"Nature makes only dumb animals. We owe the fools to society"

Honore de Balzac’s observation draws a sharp distinction between innate qualities and the impact of socialization. While the natural world produces animals that act on instinct, entirely shaped by their biological imperatives and environmental pressures, human society is the crucible wherein folly is crafted, nurtured, and propagated. Animals may lack the intellectual sophistication of humans, but they are seldom “fools” in the sense that they act in accordance with survival logic and harmony within their ecosystems. Their so-called “dumbness” is not stupidity but simplicity, an unspoiled clarity that comes from being untouched by the complexities of social constructs.

In contrast, Balzac suggests, it is within society that the phenomenon of the “fool” arises. Humans, gifted with consciousness and reason, are also encumbered by social systems, norms, and pressures. These, ironically, foster not only intelligence but also folly. Fools are not born but made through exposure to illusion, pretense, competition, and conformity. When individuals suppress their natural instincts to fit societal expectations, or when they mimic foolish behavior for social approval, the result is not an elevation from nature but a detachment from both nature and reason.

Balzac indicts societal institutions, education, traditions, hierarchies, as primary agents in the manufacture of human folly. The very tools that should cultivate wisdom often do the opposite, producing individuals divorced from honest reflection and self-knowledge. The “fool,” then, is a social product: the person who accepts inherited conventions without critical thought, who values appearance over substance, who confuses status with worth.

This perspective implies that wisdom requires not the abandonment of society, but an awareness of its power to both civilize and deceive. It calls for vigilance against the ease with which social mechanisms can render otherwise intelligent beings into “fools,” reminding us that critical thinking and authenticity are bulwarks against the folly society breeds.