He who is born a fool is never cured.

This is a traditional proverb rather than a traceable utterance by a single author. It belongs to a long European stock of sayings about “folly” as an ingrained disposition—often used in moral instruction, sermons, and commonplace books to warn that some character defects are resistant to correction. In early modern and later English usage, “fool” could mean not only a comic simpleton but someone persistently lacking judgment or prudence. The line is typically deployed as a blunt, sometimes cynical comment on the limits of education or experience to reform a person who repeatedly makes the same errors.

The proverb asserts that foolishness is congenital and therefore permanent: if someone’s nature is to lack sense, no amount of advice, punishment, or learning will reliably change them. It functions less as a medical claim than as a moral verdict about fixed character. In practice, it can be read as a caution against misplaced optimism—don’t expect consistent wisdom from someone who habitually shows poor judgment—and as a warning about choosing companions, leaders, or partners. At the same time, its fatalism invites critique: it can excuse giving up on people and ignores the ways maturity, education, and circumstance can reshape behavior.

1) “He that is born a fool is never cured.”
2) “A fool by nature is never cured.”
3) “Born a fool, always a fool.”