Worse Than A Fool!

Have you referred to someone as a fool before? I suppose most people have. Or perhaps, you have been a fool yourself on certain occasions. You know how embarrassing that can be.

Have you ever considered the possibility of someone being worse than a fool? If you do (of which I’m wondering why), I didn’t consider it possible initially. I concluded that foolishness was the climax of human misbehavior… not until I saw something.


I saw two groups of people who are worse than fools. I’ve been in these situations myself many times but I never considered myself foolish in each case, not to talk of being worse than foolish. It was actually an eye opener.

When we start talking about them, you’ll understand more about the matter.

Have you ever given someone a piece of your mind? You know, more like uttering some careless statements without thinking about your words before hand? Well, that is the first instance of the worse-than-a-fool syndrome.

Are you surprised? I actually saw this somewhere pretty reliable:

The Bible, Proverbs 29:28,

‘Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of him’ (KJV).

The same verse in NLT says; ‘There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking’.

Let’s look at the second instance. Maybe, you don’t consider it harmful to think yourself so wise and knowledgeable that you seem to know why everyone else is getting things wrong (everyone except you of course).

You consider yourself (even without realizing it) free from faults.
Are you making some guesses now? Let me spare you the suspense.

The Bible, Proverbs 26:12,

‘There is more hope for fools than for people who think they are wise’ (NLT).

The same verse in KJV: ‘Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.

Before you get it twisted, let’s take the two cases one after the other.

Worse-Than-a-Fool case #1: A Man Hasty in His Words/Who Speaks Without Thinking

Someone hasty in speech is someone who substitutes reasoning for emotion in day-to-day affairs.

If you have considered the possibility of thinking about your words before speaking, you might be quick to conclude that it is nearly impossible and will probably make you robot-like and unnatural.

Sorry to disappoint you, buy you seem not to be getting the point. Yes literally, it sounds not feasible to think about your every speech, but sure, it’s possible (Proverbs 21:29 NLT).
Don’t see this thinking as the kind that takes tons of time, like pondering over a major decision (or even a minor one). Nope.
Thinking about your words means eliminating an emotional response to words, talks and situations. Yes, it doesn’t take ages to halt a little bit and put your reasoning to use before giving a reply. The key is to put into consideration the context, the wisdom in what you're about the say, and how the other party will feel and interpret your words.

Emotional responses, most times are regrettable responses. Whenever your emotions take the upper hand in your day-to-day affairs, you become a reactive person & a reactive person is ruled by emotions, not reasoning or common sense.
Reacting quickly to issues, whether in speech or in action without giving them a little reasoning makes you worse than a fool.

I’m sure you get the point. I end this #1 case by quoting two verses from the book of James.       

#1: James 1:19 (NLT), “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters; you MUST all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires”.

#2: James 3:2 (NLT), “Indeed we all make many mistakes, for if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way”.

Let’s take on one more verse form Proverbs 15:28 (NLT) (I like this translation): it says ‘The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; but the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words.


Worse-Than-a-Fool case #2: People Who Think They Are Wise

If you do not critically examine this case, you may not understand the message it conveys. In direct terms, someone who thinks he is wise is someone who is PROUD. Yes, that is the focus of this case: PRIDE.

A proud person is indeed worst than a fool for he is too full of himself. He is very myopic because he sees things only form his own view. He believes that whatever he says or does is right.

Proud people trust & base judgments only from their own references and experiences. They are not willing to understand situations and to understand people.

They are too busy polishing themselves, making themselves appear more knowledgeable, wise, classy, etc.

Can you look closely at the King James translation of the case #2 verse? Proverbs 26:12, ‘Seest thou a man wise IN HIS OWN CONCEIT? There is more hope for a fool than of him’.

You should check up the word ‘conceit’ in a good dictionary. I’m certain you’ll find something helpful.

Once you are proud, your mind is blocked to learning and like I said earlier, you depend & make decisions based SOLELY on your own references, experiences and interpretations of them.
Unfortunately, this level of judgment is very limited and often erroneous.

It is unlikely that anyone will confess to being proud because pride itself prevents a man from admitting his pride.One thing that makes it hard to find out pride & eliminate it is because it makes itself hidden.

You only discover pride (or most faults at that) when you are humble enough & since you can’t be both humble and proud at the same time, there’s no change. You see nothing wrong with the way you behave. You even justify your behavior.

How then do you know if you are proud? I’ll give you several signs and symptoms you should look out for in yourself to check if you’re infected or not (I like referring to pride as a virus because they both have a similar mode of operation).

1.    You always like talking about yourself and your achievements & knowledge in conversations in ways that portray you as someone good and important and better than others (even better than the person you’re talking with).

2.    You are overtly critical. Your rate of criticism is so high that it is extremely difficult to please or satisfy you. Even when something fits your standards, you still find one or two loopholes in it.

3.    You seem to appear perfect and free of faults. You may not admit it openly, but your behavior portrays it.

4.    You enjoy being called big names & titles. You enjoy being used as a standard of measuring something, say, the person with the most expensive phone or hairstyle, etc. You enjoy showing off your superiority & qualifications (even when very few exists).

5.    You are ‘too big’ to do certain things. &

6.    You disdain & insult people lower in rank, authority or class than you. It is practically impossible for you to learn from people of lower age, authority or rank.

'Self-confidence' and 'pride' are not the same. Self confidence may look similar to pride, but on careful examination, they are worlds apart.

Self confidence NEVER expresses the above ‘symptoms’ of pride.

A confident person doesn’t need to tell you much about himself. You get to see his qualities yourself.

A confident person is so busy with making himself a better person that he has no time to criticize anyone.

A confident person is humble because he knows his worth.
Proud people are actually worth very little, because an empty vessel makes the loudest noise.

As a leader, a confident person is able & willing to do anything he asks any of his followers to do. Pride is simply insecurity. Self confidence isn’t.

It is being sure of who you are & what you’re worth, working tirelessly to improve yourself daily & keeping your mouth shut.

That’s it, gentlemen and ladies; ‘Worse than a fool’, make the analysess yourself. Make sure you never get into any of the two categories:

•    A Man Hasty In His Words.
•    People Who Think They Are Wise.

If you are inquisitive enough, you’ll go ahead to find out how to avoid being a fool in the first place (talk less of becoming worse than a fool). If you ask me however, I’ll advice you to take care of the ‘worse’ before the ‘bad’.

Hope you learned something or two so far? I’ll leave it to you from here.

Cheers...