The folly of strong drink

 

 The giant, gorg'd with flesh, and wine, and blood,

Lay stretch'd at length, and snoring in his den,

Belching raw gobbets from his maw, o'ercharg'd 

With purple wine and cruddled gore confus'd.

 

-- Joseph Addison

 

Thrice I brought and gave it him, and thrice he drained it in his folly. . . . and reeling fell upon his back, and lay there with his thick neck bent aslant, and sleep, that conquers all, laid hold on him. And from his gullet came forth wine and bits of human flesh, and he vomited in his drunken sleep.

 

-- Homer, Odyssey 9.360, 370

 

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. 

-- Proverbs 20:1

 

They're not innocents: The poets write what they know

 Folly and vice are easy to describe,

The common subjects of our scribbling tribe.

 

-- Wentworth Dillon

 

 

The folly of men and angels

Seeing God found folly in his angels, men's judgments, which inhabit these houses of clay, cannot be without their mistakings.

-- Walter Raleigh

The peevish are wasps, easily offended and soon angry

Lay the rough paths of peevish nature ev'n,

And open in each heart a little heav'n.

-- Matthew Prior

He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding:

but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

-- Proverbs 14:29 

Care not for any man

It is folly to seek the approbation of any being, besides the supreme; because no other being can make a right judgment of us, and because we can procure no considerable advantage from the approbation of any other being.

-- Joseph Addison

Folly most in quickest sense is found

If we had nought but sense, then only they

Should have sound minds which have their senses sound;

But wisdom grows when senses do decay,

And folly most in quickest sense is found.

-- John Davies (1569-1626)

Loyalty, like grace, shows the nobility of the giver of it more than the nobility of the receiver

Though loyalty, well held, to fools does make

Our faith mere folly; yet he that can endure

To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord,

Does conquer him that did his master conquer.

-- William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, Scene XIII

For loyalty is still the same,

Whether it win or lose the game;

True as the dial to the sun,

Although it be not shone upon.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras

I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

-- Acts 20:33ff.

The mother's womb the dressing room

 

 

Man's life's a tragedy; his mother's womb,

From which he enters, is the tiringroom;

This spacious earth the theatre, and the stage

That country which he lives in; passions, rage,

Folly, and vice, are actors.

-- Henry Wotton (1568-1639)

The blindness of total depravity

 

 

Nor can we call it choice, when what we chuse,

Folly and blindness only could refuse.

-- John Denham (1615-1669)

Personal narrative and testimony, formerly the stuff of religion, now insulate secular speech from critical examination

Seen here, but the author has no clue that this is the Christian religion's peculiar "gift" to America:

Herein lies the folly of oversimplified identity politics: while identity concerns obviously warrant analysis, focusing on them too exclusively draws our attention so far inward that none of our analyses can lead to action.  Rebecca Reilly Cooper, a political philosopher at the University of Warwick, worries about the effectiveness of a politics in which "particular experiences can never legitimately speak for any one other than ourselves, and personal narrative and testimony are elevated to such a degree that there can be no objective standpoint from which to examine their veracity." Personal experience and feelings aren't just a salient touchstone of contemporary identity politics; they are the entirety of these politics. In such an environment, it's no wonder that students are so prone to elevate minor slights to protestable offenses.

Catholic George Weigel says Charlie Hebdo is as corrosive of decency as the jihadists are destructive of order

The Holy Trinity by Charlie Hebdo's Luz

Quoted here:

Issue after issue, Charlie Hebdo mocks, not vice and folly (which are fair game), but many people’s most deeply held and cherished beliefs, including their religious convictions. I won’t describe its cover cartoon lampooning the doctrine of the Trinity after the Catholic bishops of France had opposed so-called “gay marriage;” if that cover was not pornographic, than the word “pornographic” has no meaning.

In the world of Charlie Hebdo, sadly, all religious convictions (indeed all serious convictions about moral truth) are, by definition, fanaticism—and thus susceptible to the mockery of the “enlightened.” But that crude caricature of religious belief and moral conviction is false; it’s adolescent, if not downright childish; it inevitably lends itself to the kind of vulgarity that intends to wound, not amuse; and over the long haul, it’s as corrosive of the foundations of a decent society as the demented rage of the jihadists who murdered members of Charlie Hebdo’s staff.

Forget the public and the pontifex maximus: Pastor Timothy Tutt goes against Jesus' belief in the devil

Timothy Tutt tut-tuts here:

I’m just the pastor of local church in a small-ish denomination, so it may be folly to go against the majority of a polled public and a popular pontiff. (The pope has the prestige of an international pulpit, the history of the Roman Catholicism, and a cadre of theologians to support his views.) But it’s time to be clear: the devil does not exist.

Jesus (in Matthew 13:37ff):

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Not-So-Forward-Thinking Kmart Shopper Spends Half Her Holiday Budget On Ornaments, Hats And Decor

Reported here in all seriousness:

A Kmart store in New York City that opened at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving and stayed open for 41 hour straight was packed on the holiday. Clothing was marked down 30 percent to 50 percent. Adriana Tavaraz, 51, headed there at about 4 p.m. and spent $105 on ornaments, Santa hats and other holiday decor. She saved about 50 percent. But it's not likely Tavaraz will be back in stores too many more times this season. Money is tight this year because of rising costs for food and rent, and Tavaraz already spent much of her $200 holiday budget. "Nowadays, you have to think about what you spend," she said. "You have to think about tomorrow."

--------------------------

The woman named Folly is brash.

She is ignorant and doesn’t know it.

-- Proverbs 9:13

Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking

A fool layeth open his folly.

-- Proverbs 13:16 

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.   

-- Proverbs 17:28

A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. 

-- Proverbs 29:11

"Them Most Scorning are Most Bad of All"

“Of Mockers and Scorners, and false Accusers”

O HEARTLESS fools, haste here to our doctrine,

Leave off the ways of your enormity,

Enforce you to my precepts to incline,

For here shall I show you good and verity:

Incline, and ye find shall great prosperity,

Ensuing the doctrine of our fathers old,

And godly laws in valor worth great gold.

Who that will follow the graces manifold

Which are in virtue, shall find advancement:

Wherefore ye fools that in your sin are bold,

Ensue ye wisdom, and leave your lewd intent,

Wisdom is the way of men most excellent:

Therefore have done, and shortly speed your pace,

To acquaint your self and company with grace.

Learn what is virtue, therein is great solace,

Learn what is truth, sadness and prudence,

Let murmuring be gone, and gravity purchase,

Forsake your folly and inconvenience,

Cease to be fools, and ay to sue offence,

Follow ye virtue, chief root of godliness,

For it and wisdom is ground of cleanliness.

Wisdom and virtue two things are doubtless,

Which man endues with honor special,

But such hearts as sleep in foolishness

Know nothing, and will nothing know at all:

But in this little barge in principal

All foolish mockers I purpose to reprove,

Claw he his back that feels itch or grief.

Mockers and scorners that are hard of belief,

With a rough comb here will I claw and grate,

To prove if they will from their vice remove,

And leave their folly, which causes great debate:

Such captives spare neither poor man nor estate,

And where their self are most worthy derision,

Other men to scorn is all their most condition.

Yet are more fools of this corruption,

Which of wise men despise the doctrine,

With grimaces, mocks, scorn, and collusion,

Rewarding rebukes for their good discipline:

Show to such wisdom, yet shall they not incline

Unto the same, but set nothing thereby,

But mock they doctrine, still or openly.

So in the world it appears commonly,

That who that will a fool rebuke or blame,

A mock or grimace shall he have by and by:

Thus in derision have fools their special game.

Correct a wise man that would eschew ill name,

And gladly would learn, and his lewd life amend,

And to thy words he gladly shall intend.

If by misfortune a rightwise man offend,

He gladly suffers a just correction,

And him that him teaches takes for his friend,

Him self putting meekly unto subjection,

Following his precepts and good direction:

But if that one a fool rebuke or blame,

He shall his teacher hate, slander and defame.

Howbeit his words oft turn to his own shame,

And his own darts return to him again,

And so is he sore wounded with the same,

And in woe ends, great misery and pain.

It also proved full often is certain,

That they that on mockers alway their minds cast,

Shall of all other be mocked at the last.…

But who that of sin is clean in deed and thought,

May him well scorn whose living is stark nought.

The scorns of Nabal full dear should have been bought,

If Abigail his wife discrete and sage,

Had not by kindness right crafty means sought,

The wrath of David to temper and assuage.

Hath not two bears in their fury and rage

Two and forty children rent and torn,

For they the prophet Elisha did scorn.

So might they curse the time that they were born,

For their mocking of this prophet divine:

So many other of this sort often mourn

For their lewd mocks, and fall into ruin.

Thus is it folly for wise men to incline,

To this lewd flock of fools, for see thou shall

Them most scorning that are most bad of all.…

From SHIP OF FOOLES, by Alexander Barclay, circa 1550, edited and adapted