Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

- Plautus, Titus Maccius

Best Quotes about Wisdom

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be lead by the nose.

Twain, Mark

A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything

Proverb, African

What a wonderful world this would be if there were as many wise people as there are clever people.

The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.

Colton, Charles Caleb

Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.

Cato The Elder

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

Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.

Edmund Burke

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month's study of books.

Proverb, Chinese

10.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Marilyn vos Savant

11.

Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear.

Buddha

12.

There is a time when a man distinguishes the idea of felicity from the idea of wealth; it is the beginning of wisdom.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

13.

By others faults the wise correct their own.

Proverb

14.

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

15.

Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, and integrated wholeness.

Covey, Stephen R.

16.

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

17.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Socrates

18.

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

19.

The days that are still to come are the wisest witnesses.

Pindar

20.

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

Evans, Bergen

21.

It seems to me that, in every culture, I come across a chapter headed Wisdom. And then I know exactly what is going to follow: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

22.

A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning.

Noll, Chuck

23.

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. [Proverbs 3:13-15]

Bible

24.

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

25.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Franklin, Benjamin

26.

A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

27.

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

Bible

28.

A wise man thinks what is easy is difficult.

Collins, John Churton

29.

I have known it for a long time but I have only just experienced it. Now I know it not only with my intellect, but with my eyes, with my heart, with my stomach.

Hesse, Hermann

30.

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

31.

Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

32.

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

33.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Nietzsche, Friedrich

34.

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

35.

A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make sense.

Thurber, James

36.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

37.

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

Quintilian

38.

It is not from reason that justice springs, but goodness is born of wisdom.

Maeterlinck, Maurice

39.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war. [9:18b, Ecclesiastes]

Bible

40.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

41.

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

Cocteau, Jean

42.

We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

43.

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

44.

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

Elizabeth, Queen

45.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Franklin, Benjamin

46.

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty.

Clemenceau, Georges

47.

Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.

Goldsmith, Oliver

48.

Who is a wise man? He who learns of all men.

Talmud, The

49.

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

Fitzhenry, R. I.

50.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.

Coolidge, Calvin