What's the difference between foolishness and insanity?

Foolishness


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality of being foolish.
  • (n.) A foolish practice; an absurdity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) So, logic would dictate that if Greeks are genuinely in favour of reform – and opinion polls have consistently shown wide support for many of the structural changes needed – they would be foolish to give these two parties another chance.
  • (2) It would be foolish to bet that Saudi Arabia will exist in its current form a generation from now.” Memories of how the Saudis and Opec deliberately triggered an economic crisis in the west in retaliation for US aid to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war still rankle.
  • (3) That's foolish, because Real Madrid rarely look more uncomfortable than at set pieces.
  • (4) "We regret that Congress was forced to waste its time voting on a foolish bill that was premised entirely on false claims and ignorance," David Jenkins, an REP official, said in a statement.
  • (5) Shorten said while Hicks was “foolish to get caught up in the Afghanistan conflict” the court decision showed an injustice.
  • (6) Many commentators considered the suggestion merely foolish, but computer hackers issued death threats against her and her children, which she promptly posted on Twitter, along with the defiant message: "Get stuffed, losers.
  • (7) And it means that if Labour were to win, Mr Brown would be very foolish, indeed downright wrong, to move Mr Darling.
  • (8) "It was a certain kind of titillation the shop offered," the critic Matthew Collings has written, "sexual but also hopeless, destructive, foolish, funny, sad."
  • (9) Describing the moment McKellen knocked on his dressing room door he said: “I ushered him in nervously, expecting notes for my poor performance or indiscipline – I was a foolish, naughty young actor.
  • (10) But what people did when they were young and foolish, or even when they were not yet public figures, is not always the same.
  • (11) While we have this, it would be foolish to pursue a policy of still constraining resources in the acute sector.
  • (12) All three echoed remarks made recently by the Bank’s governor, Mark Carney, who said it would be “foolish” to cut rates in response to a temporary fall in inflation.
  • (13) Since the initially peaceful demonstrations against his regime began more than three years ago, he has proved himself, by turns, foolish, craven and vicious.
  • (14) In a high-risk, 65-minute speech in Manchester delivered without notes, and 20 minutes longer than he intended, Miliband tried to take the mantle of the 19th-century Tory prime minister Benjamin Disraeli's one nation, pointedly grabbing the territory and language of the centre ground which he believes David Cameron has foolishly vacated.
  • (15) But one backbencher, West Australian Liberal Dennis Jensen , has said it is foolish to set up a $20bn medical research fund at the same time as the government is cutting money from scientific agencies, including the CSIRO and the Australian Research Council.
  • (16) Donald Trump is too weak, too foolish and too chaotic to see beyond the immediate crises he has created.
  • (17) Here, too, Capote displayed uncanny journalistic skills, capturing even the most languid and enigmatic of subjects – Brando in his pomp – and eliciting the kinds of confidences that left the actor reflecting ruefully on his "unutterable foolishness".
  • (18) They privately acknowledge they were foolish in taking the bait, but argue they have broken no rules since they were offered no jobs, and therefore have no commercial interests to declare in the MPs' register.
  • (19) "Hopefully, the lesson is to stop this foolish childishness," McCain said Thursday on CNN.
  • (20) The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes.” As for the social conditions that obtain: “It is exactly the existing conditions that one objects to, and any scheme that could accept these conditions is wrong and foolish.” Looking back on my political activism of the 1970s and 80s, there was a lot of refusing to accept existing conditions on the basis that they were “wrong and foolish”.

Insanity


Definition:

  • (n.) The state of being insane; unsoundness or derangement of mind; madness; lunacy.
  • (n.) Such a mental condition, as, either from the existence of delusions, or from incapacity to distinguish between right and wrong, with regard to any matter under action, does away with individual responsibility.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) What constitutes a "mental disorder" for purposes of the insanity defense?
  • (2) Existing mental health and criminal justice systems provide social control for some of these dangerous individuals, but may be inadequate to deal with those mentally disordered offenders who were not found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGI).
  • (3) First, I recapped Die Hard 2 – the insane cross-eyed Gizmo of the Die Hard world – a few months ago, and now I'm secretly determined to do the whole series before the Guardian film editors wise up and yank this feature from my warm, live hands.
  • (4) But gas prices hit $5 in California this month, a price consumers think is "insane" .
  • (5) After briefly discussing the limitations of expert testimony and the adversarial demands of the judicial system, the author concludes that the insanity defense should be retained but altered, and that psychiatrists should bear the burdens of advocating for the mentally ill.
  • (6) The review demonstrates that conditional release is particularly important as a means of balancing the protection of society with the treatment of insanity defense acquittees in the least restrictive environment.
  • (7) He has, however, refused to testify, invoking his right to remain silent, while his lawyer has insisted his client is “insane” and therefore unfit for trial.
  • (8) Four forensic psychiatrists were asked to indicate whether they thought 164 defendants met any or all of four insanity tests: 1) the American Law Institute (ALI) cognitive criterion, 2) the ALI volitional criterion, 3) the APA test, and 4) the M'Naghten rule.
  • (9) There is a need for Parliament to consider changes to the law both to prevent the mentally disordered being sent to prison inappropriately, and because the Mental Health Act 1983 has not taken account of rare cases where an offender such as an epileptic might be found legally insane but not mentally disordered.
  • (10) Others are taking the rally at face value and planning to turn up with banners proclaiming themselves part of the reasonable majority, liberal or conservative, against the particular brand of insanity that has swept America since Barack Obama entered the White House.
  • (11) I have to stay moving, going, running, just to keep me from going insane Michael Brown Sr “I lost my boy.
  • (12) A bit insane if you consider that most of the [Asian] lads were born in Rochdale.
  • (13) Documenting the early history of mental illness in North America is complicated by the absence of colonial institutions specializing in the care or management of the insane.
  • (14) Tesla Model-S launch: an electric car to answer even Clarkson's objections Read more Elon Musk’s Tesla has shown that electric vehicles are viable for a business with its Roadster and then Model S , which recently gained a faster dual-motor version with an “insane mode” which reaches 60 miles per hour in under 3.2 seconds.
  • (15) Not only is the use of the insanity defense infrequent, but defendants who select it give up important safeguards.
  • (16) The lawyer defending Anders Behring Breivik, the suspect behind Norway's terror attacks, said on Tuesday he had concluded his client was most likely "insane" and he was baffled that he had asked him to represent him.
  • (17) The treatment of insane persons in the last century is briefly described.
  • (18) The authors propose that, as occurs in tertiary neurosyphilis and general paresis of the insane, Borrelia species may invade the brain, remain in a latent state for many years, and cause dementia in the absence of other focal neurologic deficits.
  • (19) He sounds fresh as a daisy, which is kind of insane.
  • (20) McClure said she believed the "insane amount of media" at the park was keeping officials at bay.