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Where lives the man that has not tried,
How mirth can into folly glide,
And folly into sin!

— Walter Scott The Bridal of Triermain (1813)

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Wisdom

More quotes by Walter Scott

O, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!

Marmion (1808)

The paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace.

The Heart of Midlothian (1818)

Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth.

Marmion (1808)

Although too much of a soldier among sovereigns, no one could claim with better right to be a sovereign among soldiers.

Life of Napoleon (1827)

Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.

The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

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If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.

William Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790)

'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.'

William Shakespeare As You Like It (1599)

It takes extraordinary wisdom and self-control to accept that many things have a logic we do not understand that is smarter than our own.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.

George Chapman All Fools (1605)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Walter Scott (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.