follies

• “Brandt's fools as contemptible and loathsome, and say what he calls follies might be better described as sins and vices.”

  History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour

• “A great portion of the errors and mistakes, and of what we call the follies, of children arise from simple ignorance.”

  Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the Young Or, the Principles on Which a Firm Parental Authority May Be Established and Maintained, Without Violence or Anger, and the Right Development of the Moral and Mental Capacities Be Promoted by Methods in Harmony with the Structure and the Characteristics of the Juvenile Mind

• “Brandt's fools are represented as contemptible and loathsome rather than _foolish_, and what he calls follies might be more correctly described as sins and vices.”

  The Ship of Fools, Volume 1

• “First, the ordinary citizen and voter must acquire a greater awareness of his own nature, his liability to certain follies, ever recurrent and ever disastrous; secondly, a greater knowledge of the nature of the necessary mechanism of society; and thirdly, of the nature of truth, of true methods of interpretation, the means by which the lessons told by common facts can be applied to the solution of social problems as they arise.”

  Sir Norman Angell - Nobel Lecture

• “He smiled at the vain follies of the countess, and broke the seal of her letter.”

  The Scottish Chiefs

• “(Pause, during which Gwendolen made several interpretations of her own speech.) "What do you call follies?”

  Daniel Deronda

• “He bitterly denounced the administration of that pure Democrat, James Madison, and ridiculed what he termed the follies of Thomas Jefferson. ”

  Americanism Contrasted with Foreignism, Romanism, and Bogus Democracy in the Light of Reason, History, and Scripture; In which Certain Demagogues in Tennessee, and Elsewhere, are Shown Up in Their True Colors

• “8 The experience of so many princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, from the vain follies of Elagabalus to the useful rigor of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the temptations of their sublime station.”

  The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

• “To judge, however, by the ardor with which he worked, he was engaged in some one of those schemes that are termed follies before success, but which, after success, are universally acknowledged to be brilliant and praiseworthy instances of industrial enterprise.”

  Willis the Pilot

• “But leave to others these niceties, 'whether they are to be described as follies or absurdities:”

  Gorgias

Show 10 more examples...