Shakespeare quotes about fools

Fools are some of the most beloved characters in Shakespeare’s plays, whether it’s the truth-telling Touchstone in As You Like It, the mischievous Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or the aptly named Fool in King Lear.

Actor Louis Butelli, who played Feste in Twelfth Night for Folger Theatre in 2013, wrote:

“Fools in Shakespeare often seem to function as permanent, or ‘professional’ Lords of Misrule. They are often employed by the monarch, or the higher status characters, and because they have some sort of skill—they tell jokes, they sing songs, they offer honest opinions, they are free from the normal social order. So long as they don’t displease their employer, they are free to come and go as they wish.”

Here are just a few of the more than 300 times the word “fool” is mentioned in Shakespeare’s works, often by some of his wise—and witty—fools.

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

Puck, our favorite sprite, utters this beloved line in Act III, scene 2 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Folger liked the line so much that it’s inscribed—using the 16-century spelling “fooles”—on the stone base of the aluminum statue of Puck in the west garden overlooking the Capitol.

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wiseman knows himself to be a fool.”

All is fair in love and war for Touchstone, pictured above and at left. He has accompanied Rosalind and Celia from the halls of court into the forest of Arden. In this line from Act V, scene 1 of As You Like It, Touchstone verbally overpowers William, his rival for Audrey’s love.

“God give them wisdom that have it, and those that are Fools, let them use their talents.”

Feste the Fool emphasizes his difference and separateness from the other characters in Twelfth Night. In this line from Act I, scene 5, Feste suggests that he’d rather sing for his supper than be thought of as “wise.” He is talking with Maria, the waiting gentle-woman to Olivia, the Illyrian countess whom they both serve. Shortly after, the youth Cesario arrives to court Olivia on behalf of Duke Orsino.

“When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again. I would have none but knaves follow it, since a Fool gives it.”

The Fool speaks truth throughout the tragedy of King Lear including these lines from Act II, scene 4.  The Fool does not leave Lear’s side, even when he wanders madly in a furious storm.

“Look then to be well edified, when the Fool delivers the madman.”

In Act 5, scene 1 of Twelfth Night, Feste delivers a letter to Olivia from “madly used” Malvolio. Following the comedy’s double weddings, Feste ends the play with a song:

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

…

A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that’s all one, our play is done,
And we’ll strive to please you every day.

“Opinion’s but a fool that makes us scan the outward habit by the inward man.”

Simonides, king of Pentapolis, shares this observation in Act II, scene 2 of Pericles. Pericles and the other knights are presenting their shields to Princess Thaisa before the start of a tournament to win her hand in marriage. Pericles will be the victor.

“Better a witty Fool than a foolish wit.”

Act 1, scene 5 of Twelfth Night finds the Countess Olivia falling in love with Cesario, the youth sent by Duke Orsino to woo her. Later, Cesario is revealed to be Viola. Feste, Oliva’s Fool, says: “Wit, an ’t be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits that think they have thee do very oft prove fools, and I that am sure I lack thee may pass for a wise man. For what says Quinapalus? “Better a witty Fool than a foolish wit.”