“Many have been the wise speeches of fools, though not so many as the foolish speeches of wise men.”
Thomas Fuller (1608-61) quoted as “Thought du jour” in Globe & Mail May 29, 2000
“How is it that a lame man does not annoy us while a lame mind does? Because a lame man recognizes that we are walking straight, while a lame mind says that it is we who are limping. But for that we should feel sorry rather than angry.”
Blaise Pascal Pensées
“Descartes once joked about common sense that it must be universal, because he had yet to meet anyone who didn’t claim to have it.”
Michael Potemra in National Review Jan. 27, 2003 (I believe he was referring to the opening line of Discours de la Méthode: “Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée: car chacun pense en être si bien pourvu que ceux même qui sont les plus difficiles à contenter en toute autre chose n’ont point coutume d’en désirer plus qu’ils en ont.”)
“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.”
Lao-Tsu in the “Tao Teh King” [sic] quoted in Anthony Robbins Unlimited Power
“Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so useful as common sense. There are 40 men of wit for one of sense; and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a loss for want of readier change.”
Alexander Pope, quoted in Globe & Mail January 29, 1997
“Empty heads have long tongues.”
Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts
“Common sense, that extinct branch of psychology.”
G.K. Chesterton “The Unpsychological Age” in Alvaro De Silva ed., Brave New Family