Tapies', Serafin Garcia Ibanez, in the UNESCO Courier, June 1994.
1991 - 2000

“Yes, well, life is a folly. If you live long enough, nothing is surprising.”
Source: Girl with a Pearl Earring

The Book of Ammon
Context: Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. Therefore one with love, courage, and wisdom is one in a million who moves the world, as with Jesus, Buddha, and Gandhi.

“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”

“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.”

(zh-TW) 日月催人老,今生有幾何?
真言誠可貴,感語不嫌多。
"Occasional thoughts" (偶感)
Source: Deng Feng-Zhou, "Deng Feng-Zhou Classical Chinese Poetry Anthology". Volume 6, Tainan, 2018: 88.