proverb · Words worth keeping
Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.
Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
One person can bear the cost of a display while another enjoys the benefit. The contrast questions whether extravagant hospitality serves the person paying for it.
What the words are saying
The feast is prepared by the person called foolish, while the person called wise simply eats it. That arrangement makes the difference between providing a costly pleasure and receiving it without bearing the same expense. The saying can criticise ostentation or an uneven distribution of effort. It is deliberately cynical: generosity may have value to the host as well as the guest, and eating someone else’s food does not establish wisdom. A useful reading asks who gains and who pays in the particular arrangement.
Everyday example
Someone funds an elaborate event mainly to impress others, then notices that guests enjoy it more than they do.
When to use it
Use it to examine an expensive display or an unequal sharing of costs.
What it does not mean
Hospitality is not inherently foolish, and taking advantage of generosity is not necessarily wise.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases
Entry 562 · Feasts
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- English