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Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Fools rush in where angels fear to treadFoolish people are often reckless, attempting feats that the wise avoid. This saying is from “An Essay on Criticism,” by Alexander Pope.
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fools rush in where angels fear to tread
fools rush in where angels fear to treadIgnorant or inexperienced individuals get involved in situations that wiser persons would avoid, as in I've never heard this symphony and here I am conducting it—oh well, fools rush in where angels fear to tread, or He tried to mediate their unending argument—fools rush in. This expression, so well known it is sometimes shortened as in the second example, is a quotation from Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism (1709): “No place so sacred from such fops is barr'd ... Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead; For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
CulturalExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There are daring and gaudy buildings that manage to be offensive, without being contemptible; and we know that "fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 1 (of 25) by Lang, Andrew
Sometimes fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
From Paul and the Printing Press by Scott, A. O. (Arthur O.)
"Nay, fly to altars, there they'll talk you dead; For fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
From Notes and Queries, Number 22, March 30, 1850 by Various
It has been said that fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
From An Ohio Woman in the Philippines Giving personal experiences and descriptions including incidents of Honolulu, ports in Japan and China by Conger, Emily Bronson
Irreverence and rash speculation are satirized thus: Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead, For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
From English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction by Coppee, Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.