“A young woman can live off the folly of men; a man of any age can live off the folly of women.”
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Women & men
Bridal of Triermain, canto i. Stanza 21.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“A young woman can live off the folly of men; a man of any age can live off the folly of women.”
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Women & men
“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.”
Variant: Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.
Source: Zorba the Greek
Changes, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Who lives without folly is not as wise as he thinks.”
Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.
Maxim 209.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“A young man who is unable to commit a folly is already an old man.”
Source: 1890s - 1910s, The Writings of a Savage (1996), p. 68: from his manuscript, known as 'Cahier pour Aline' (ca. 1892-1893)
“His folly has not fellow
Beneath the blue of day
That gives to man or woman
His heart and soul away.”
No. 14, st. 3.
A Shropshire Lad (1896)
“There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of man.”
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
Full text of Russell's book History of the World in Epitome (For Use in Martian Infant Schools), written in 1959 and published on his ninetieth birthday, as quoted in Slater Bertrand Russell (1994), p. 136
1950s