Wisdom - Quotes

'Tis sometimes the height of wisdom to feign stupidity. - Cato The Elder

'Tis held that sorrow makes us wise. - Alfred Tennyson

’Tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket. - Miguel de Cervantes

A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom. - Henry David Thoreau

A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men. - Willy Wonka 

A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance. Observe how the greatest minds yield in some degree to the superstitions of their age. - Henry David Thoreau

A man may learn wisdom even from a foe. - Aristophanes

A man remains ignorant because he loves ignorance, and chooses ignorant thoughts; a man becomes wise because he loves wisdom and chooses wise thoughts. - James Allen

A man's wisdom is his best friend; folly, his worst enemy. - Sir William Temple

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant. - Seneca

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. - Francis Bacon

A simple realization that there are other points of view is the beginning of wisdom. - Grenville Kleiser

A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence. - David Hume 

A wise man blows off the impurities of his self, as a smith blows off the impurities of silver one by one, little by little and from time to time. - Unknown

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. - Unknown

A wise man cares not what he can have, but what he can achieve. - Unknown

A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat. - Louis L'Amour

A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it be – without wishing for what he has not. - Seneca

A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behaviour is patience and moderation. - Molière

A wise man knows that no success or failure is necessarily final. Hence he cares more about living than about winning. - Unknown

A wise man learns from others’ mistakes, to make fewer of his own. - Unknown

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. - Francis Bacon

A wise person knows that there is something to be learned from everyone. - Unknown

A word to the wise is enough. - Titus Maccius Plautus

A word to the wise isn't as good as a word from the wise. - Grenville Kleiser

All wisdom consists in this, not to think that we know what we do not know. - Houng-Wou

Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom. - Euripides

An ignorant man is always able to say yes or no immediately to any proposition. To a wise man, comparatively few things can be propounded which do not require a response with qualifications, with discriminations, with proportion. - Horace Mann

At one time we had wisdom, but little knowledge. Now we have a great deal of knowledge, but do we have enough wisdom to deal with that knowledge? - Jonas Salk

At times it is folly to hasten. At other times, to delay. The wise do everything in its proper time. - Ovid

Be happy. It’s one way of being wise. - Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Be humble, if thou would'st attain to wisdom. Be humbler still, when wisdom thou hast mastered. - Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error. - Charles Caleb Colton

Be wise before the storm. - Edward Counsel

Be wise with speed; A fool at forty is a fool indeed. - Edward Young

Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so. - Lord Chesterfield

Being Wise and Being Smart are two different things anyone can be smart but those who master the art of knowing what to overlook in this journey called life deserves to be called Wise. - Abhishek Shukla

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. - Unknown

Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own. - Aesop

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. - Confucius

Cleverness is not wisdom. - Euripides

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket. - Andrew Carnegie

Cunning is seeing a hundred yards ahead – wisdom, fifty miles in advance. - Charles William Day

Each of us knows all. We need only open our minds to hear our own wisdom. - Dan Brown

Each step, each strain of the eye opens out a new horizon; and every day throws in our way something new, to grow more wise on. - Robert Leighton

Folly is like the growth of weeds, always luxurious and spontaneous; wisdom, like flowers, requires cultivation. - Hosea Ballou 

Fools talk, cowards are silent, wise men listen. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 

From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own. - Publilius Syrus

Full of wisdom are the ordinations of fate. - Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

Good people are good because they have come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success. - William Saroyan

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious - Chuang Tzu

He's a Fool that cannot conceal his Wisdom. - Benjamin Franklin 

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. - Epicurus

He is great who can do what he wishes; he is wise who wishes to do what he can. - Unknown

He that is conceited of his Wisdom, is readier to impose Error, than to receive Truth. - Benjamin Whichcote

He that thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool. – Charles Caleb Colton

He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool. - Voltaire

He who understands the wise is wise already. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom. - Thomas Jefferson

How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver! Bible, Proverbs 16:16

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise! - Homer 

I believe that all wisdom consists in caring immensely for a few right things, and not caring a straw about the rest. - John Buchan

If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. - William Blake

If we drink from the fountain of wisdom, we thirst for its waters e'ermore. - Ardelia Cotton Barton

If you realize that you aren’t as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you’re wiser today. - Unknown

In an active life is sown the seed of wisdom; but he who reflects not, never reaps. - Edward Young

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others? - Voltaire

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. - Aeschylus 

It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is laid to rest in repositories. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

It is best to learn wisdom by the experience of others. - Latin Proverb

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves. - Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is not wise to be wiser than is necessary. - Philippe Quinault

It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be concealed for long. - Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. - Mahatma Gandhi

It is wisdom to think upon anything before we execute it. - Plautus 

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf. - Walter Lippmann

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. - Aristotle

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. - Alfred Tennyson

Learned men fall into error oftenest by mistaking knowledge for wisdom. - Austin O’Malley

Let men be wise by instinct if they can, but when this fails be wise by good advice. - Sophocles 

Let not wisdom be an occasional visitor – let it ever dwell with thee. - Edward Counsel

Like water in the desert is wisdom to the soul. - Edward Counsel 

Listening and observing are the shortest routes to wisdom.  - A. D. Williams

Man’s greatest wisdom consists in knowing his own follies. - Magdeleine Sable

Memory is the mother of all wisdom. - Aeschylus 

More wisdom is latent in things as they are than in all the words men use. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Much of the wisdom of one age, is the folly of the next. - Charles Simmons

No man ever became wise by chance. - Seneca

No man has all the wisdom in the world; everyone has some. - Edgar Watson Howe

No man is wise enough by himself. - Titus Maccius Plautus

No mortal man, moreover is wise at all moments. - Pliny The Elder

No wise man ever wished to be younger. - Jonathan Swift

No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful. - Ernest Hemingway

None of us was born knowing or wise; but men become wise by consideration, observation, experience. - Benjamin Franklin

One’s first step in wisdom is to question everything – and one’s last is to come to terms with everything. - Georg C. Lichtenberg

Our wisdom comes from experience and our experience comes from our foolishness. - Unknown

Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only. - Samuel Smiles

Second thoughts are ever wiser. - Euripides

Some people take more care to hide their wisdom than their folly. - Jonathan Swift

Somewhere beneath the rubble of every endeavour gone awry are the tiny seeds of wisdom. Dig for and plant the seeds, and a forest of mighty trees will grow to shade you from the scorching heat of your life’s midday, and to shield you from the howling winds of the world’s confusion. - Unknown

That is true wisdom, to know how to alter one’s mind when occasion demands it. - Terence

That man is wisest who, like Socrates, realizes that his wisdom is worthless. - Plato

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. - William James

The beginning of wisdom is silence. The second step is listening. - Unknown

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their rightful names. - Thomas Jeffeson

The clearest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness. - Michel Montaigne

The disadvantage of becoming wise is that you realize how foolish you’ve been. - Evan Esar

The doors of wisdom are never shut. - Benjamin Franklin

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. - Benjamin Franklin

The extreme limit of wisdom – that's what the public calls madness. - Jean Cocteau

The first point of wisdom is to discern what is false; the second, to know what is true. - Lactantius 

The first principle of solid wisdom is discretion, without it all the erudition of life is merely bagatelle. - Norman MacDonald

The growth of wisdom may be gauged accurately by the decline of ill-temper. - Friedrich Nietzsche

The knowledge and experience which produce wisdom can only become a man's individual possession and property by his own free action; and it is as futile to expect these without laborious, painstaking effort, as it is to hope to gather a harvest where the seed has not been sown. - Samuel Smiles

The latter part of a wise person’s life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions they contracted earlier. - Jonathan Swift

The mark of wisdom lies, more than anything else, in the ability to listen. - Buddhist Quote

The most exquisite Folly is made of Wisdom spun too fine. - Benjamin Franklin

The next thing to having wisdom ourselves, is to profit by that of others. - Charles Caleb Colton

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom. - Thomas Huxley

The sum of wisdom is, that the time is never lost that is devoted to work. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The wealth of mankind is the wisdom they leave. - John Boyle O’Reilly

The wisdom of the wise is an uncommon degree of common sense. - Dean Inge

The wise always mix with people who can inspire them to greater heights. - Unknown

The wise form right judgment of the present from what is past. - Sophocles

The wise man is wise in vain who cannot be wise to his own advantage. - Ennius 

The wise man... if he would live at peace with others, he will bear and forbear. - Samuel Smiles

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own. - Unknown

The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions. - Claude Levi-Strauss

The wise man guards against the future as if it were the present. - Publilius Syrus

The wise man has his follies, no less than the fool; but it has been said that herein lies the difference – the follies of the fool are known to the world, but hidden from himself; the follies of the wise are known to himself, but hidden from the world. - Charles Caleb Colton

The wise man hath his thoughts in his head; the fool, on his tongue. - Ivan Panin

The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things. - William Ralph Inge

The wise man never changes in face of happiness or sorrow, even as a mountain shakes not, being blown against by fierce gusts of wind. - Unknown

The wise may find in trifles light as atoms in the air, some useful lesson to enrich the mind. - John Godfrey Saxe

The wiser a man is, it seems to me, the more vividly he can see the future as part of the evolving present. He doesn't break the flow of life, he directs it, hastens it, but preserves its continuity. - Walter Lippmann

The wisest man is he who does not require advice. - Edward Counsel 

The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all. - Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

There are many gates to the house of wisdom. - Edward Counsel

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart. - Charles Dickens

There is as much wisdom in soliciting good counsel as in giving it. The most sensible people are not reluctant to consider the feelings of other people; and to know how to submit to the wise guidance of others is a kind of wisdom in itself. - Magdeleine Sable

There is deep wisdom within our very flesh, if we can only come to our senses and feel it. - Elizabeth A. Behnke

There is no man ... however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived a life, the memory of which is so unpleasant to him that he would gladly expunge it. And yet he ought not entirely to regret it, because he cannot be certain that he has indeed become a wise man – so far as it is possible for any of us to be wise – unless he has passed through all the fatuous or unwholesome incarnations by which that ultimate stage must be preceded. - Marcel Proust 

There is nothing the wise man does reluctantly. - Seneca

They would need to be already wise, in order to love wisdom. - Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

Things have their seasons, and even certain kinds of eminence go in and out of style. But wisdom has an advantage: She is eternal. - Balthasar Gracian

Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; but doing well is the wisest and best of all. - Unknown

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish. - Quintilian

To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. - Unknown

To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom. - Bertrand Russell

To understand yourself is the key to wisdom. - Confucius

True wisdom come to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us. - Socrates

True wisdom is knowing what you don't know. - Conficius 

True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by. - E. S. Bouton

Was not this ... what we spoke of as the great advantage of wisdom – to know what is known and what is unknown to us? - Plato 

We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us. - Proust

We disgrace wisdom when we would strive to support it with folly. - Edward Counsel

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us. - Marcel Proust

We must attain wisdom as we go upstairs, one step at a time. - Tske-Kung

What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees. - Sri Aurobindo

When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. - Issaac Asimov

When skies darken and clouds thunder, the wise would be well prepared before the rains plunder. - Unknown

When the interests of mankind are at stake, they will obey with joy the man whom they believe to be wiser than themselves. - Xenophon

When Reason died, then Wisdom was born. - Sri Aurobindo 

When you say one thing, the clever person understands three. - Chinese Proverb 

When wisdom leaves the house folly enters it. - Edward Counsel

Who consorts with the wise will wise become. - Menander

Who knows whence he comes, where he is, and whither he tends, he, and he alone, is wise. - Hohann Caspar Lavater

Whosoever would be wise, and consequently happy, must raze out of his mind all those false mistaken notions that have been imprinting there from his infancy; and endeavour to expel that pernicious infection of error, which it has been so long hatching from erroneous customs and examples, and, which will prove fatal to it, if too long neglected. - Wellins Calcott

Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry. - Samuel Smiles

Wisdom cannot be bought with money – it can only be acquired through living life. With wisdom comes strength, courage, knowing, and an ever increasing peace. - Rhonda Byme

Wisdom casts a more sparkling colour than the ruby, it makes us shine as angels. - Thomas Watson

Wisdom comes by disillusionment. - George Santayana  

Wisdom comes only through suffering. - Aeschylus 

Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions. - Echart Tolle 

Wisdom cometh by suffering. - Aeschylus

Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful. - Niccolo Machiavelli

Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do with your whole heart and delighting in doing it. - Meister Eckhart

Wisdom consists in rising superior both to madness and to common sense, and in lending oneself to the universal delusion without becoming its dupe. - Henri Frederic Amiel

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences. - Norman Cousins

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a colour. - Seneca

Wisdom doesn’t automatically come with old age. - Abigail Van Buren

Wisdom grows in quiet places. - Austin O’Malley

Wisdom is a right understanding, a faculty of discerning good from evil, what is to be chosen and what rejected; a judgment grounded upon the true value of things, and not the common opinion of them. - Wellins Calcott

Wisdom is a safe ship; and we may trust ourselves to it in all weathers. - Edward Counsel

Wisdom is easy to carry but difficult to gather. - Czech Proverb

Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one’s being. - Orison Swett Marden

Wisdom is learning what to overlook. - William James

Wisdom is mostly the fruit of experience. - Edward Counsel

Wisdom is not acquired save as the result of investigation. - Sankara Acharya

Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it. - Hermann Hesse

Wisdom is not learning merely; it is learning with ability and disposition to use it. - E. P. Day

Wisdom is not only realization of the self, it is also the best way to demonstrate the love of humanity. - Tseng-Tzu

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone. - Horace

Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar. - William Wordsworth 

Wisdom is supreme; therefore make a full effort to get wisdom. Esteem her and she will exalt you; embrace her and she will honour you. - Unknown

Wisdom is the never-failing granary of thought. - Edward counsel 

Wisdom is the only thing which can relieve us from the sway of the passions and the fear of danger, and which can teach us to bear the injuries of fortune itself with moderation, and which shows us all the ways which lead to tranquility and peace. - Cicero 

Wisdom is the olive that springeth from a heart, bloometh on the tongue, and beareth fruit in the actions. - Grymestone 

Wisdom is the perception of the unimportance of the things we call great, and of the importance of the things we call small. - Charles Edward Jerningham

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting, get understanding. - Unknown

Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it. - Doug Larson

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk. - Doug Larson

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. - Charles Haddon Spurgeo

Wisdom is to live in the present, plan for the future and profit from the past.  - Unknown

Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body. - La Rouchefoucauld

Wisdom is understanding when to ask questions. - Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

Wisdom never comes to those who believe they have nothing left to learn. - Charles de Lint

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents. - Kahlil Gibran

Wisdom teaches us to live content upon a bone gnawed bare. - Abraham Miller

Wisdom thoroughly learned, will never be forgotten. - Pythagoras

Wisdom's door is ever open. - Edward Counsel

Wise are those who learn that the bottom line does not always have to be their top priority. - Unknown

Wise is the man who says what needs to be said, but not all that could be said. - Marvin J. Ashton 

Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts, by nature. - Cicero

Wise men know each other. - Edward Counsel

Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise. - Unknown

Wise men, though all laws were abolished, would lead the same lives. - Aristophanes 

Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent. - Napoleon Hill

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. - Greek Proverb

You are a wise man today if you have learnt from yesterday’s blunders. - Unknown

You may not be too wise, but if you remain silent, you could fool a lot of people. - Unknown

You may not have very much sense. But if you have enough to keep your mouth shut and look wise, it will not be long before you acquire a wide reputation as a fountain of Wisdom. - Robert Elliot Gonzales