Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

The wise man can pick up a grain of sand and envision a whole universe. But the stupid man will just lay down on some seaweed and roll around in it until he's completely draped in it. Then he'll stand up and go hey, I'm Vine Man.

- Handey, Jack

Best Quotes about Wisdom

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.

Shaw, George Bernard

No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us, --something more than we could learn for ourselves, from a book.

Connolly, Cyril

The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.

Smiles, Samuel

Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

Some folks are wise and some otherwise.

Billings, Josh

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. [1 Corinthians 3:18-19]

Bible

Even though you know a thousand things, ask the man who knows one.

Proverb, Turkish

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

10.

The wise man says it cannot be done, but the fool goes and does it.

11.

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

Socrates

12.

It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.

Levenson, Samuel

13.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

14.

Wisdom overcomes fortune.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

15.

The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. [Proverbs 15: 31]

Bible

16.

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

17.

Beauty is the wisdom of women. Wisdom is the beauty of men.

Proverb, Chinese

18.

Who is wise? One who learns from all.

Talmud, The

19.

There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather.

Luther, Martin

20.

The greatest event for the world is the arrival of a new and wise person.

Carlyle, Thomas

21.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Socrates

22.

Wisdom is knowledge, rightly applied.

23.

Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.

Titus Maccius Plautus

24.

By others faults the wise correct their own.

Proverb

25.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Franklin, Benjamin

26.

Timing, degree and conviction are the three wise men in this life.

Fitzhenry, R. I.

27.

Inner wisdom is more important than wealth. The more you spend it, the more you gain.

Oprah Winfrey

28.

One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

29.

More wisdom is latent in things as they are than in all the words men use.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

30.

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

James Boswell

31.

A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her.

Rowland, Helen

32.

Wisdom is meaningless until our own experience has given it meaning.

Evans, Bergen

33.

The foolish sayings of a rich man pass for wise ones.

Proverb, Spanish

34.

Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.

Watson, Thomas J.

35.

There often seems to be a playfulness to wise people, as if either their equanimity has as its source this playfulness or the playfulness flows from the equanimity; and they can persuade other people who are in a state of agitation to calm down and manage a smile.

Hoagland, Edward

36.

The wisdom of a learned man comet by opportunity of leisure: and he that hath little business shall become wise. [Ecclesiasticus 38:25]

Bible

37.

No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

Mencken, H. L.

38.

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.

Ziggy

39.

In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.

Azai, Rabbi Ben

40.

It is not white hair that engenders wisdom.

Menander

41.

Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.

Hoover, Herbert Clark

42.

No man is wise enough by himself.

Titus Maccius Plautus

43.

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

Confucius

44.

The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.

Gabirol, Ibn

45.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Gibran, Kahlil

46.

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil -- not the strength to choose between the two.

Cheever, John

47.

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.

Francis of Assisi, St.

48.

Through wisdom is a house built; and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge shall every room be filled with precious and pleasant riches.

Bible

49.

Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.

Elizabeth, Queen

50.

Great men are the commissioned guides of mankind, who rule their fellows because they are wiser.

Carlyle, Thomas