In praise of folly

By a strange co-incidence Paris, London, fundamentalism and 'conversation' seem to be finding their way to these blogposts. One of the disadvantages of never actually finishing a book, of reading bits of books at the same time, is that one's mind strays and finds such senseless connections all the time. Freud: 62. No doubt, if I'd been reading Gibbon this post would have been about fancy, instead of folly.

"To them (the zealots), freedom of mind, a mastery of sense and a liberty in thought and action imply debauch, corruption, and depravity."
---Shaftesbury.

"In primitive societies people tell tales and expect their listeners not to question them...without intelligence man is not social, he is only gregarious."
---Samuel Johnson.

"There is... a real satisfaction of living in Paris from the great Number of sensible, knowing, and polite Company with which the city abounds above all places in the universe...Learning has been as great a Loser by being shut up in colleges and Cells, and secluded from the World and good Company.
---Hume.

"Every woman in Paris gathers in her apartment a harem of men more womanish than she."

Conversation is for wimps, as my friend might say.

"Bring a wiseman to a party: he will disrupt it either by his gloomy silence or his tedious cavils...If he joins a conversation , everyone suddenly 'clams up.'"
---Erasmus.