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How To Use Folly In A Sentence

  • Politeness is not always the sign of wisdom, but the want of it always leaves room for the suspicion of folly
  • Charged they were that they worshipped an ass's head; which impious folly -- first fastened on the Jews by Tacitus, Hist., lib.v. cap. 1, in these words, "Effigiem animalis, quo monstrante errorem sitimque depulerant, penetrali sacravere" (having before set out a feigned direction received by a company of asses), which he had borrowed from Apion, a railing Egyptian of Alexandria [224] -- was so ingrafted in their minds that no defensative could be allowed. The Sermons of John Owen
  • If the latter endeavor has, since postmodernism, seemed a kind of hubristic folly, "The Artforum.com
  • Frondeur, young Darpent, whom our brother had the folly to introduce into the family. ' Stray Pearls
  • It is the nature of folly to see the faults of others and forget his own. 
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  • Justly indignant at our folly, for quarrelling is not allowed in his domains, the King laid us under sentence of banishment, decreeing that we should spend the fifteenth night of each month in this dreary forest until a tailor came who could mend the garments we had torn. Folk Tales From Many Lands
  • Mostly, the speeches condemn political folly and corruption of one stripe or another. The Times Literary Supplement
  • They've committed one great folly in the mess-up with the dig tree.
  • You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough. Aldous Huxley 
  • To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom. Horace 
  • Answer a fool according to his folly
  • Y: And who turns away from the religion of Abraham but such as debase their souls with folly? Three Translations of The Koran (Al-Qur'an) side by side
  • But Luttrell's Tower sleeps four; Pounds 1,082/Pounds 2,768, beside the Solent at Eagleshurst, is exceptional: an outlandish Georgian folly with pink chimneypot tower and its own "smugglers' tunnel" down to the shore. Archive 2007-04-01
  • Lockey makes the same point by transferring the family escutcheons to the yellow curtain on the left, where they become, in effect, emblems of folly.
  • Giving up a secure job seems to be the height of folly.
  • Even the old parliamentarians hailed the return of Charles, notwithstanding it was admitted that the protectorate was a vigorous administration; that law and order were enforced; that religious liberty was proclaimed; that the rights of conscience were respected; that literature and science were encouraged; that the morals of the people were purified; that the ordinances of religion were observed; that vice and folly were discouraged; that justice was ably administered; that peace and plenty were enjoyed; that prosperity attended the English arms abroad; and that the nation was as much respected abroad as it was prosperous at home. A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon For the Use of Schools and Colleges
  • Learn wisdom by the folly of others.
  • It is a compelling answer in the post-modern era of nonhierarchical thinking, chaos theory, Wikipedia, the Internet and collective intelligence -- or collective folly. In Richmond, a Civil War expert seeks to emancipate history's narrative
  • MPs said last night that the new splurge of spending on international agencies proved the'complete folly' of the aid policy. Times, Sunday Times
  • There is no shame in disagreeing with a madman and his folly … .. Think Progress » ThinkFast AM: June 28, 2006
  • By means of a generous employment of free counterpoint, in other words a kind of polyphony in which the various voices use different melodies in harmonious combination, he gained a potent auxiliary in his cunning workmanship, and emphasized the folly of rejecting the contrapuntal experiences, of, for instance, a Sebastian Bach. For Every Music Lover A Series of Practical Essays on Music
  • How quick we have forgotten the sacrifice demanded of those whose homes and communities that stood in the way of the inner relief folly.
  • Because of her sturdy intellectual independence and integrity, Ravitch exempts no sect, ideology, or school from failure and folly.
  • I rose and was about to clap my hat upon my head and burst away, in wrathful indignation from the house; but recollecting — just in time to save my dignity — the folly of such a proceeding, and how it would only give my fair tormentors a merry laugh at my expense, for the sake of one I acknowledged in my own heart to be unworthy of the slightest sacrifice — though the ghost of my former reverence and love so hung about me still, that I could not bear to hear her name aspersed by others — I merely walked to the window, and having spent a few seconds in vengibly biting my lips and sternly repressing the passionate heavings of my chest, I observed to Miss The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  • ‘It would be folly to abandon a national asset unless we were sure it had outlived its usefulness,’ he says passionately.
  • It would be the easiest folly in the world to fall in love with her: there is such a sweet babylike roundness about her face and figure; the delicate dark rings of hair lie so charmingly about her ears and neck; her great dark eyes with their long eye-lashes touch one so strangely, as if an imprisoned frisky sprite looked out of them. Adam Bede
  • Dan'l tel de king dat his kingdum wuz gwine ter be taken frum him, 'caus' he had not feared de Gord uv heaven, an 'in his folly an' crimes he turned away frum dat Gord dat rules in de heaven an 'hols de nashuns uv de earth in de pams uv His han's. John Jasper: The Unmatched Negro Philosopher and Preacher
  • And despite these proofs of his skill, Albric would have considered it sheerest folly to attack three armsmen of unknown quality alone, for no reason. THE RIVER KINGS’ ROAD
  • Jonathan Madden is a would-be twentieth century folly builder who's been thwarted by town planners.
  • Since the brother [134] of death daily haunts us with dying mementoes, and time that grows old in itself bids us hope no long duration; diuturnity is a dream and folly of expectation .... From Chaucer to Tennyson
  • Consequently, early versions of the installment plan were dismissed as the folly of the improvident poor, immigrants, and women.
  • Time was when they could hardly perceive the advantages of a road laid through the treacherous "hummocks" of the Dismal Swamp, and they called the iron bridge over the Elizabeth "Mahone's Folly" when it was first built, thinking that it would cripple the line. The Great South; A Record of Journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland
  • Within the week I had repented of what I termed my idiotic quixotism, and for precisely nine days after that I cursed my folly. The Cords of Vanity A Comedy of Shirking
  • I can be quite blokeish about cars and once, in a moment of extreme folly, bought a BMW that I couldn't afford to run.
  • The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to all.
  • My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. Christianity Today
  • Frankly, Shankly was the Liverpool manager who signed Keegan in 1971 for £35,000 from Scunthorpe, a legendary figure whose greatness it would be folly to contest before his one-time disciple. The Saturday interview: Kevin Keegan
  • Forsake your folly and live , And proceed in the way of understanding.
  • Learn wisdom by the folly of others.
  • The scene, so highly interesting to those who witnessed it, was to him insupportable, and he had left the room in agony, bitterly inveighing against his own folly, for having suffered it to take place, and secretly denouncing future vengeance upon the usurper of his rights, for so he basely termed the artless Yamboo. Yamboo; or, the North American Slave
  • Hope's Folly (2009) by Linnea Sinclair blends military SF and romance in a story that pits a rag-tag starship crew against a powerful empire. MIND MELD: The Best Genre-Related Books/Films/Shows Consumed in 2009 (Part 2)
  • There was also a folly and a burial ground, so all in all more sinister than friendly, in my opinion.
  • Whether they are actuated by folly and anile devotion, or whether by arrogance and malice so that they alone may be held to possess the secrets of God, I know not: this much I do know, that I find in their writings nothing which has the air of a Divine secret, but only childish lucubrations. Theologico-Political Treatise
  • People dare not let themselves think or feel in this centre of frivolity and folly; they would go mad if they did, and universally commit suicide; for to 'take a thocht and mend' is far from their intention. Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle
  • She knew she was being selfish for accepting him, for making him pay for her folly, but she was simply not strong enough to refuse him a second time.
  • Moron anastasis, "The Resurrection of Fools," the design of which was to show "that nobody ever counterfeited folly. De vita Caesarum
  • Much imaginative capering ensues as our stroppy young heroine comes of age through the time-honoured route of folly, emergency driving lessons and sexual awakening at the hands of Robert Sheehan the gobby Irish one from Misfits, who plays snoggable townie borrower Spiller as a tearaway in a red biker jacket. Phil Hogan's Christmas TV highlights
  • As petulance and lust belong to the young more than to the old, yet not to all young men, but to those who are not virtuous; so that senile folly, which is commonly called dotage, belongs to weak old men, and not to all. The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome
  • It is no new rule to treat your superiors with adequate salaams, but few executives make the folly of behaving with their co-workers and subordinates in a manner a king rules over his jagir. The Times of India
  • If thou wouldest live long[sentence dictionary],live well;for folly and wickedness shorten life.
  • So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly inreconcilable truths – that war is sometimes necessary, and war at some level is an expression of human folly. Barack H. Obama - Nobel Lecture
  • The most dominant garden feature is a folly with an interesting provenance.
  • The turret is not a folly in the true sense, because it is attached to the house, but it is purely decorative. Times, Sunday Times
  • But one man's notion of a masterwork may be another's idea of a folly.
  • A building can be symbolic of power, but it can also be a folly.
  • Those seeking to engage the Sorceress shall soon feel the icy bite of their folly.
  • Politeness is not always the sign of wisdom, but the want of it always leaves room for the suspicion of folly
  • We would have had pious speeches about the folly of bureaucrats running businesses. Times, Sunday Times
  • Hill -- was Fonthill Abbey, near Salisbury, that prodigious folly to which A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century
  • He that is slow to anger is of great understanding; but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
  • Solomon was celebrated for wisdom, but folly is write in legible characters upon his almost every action. On the Equality of the Sexes
  • If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. 
  • A luxury player, great to add to a winning team, his purchase by City was the ultimate act of folly.
  • It is the height of folly and a tragic waste to gallop into war.
  • It's utter folly to go swimming in this cold weather.
  • She relies on us to see through folly and hypocrisy as keenly as she does herself. Times, Sunday Times
  • trying to drive through a blizzard is the height of folly
  • That would be great folly; as well might you wish them to have the same politeness, or to be all jurisconsults. A Philosophical Dictionary
  • Known as the Temple de l' Amour, the folly is now the client's summer residence.
  • You wait for one tower folly to open in the English countryside... and then two come along. Times, Sunday Times
  • It cannot be said that he had not felt and secretly resented what he called the folly of the unreasonable old man. David Fleming's Forgiveness
  • His mother on discovering this note pinned to her chair gave way to very natural alarm and rushed upstairs to her darling, with whom she remonstrated in terms deservedly severe, pointing out the folly and wickedness of self-destruction and urging that such thoughts were unfit for one of his tender years, for he was then barely thirteen. On Nothing and Kindred Subjects
  • To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom. Horace 
  • Perswade thy selfe then Bernardo, that what women may accomplish in secret, they will rarely faile to doe: or if they abstaine, it is through feare and folly. The Decameron
  • The mother realises her folly and wants the in-laws to stay with them forever!
  • It is the nature of folly to see the faults of others and forget his own. 
  • Folly reached for the towelling bathrobe that hung behind the door, and made her way out into the corridor.
  • His advice for those who fancy their own bit of folly building? Times, Sunday Times
  • And sodeinly ispasurated and turning my selfe about, I might perceiue vpon one side of me many silique trees of _Aegypt_, with their ripe long coddes hanging and beating one against an other with the winde, had felled downe themselues, which when I perceiued, I was soone quieted, and beganne to make sport at my owne folly. Hypnerotomachia The Strife of Loue in a Dreame
  • The pleasure he takes in humbling the proud and exalting those of low degree (v. 6): The Lord lifts up the meek, who abase themselves before him, and whom men trample on; but the wicked, who conduct themselves insolently towards God and scornfully towards all mankind, who lift up themselves in pride and folly, he casteth down to the ground, sometimes by very humbling providences in this world, at furthest in the day when their faces shall be filled with everlasting shame. Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)
  • Maybe the only way you could even imagine tackling your Grand Enterprise was with a confidence bordering on messianic delusion counterweighted by a criticality that damned it as the utmost folly — in short, with a psyche strung tighter than the tension between God and Lucifer if they met in a Harold Pinter play. Archive 2009-05-01
  • To flee vice is the begnning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom. 
  • To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom. Horace 
  • The general complained to the governor of Pennsylvania on May 24 about the folly of Mr. Dinwiddie and the roguery of the Assembly, and unless the road of communication from your province is opened and some contracts made . . . George Washington’s First War
  • That act of folly summed up 30 minutes of dire rugby, but also seemed to spark Scotland into some semblance of life.
  • So then, do you think, Bill, the newspapers are just committing an exercise in folly, or is it good journalism?
  • And then if he is a fool that is not wise, and every good man according to the Stoics is a wise man, it is no wonder if all mankind be concluded under folly. In Praise of Folly
  • If anything, he has unwittingly sounded the sirens to launch a war without end by this single act of presidential folly.
  • In place of Watkin's Folly, indeed on the exact same spot, was built the Empire Stadium.
  • Mrs. Walter Powell sometimes ventured to take Aurora to task on the folly and sinfulness of what she called indiscriminate almsgiving; but Mrs. Mellish would pour such a flood of eloquence upon her antagonist that the ensign's widow was always glad to retire from the unequal contest. Aurora Floyd. A Novel
  • Somerville bitterly regretted his folly at becoming involved.
  • Luke the hunter ... Folly felt a thrill of anticipation, mingled with fear.
  • All of which exposes the folly of building a team around one man. Times, Sunday Times
  • Long before he advocated formal independence he was teaching both Americans and their imperial masters that the attempt to rule the colonies from Britain was a folly.
  • All I can aver is that, if I am not to be permitted to draw the glittering sword of my tongue from the scabbard of my mouth, I shall infallibly, in sheer sickishness at such short-sighted folly, throw up my brief! Baboo Jabberjee, B.A.
  • This book is a treasure trove of human folly. Times, Sunday Times
  • It's this bizarre folly to the idea prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s that you could design a megastructure which would supply nearly every need of the residents.
  • If God chargeth his very angels with folly, that is, an unanswerableness unto his infinite holiness and wisdom, -- what can poor mortal men expect, that dwell in houses of clay, that are crushed before the moth? The Sermons of John Owen
  • Mrs. Lewis begged that Elma should not be taken away from her; and Mrs. Steward, angry with herself for what she termed her folly, had yet yielded to her sister's entreaties. Wild Kitty
  • It is almost a folly to expect complete truth and sincerity among political parties and that too in today's dirty politics.
  • Why is this council contemplating spending £2 million of our tax on an unnecessary folly?
  • It would be sheer folly to reduce spending on health education.
  • In a letter sent to Taitz and all House Republicans, he called birtherism "ridiculous," "gobbledygook," and a "folly. All Stories
  • If they bring thee back safe, they may chance to sing to the twiggen fiddle-bow, that they may be warned from such folly; but if they come back without thee, by All-hallows the wind of wrath shall sweep their heads off them! The Water of the Wondrous Isles
  • Unreason leads us into folly and danger. Times, Sunday Times
  • These are the "dainties" of which an impotent longing and desire do betray the minds of unstable persons unto a compliance with ways of sin and folly; for I look on these "dainties" to comprise whatever "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh," or "the pride of life," can afford. The Sermons of John Owen
  • Naturalist we are told, that these names are omitted, 'for we call a nettle but a nettle, and the faults of fools their folly,' -- that exclusive good he finds both passive and active, and this also is one of those primary distinctions which 'is formed in all things,' and so too is the _subdivision_ of passive good which follows. The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded
  • What sheer folly it must be to fall in love if it makes one talk in such a silly manner.
  • It is a suicidal folly to condone, much less encourage, any anarchic agenda, overlooking its disruptiveness in the national context.
  • “Take a glass of wine, Sir Arthur, and drink down that bead-roll of unbaptized jargon, that would choke the devil — why, that last fellow has the only intelligible name you have repeated — they are all of the tribe of Macfungus — mushroom monarchs every one of them; sprung up from the fumes of conceit, folly, and falsehood, fermenting in the brains of some mad Highland seannachie.” The Antiquary
  • XI, 1756 sqq.) as "the height of blasphemous folly" (polle blasphemos anoia), and was positively rejected by Gregory of Nazianzus and John of Damascus. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock
  • Straw should have the word dhimmi tattoed to his forehead, but perhaps this is not necessary as nothing can conceal his craven folly. On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
  • It is manifested in his troubled, interrogative attitude towards war, his awareness that science unbridled by compassion is folly, and the relentless desire for knowledge a pathology.
  • How much publicity should that act of folly generate, in comparison to the meaningless Plame farce?
  • He draws back when I suggest his images are portraits of human folly. Times, Sunday Times
  • The whole story angered de Lescure, whose temper was acerbated by his own inactivity and suffering, and whose common sense could not endure the seeming folly of putting confidence in so mysterious a warrior. La Vend�e
  • Scenarios lampooning cupidity and gluttony appear on the inside of a covered glass dish, or among the decorations of teapots and vases, or the contents of a serving dish, blurring the line of demarcation that separates faith and folly.
  • The prophet, having shown their base ingratitude in forsaking God, here shows their unparalleled fickleness and folly (v. 9): I will yet plead with you. Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi)
  • He blamed himself for what he called the folly of the past weeks. Maurice Guest
  • If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. 
  • Take a glass of wine, Sir Arthur, and drink down that bead-roll of unbaptized jargon, that would choke the devil -- why, that last fellow has the only intelligible name you have repeated -- they are all of the tribe of Macfungus -- mushroom monarchs every one of them; sprung up from the fumes of conceit, folly, and falsehood, fermenting in the brains of some mad Highland seannachie. The Antiquary — Volume 01
  • Surely it is only a matter of time before technology grows and becomes such an irrepressible force that to try to restrict it would be folly.
  • Answer a fool according to his folly
  • a devastating portrait of human folly
  • As in a fiorm, when the Ship is in danger, if every Mariner (bould be bafie abode his own Cabbin, drefting and palming that, what infinite fottifh folly were it and is it notour caft? it werejuft with God to leave thee to thy felf hereafter) if chou wilt look fo ipuclyo thy felfe now. Irenicvm: To the Lovers of Truth & Peace ...
  • Being booked for rejoicing in a goal is sheer folly in itself.
  • Learn wisdom by the folly of others.
  • A believer might counter that to attempt to create God would be the worst kind of hubristic folly, and blasphemy to boot. The Speculist: December 2005 Archives
  • It was playground pettiness, grotesquely selfish folly that was not only self-destructive but bound to do serious damage to the interests of his team.
  • One day, film historians will study this ridiculous folly as an example of the worst excesses of the early 21st century. Times, Sunday Times
  • Yea, such is the power of deceivable lusts, that many will admire at the blindness of others in former generations who considered not the works of God (as the Jews in ` the wilderness), when themselves are under actual contempt of no less glorious dispensations; like the Pharisees, who bewailed the folly of their fathers in persecuting the prophets, when themselves were endeavouring to kill the Son of God, Matt. xxiii. The Sermons of John Owen
  • Paul also showed the folly of hoping to find some saving power in religious observances.
  • My way was yet to make in the world; to saddle myself with a dowerless wench -- even a wench whose least 'Good-morning' set a man's heart hammering at his ribs -- would have been folly, Master The Line of Love Dizain des Mariages
  • Unreason leads us into folly and danger. Times, Sunday Times
  • Between attacks of fusional folly, Mr. Malouf imparts a lot of practical information (e.g., cardamom is not only a versatile spice but an excellent digestive and breath freshener), often leavened with food lore (the best dried apricots in the world still come from Hunza, in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir). Gastronomy
  • But to the threatening is annexed a promise that this shall be a means to convince them of their folly, and bring them home to their duty; and so good shall be brought out of evil, in token of the mercy God has yet in reserve for them. Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi)
  • Breaking a slumber in which all spleenful folly was drown'd. . . Maud. Part I
  • As a lesson in vanity and sheer human folly, it deserves to be a classic. Times, Sunday Times
  • history has clearly shown the folly of that policy
  • The Lady with a modest blush, much condemned this folly in him, that his covetousnes should serve as a cloake to cover any unfitting speeches which her chaste eares could never endure to heare. The Decameron
  • Even living by the clock is a matter of flux and folly. Archive 2008-07-01
  • It came from long brooding on the changefulness of human fortune, of fate and chance, and the folly of counting on anything beyond the moment. The Praise Singer
  • But, haith, I winna peety him! for, o 'a' things, to peety a guid man i 'the richt gate is a fule's folly. Malcolm
  • If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. 
  • These facts demonstrate the folly of the policy.
  • Germans are extremely lucky to have this man in their midst and it would be monumental folly to let petty jealousy undermine his position. Times, Sunday Times
  • Jane, the publications coordinator described earlier in this chapter, presented an example illustrating the folly of going by the book.
  • But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pride and Prejudice
  • Answer a fool according to his folly
  • Mostly, the speeches condemn political folly and corruption of one stripe or another. The Times Literary Supplement
  • By presenting children as unique in the severity of their susceptibility to human folly, the chroniclers were able to delineate a wide spectrum of dangers — both internal to each person and external in the world at large — that threatened humanity in general but were intensified by their focus on the peculiar weaknesses of the child. A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
  • In March 1996, CEI’s Michelle Malkin and Michael Fumento published “Rachel’s Folly,” which claims that dioxin is good for you. Think Progress » Exxon-Backed Pundit Compares Gore To Nazi Propagandist
  • Englander finds comedy in their pretensions, their folly, their finickiness over styles and shades, but he also treats them tenderly. The Times Literary Supplement
  • It's a sad story," said Will, thinking of the strange magnificence of Bartholomew's folly. SACRAMENT
  • My folly was in thinking that the problem was that I was not getting the paper positioned properly under the paper bail.
  • Folly fanned her anger like a flame, trying desperately to burn out the suspicions that crowded into her mind.
  • Sheer senseless destruction to send in a cockleshell like the JERVIS BAY against the might of a pocket battleship, a folly and a bravado, that amounted to nothing less than madness. The Lonely Sea
  • This was the history of the hoop skirt and the Grecian bend, and has been that of most of the extremes which have marked the past, and we can readily believe that in no other way could womanhood have been insnared by such supreme and criminal folly as has characterized fashion's caprices in unnumbered instances. The Arena Volume 4, No. 22, September, 1891
  • I. ii.23 (14,4) his valour is crushed into folly] To be _crushed into folly_, is to be _confused_ and mingled with _folly_, so as that they make one mass together. Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies
  • Events proved the folly of such calculations.
  • Waverley expressed his surprise that his friend Davie was capable of such trust; but the Baron gave him to understand that this poor simpleton was neither fatuous, nec naturaliter idiota, as is expressed in the brieves of furiosity, but simply a crack-brained knave, who could execute very well any commission which jumped with his own humour, and made his folly a plea for avoiding every other. Waverley
  • But it's easy to cherry-pick examples to prove the folly of endorsements. Do Endorsements Matter?
  • Science is not immune from error, folly, or self-serving boosterism.
  • Start with a real, small, unsensational fault whose folly no one would dispute. Times, Sunday Times
  • On the contrary, those that have deserted him shall be ashamed before him; they shall be ashamed of themselves, ashamed of their unbelief, their cowardice, ingratitude, temerity, and folly, in forsaking so glorious a Redeemer. Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
  • Ruins themselves are reminiscent of purpose-built folly gardens of the eighteenth century.
  • So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly inreconcilable truths -- that war is sometimes necessary, and war at some level is an expression of human folly. President Obama: Remarks at the Acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • It would be the height of folly to change course now.
  • You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough. Aldous Huxley 
  • It would be folly to turn the offer down.
  • That such a monument should now require a damp course is a suitably bizarre commentary on human folly.
  • The duke, with his usual folly, touched on other subjects equally dangerous, his visit to Rome, and his conversion to Romanism; and, in short, disgusted the cautious The Wits and Beaux of Society Volume 1
  • And if any offer of alliance or parley of individual elders comes from home, the false spirits shut the gates of the castle and permit no one to enter, — there is a battle, and they gain the victory; and straightway making alliance with the desires, they banish modesty, which they call folly, and send temperance over the border. The Republic by Plato ; translated by Benjamin Jowett
  • Anger begins with folly, and ends in repentance. 
  • This treatment of the hydrotherapy unit transcends function: the building is a kind of garden folly in a landscape of cars.
  • If he was a fool, what were those his folly whipped into orgies of vicious mockery?
  • But prosecutors are not perfectly wise, and it is folly to trust them with so much power.
  • Waverley expressed his surprise that his friend Davie was capable of such trust; but the Baron gave him to understand that this poor simpleton was neither fatuous, NEC NATURALITER IDIOTA, as is expressed in the brieves of furiosity, but simply a crack-brained knave, who could execute very well any commission which jumped with his own humour, and made his folly a plea for avoiding every other. Waverley: or, 'Tis sixty years since
  • If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. 
  • If thou wouldest live long,live well;for folly and wickedness shorten life.
  • He's become the pastor of our class, versed in all the range of human folly and fallibility.
  • It's utter folly to go swimming in this cold weather.
  • If thou wouldest live long,live well;for folly and wickedness shorten life.
  • He was still only a waymark to the kingdom of folly, but she had made a beginning, and she would persevere. The Lions of the Lord A Tale of the Old West
  • I call it folly, not because I am adverse to feminine reserve, not because I am prone to quarrel even with what I call coyness; but because I know his nature so well, and feel that he would not bear rebuffs of which many another man would think nothing; that he would not bring himself to ask again, perhaps even for Ayala's Angel
  • The seeds of Julius's courage and compelling energy, of Augustus's prudence, of the libidinousness and cruelty of Tiberius, of Caligula's folly, of Nero's artistic genius and enormous vanity, are all within me. Crome Yellow
  • Anger rests in the bosom of folly
  • Just reciting the names conjures up the romantic side of Scottish history, peppered with acts of valour, loyalty, derring-do and occasional folly.
  • The people who receive what they earn in a currency they hold in contempt, are more anxious to spend than to save; and those who formerly hoarded six liards or twelve sols pieces with great care, would think it folly to hoard an assignat, whatever its nominal value. A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Complete Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: with General and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners
  • I am not such a miserable merry-andrew by nature, and yet, by circumstances, wherever Bel is concerned I am ever the very crownpiece of folly! Swallow Barn, or A Sojourn in the Old Dominion. In Two Volumes. Vol. II.
  • Judasa said it would do everything in its power to try and convince Health Minster Nkosazana Zuma of what it called the folly of the plan. ANC Daily News Briefing
  • Each advance in human knowledge should then be an infinitesimal approach towards the supreme comprehension; and the aspiring race of man is justified in that inchoation of long hope which is folly to the single life. Apologia Diffidentis
  • What is it about farming and the land that inspires such folly? Times, Sunday Times
  • You've broken up that gentleman a bit; now you want to tuck him away somewhere. The river, that great hider of folly, is what you want.
  • Captain Gauley and Mat laughed at what they called the folly of Levi, and assured Bessie he would never find her. Freaks of Fortune or, Half Round the World
  • His epigrams (most of which are contained in _The Scourge of Folly_, undated, like others of his books) are by no means despicable; the Welsh ancestors, whom he did not fail to commemorate, seem to have endowed him with some of that faculty for lampooning and "flyting" which distinguished the Celtic race. A History of Elizabethan Literature
  • Madge was a good companion and Folly loved her, but she was obsessed with bowels, particularly Folly's.
  • To sign away his rights to the book would have been the height of folly.
  • When folly is once taught, it is very difficult to unteach it.
  • Now we have a swimming pool, a marvellous garden and a splendid folly.

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