Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like unto him.
All Commentaries on Proverbs 26:4 Go To Proverbs 26
Cyprian of Carthage
AD 258
I had treated you with contempt, Demetrian, as you railed with sacrilegious mouth against God, who is one and true, and frequently cried out with impious words, thinking it more fitting and better to ignore with silence the ignorance of a man in error than to provoke with speech the fury of a man in madness. And I did not do this without the authority of the divine teaching, since it is written, “Do not say anything in the ears of the foolish, lest when he hears he may mock your wise words,” and again, “Do not answer the foolish according to his folly, lest you become like him.”
