I could not become anything; neither good nor bad; neither a scoundrel nor an honest man; neither a hero nor an insect. And now I am eking out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the bitter and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything, that only a fool can become something.

If you are not willing to be a fool, you can't become a master.

A fool cannot be convinced or even compelled to renounce his folly.

Whoever among you thinks himself wise must become a fool to be truly wise

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is an incorrigible fool.

Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

The most hopelessly stupid man is he who is not aware he is wise.

Only those who are capable of silliness can be called truly intelligent.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error

He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.

The intelligent man finds everything laughable, the sensible man hardly anything.

The ignorant man is an ox. He grows in size, not in wisdom.

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

The wise man through an excess of wisdom is made a fool.