"No man is so much a fool as not to have wit enough sometimes to be a knave; nor any so cunning a knave as not to have the weakness sometimes to play the fool"
About this Quote
Savile’s line is a politician’s bedside warning: stop sorting people into neat moral categories, because behavior is strategic and strategy is messy. The sentence pivots on a double insult that’s really a theory of human conduct. Even “the fool” has enough wit, at times, to choose deceit; even “the knave” has enough weakness, at times, to bungle into sincerity, carelessness, or self-sabotage. Savile isn’t flattering anyone. He’s flattening the distinction between innocence and villainy into a shifting, situational mix of interest, fear, and opportunity.
The intent is less philosophical than tactical. In an 18th-century political world of patronage, parliamentary maneuvering, and reputations made in coffeehouses as much as in chambers, “character” was both currency and costume. Savile’s subtext: never trust apparent incompetence, and never overestimate a rival’s competence. The fool may be playing dumb to dodge blame or to extract concessions; the knave may slip because arrogance breeds sloppiness, or because constant calculation is exhausting.
It works because it’s balanced like a legal maxim and sharp as a piece of gossip. The mirrored clauses feel inevitable, as if Savile is merely describing gravity. But the real cynicism lies in the implication that moral failure is not exceptional; it’s opportunistic. Everyone is capable of dishonesty when it pays, and everyone is capable of foolishness when their own story starts to seduce them. In politics especially, that oscillation isn’t an aberration. It’s the operating system.
The intent is less philosophical than tactical. In an 18th-century political world of patronage, parliamentary maneuvering, and reputations made in coffeehouses as much as in chambers, “character” was both currency and costume. Savile’s subtext: never trust apparent incompetence, and never overestimate a rival’s competence. The fool may be playing dumb to dodge blame or to extract concessions; the knave may slip because arrogance breeds sloppiness, or because constant calculation is exhausting.
It works because it’s balanced like a legal maxim and sharp as a piece of gossip. The mirrored clauses feel inevitable, as if Savile is merely describing gravity. But the real cynicism lies in the implication that moral failure is not exceptional; it’s opportunistic. Everyone is capable of dishonesty when it pays, and everyone is capable of foolishness when their own story starts to seduce them. In politics especially, that oscillation isn’t an aberration. It’s the operating system.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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