Cf. [Publilius Syrus Sententiae xxii.] amare et sapere vix deo conceditur, to love and to be wise is scarcely allowed to God.
To have a sadde [serious] mynde and loue is nat in one person.
[c 1527 T. Berthelet tr. Erasmus' Sayings of Wise Men B1V]
To be in loue and to be wyse is scase graunted to god.
[1539 R. Taverner tr. Erasmus' Adages ii. A5]
It is impossible to loue and bee wise.
[1612 Bacon Essays ‘Of Love’ xii.]
The Louer is euer blinded‥with affection‥whence came that vsuall saying One cannot loue and be wise.
[1631 R. Brathwait English Gentlewoman 32]
If a man could not love and be wise, surely he could flirt and be wise at the same time?
[1872 G. Eliot Middlemarch II. iii. xxvii.]
Maybe passion is always a mistake: Yet who can love and then be wise?
[2001 Washington Post Book World 29 July 1]
Related to: love; wisdom
Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.
