Frederick II (1194-1250) and Johann Goethe (1749-1832) both labeled as “fools” for challenging Christian doctrine; Frederick for asserting that virgin birth was impossible and that Jesus, Moses, and Muhammad were impostures; Goethe for asserting that Bergman-based morality usurps Christian-based morality.

“The fool saith in his heart: there is no god.”

— David (c.100AD), Bible (Psalm 14:1) (Ѻ)

“Frederick II (1194-1250), this pestilent king, a scorpion spitting out poison from the stinger of his tail, has notably and openly stated that—in his own words—the whole world has been fooled by three imposters, Jesus Christ, Moses, and Muhammad, two of whom died honorably, while Jesus himself died on the cross. Moreover, he has dared to affirm, or rather, he has fraudulently claimed, that all those who believe that a virgin could give birth to the god who created nature, and all the rest, were fools. And Fredrick has aggravated the heresy by this insane assertion, according to which no one can be born without having been conceived by the prior intercourse of a man and woman; he also claims that people ought to believe nothing that cannot be proven by the strength and reason of nature.”

— Pope Gregory IX (1239), address to monarchs

“Astrology is that deceptive opinion by means of which a living is made from fools.”

— Leonardo da Vinci (1490) [11]

A fool, Mr, Edgeworth, is one who has never made an experiment.

— Erasmus Darwin (c.1795), “Remark to Richard Edgeworth (Ѻ)”; as quoted by Stanley Jevons in ‘Experimental Legislation’ [7]

“To all rational readers, the use of the chemical theory [in Goethe’s Elective Affinities] is nonsense and childish fooling around.”

— Christoph Wieland (1810), “Letter to Karl Bottiger” (with instructions to burn after reading), Jul 16 [2]

“Thus we can reconcile the philosophical position of our time with the words of the apostle; for the ‘higher pantheism’ [Tennyson] agrees with him in asserting the existence of the eternal ‘in whom we live and move and have our being.’ Science, conceiving of the universe as the manifestation of an immanent god, can only endorse these words. Goethe's name for the cosmos, which the fool in his folly was pleased to call a ‘fortuitous concourse of atoms,’ is this—‘the living garment of god’.”

— Caleb Saleeby (1904), “The Living Garment of God” [3]

“I have already told you that I got my first warning. With me, as with many other fools and some geniuses, the weak spot is what is known as Brocas convolution of the brain, which contains the shelves of memory. Suddenly or slowly the shelves close and can’t be opened. Mine have been closing normally and slowly, but one day in July I happened to go into Audrain’s place to ask a question, and, to my consternation, my French tumbled out all in a heap. The words came without connection. The man looked at me queerly; I mumbled something, and got out into the street; by the time I got back to my rooms, the paralysis had passed; but I knew quite well what it meant.”

— Henry Adams (1908), “Letter to letter to Elizabeth Cameron”, Sep 15; commentary on his forewarned descent into stroke land (1912 to 1918) reaction end [4]

“A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the genius of the last generation.”

— Max Gluckman (1965), Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society [5]