Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the whole world.

John Selden (1584–1654), the English jurist, antiquary, and parliamentarian, is chiefly remembered for his sharp, skeptical observations recorded in “Table Talk,” a posthumously published collection of remarks noted down by associates. The line “Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the whole world” reflects Selden’s characteristic disillusionment with public life and governance in Stuart England—an era marked by court intrigue, factional politics, and constitutional conflict between Crown and Parliament. In that milieu, Selden’s legal learning and political experience made him acutely aware of how often decisions of state turned not on lofty principle but on vanity, misjudgment, and petty human motives.

The remark compresses a worldly, almost Machiavellian insight: history and politics are not reliably steered by reason, virtue, or grand design, but by small irrationalities—ego, fashion, spite, miscommunication, and the desire to appear important. “Little foolery” suggests not merely stupidity but the trivial, unserious impulses that nonetheless scale up into major consequences when attached to power. Selden’s phrasing also rebukes naïveté (“Thou little thinkest”), warning readers against idealized accounts of how institutions work. The line’s enduring appeal lies in its bleak humor and its reminder that human fallibility is a structural force in public affairs.