“What would have been the fate of sages if there were no fools?”

“What a fool I would have been to let self-respect interfere with my happiness!”

“Ask a sage, he will explain.Ask a fool, he will complain.”

“A sage is a former fool who has become tired of himself.A foolish sage is one who forgets this.Remember, or come full circle.”

“They were, doubtless, good men, just and sage. But, out of the whole human family, it would not have been easy to select the same number of wise and virtuous persons, who should be less capable of sitting in judgment on an erring woman's heart, and disentangling its mesh of good and evil, than the sages of rigid aspect towards whom Hester Prynne now turned her face.”

“What sense did the world make? Where was God, the Bloody Fool? Did He have no notion of fair and unfair? Couldn't He read a simple balance sheet? He would have been sacked long ago if He were managing a corporation, the things he allowed to happen...”