Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

- Socrates

Best Quotes about Wisdom

Look at those they call unfortunate and at a closer view, you'll find many of them are unwise.

Young, Andrew

The heart of the wise man lies quiet like limpid water.

Proverb, Camerounian

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

Cheever, John

Nine times out of ten it is over the Bridge of Sighs that we pass the narrow gulf from youth to manhood. That interval is usually marked by an ill placed or disappointed affection. We recover and we find ourselves a new being. The intellect has become hardened by the fire through which it has passed. The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Russell, Bertrand

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

Fitzhenry, R. I.

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

Pindar

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

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

10.

He swallowed a lot of wisdom, but all of it seems to have gone down the wrong way.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

11.

The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.

Gabirol, Ibn

12.

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

13.

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

Proverb, Turkish

14.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

15.

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

16.

If you wish to know the road up the mountain, ask the man who goes back and forth on it.

Zenrin

17.

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

18.

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all your getting get understanding.

Bible

19.

Wise are they who have learned these truths: Trouble is temporary. Time is a tonic. Tribulation is a test tube.

20.

Committing a great truth to memory is admirable; committing it to life is wisdom.

Ward, William A.

21.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

Immanuel Kant

22.

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

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

23.

Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.

Brecht, Bertolt

24.

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

Mencken, H. L.

25.

Wisdom is perishable. Unlike information or knowledge, it cannot be stored in a computer or recorded in a book. It expires with each passing generation.

Taylor, Sid

26.

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

Buddha

27.

For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.

Bacon, Francis

28.

The man who questions opinions is wise. The man who quarrels with facts is a fool.

Garbutt, Frank

29.

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

Thurber, James

30.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

31.

The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.

Proverb, German

32.

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

33.

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

Proverb, Chinese

34.

Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

Saroyan, William

35.

Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

36.

Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.

Euripides

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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

Socrates

40.

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

41.

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

Quintilian

42.

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

Bouton, E. S.

43.

By others faults the wise correct their own.

Proverb

44.

Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it.

Butler, Samuel

45.

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

Bible

46.

Wise men still seek Him today.

Bell, Dan

47.

Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech.

Evangel

48.

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

49.

The Universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson. The mountain teaches stability and grandeur; the ocean immensity and change. Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes, -- every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. Even the bee and ant have brought their little lessons of industry and economy.

Marden, Orison Swett

50.

The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.

Schopenhauer, Arthur