Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

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

Best Quotes about Wisdom

They would need to be already wise, in order to love wisdom.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

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

Socrates

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

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

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

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

Azai, Rabbi Ben

The end result of wisdom is... good deeds.

Talmud, The

Without wisdom, knowledge is more stupid than ignorance.

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

Butler, Samuel

10.

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

11.

Now all the knowledge and wisdom that is in creatures, whether angels or men, is nothing else but a participation of that one eternal, immutable and increased wisdom of God, or several signatures of that one archetypal seal, or like so many multiplied reflections of one and the same face, made in several glasses, whereof some are clearer, some obscurer, some standing nearer, some further off.

Cudworth, Ralph J.

12.

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

Chaucer, Geoffrey

13.

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

14.

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

15.

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

Sophocles

16.

Action should culminate in wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita

17.

Wise men still seek Him today.

Bell, Dan

18.

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

19.

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

Cocteau, Jean

20.

Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.

Freud, Sigmund

21.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Russell, Bertrand

22.

Wisdom hath her excesses, and no less need of moderation than folly.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

23.

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

24.

This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

25.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.

Basho, Matsuo

26.

The live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.

Bhagavad Gita

27.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

28.

The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. [Psalms 19:7]

Bible

29.

What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all the man hath, his house, his wife, his children.

Blake, William

30.

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

31.

No man is wise enough by himself.

Titus Maccius Plautus

32.

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

33.

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

34.

Kings may be judges of the earth, but wise men are the judges of kings.

Gabirol, Ibn

35.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

36.

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

37.

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.

38.

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd preferred to talk.

Larson, Doug

39.

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

40.

Socrates

41.

Wisdom is knowledge, rightly applied.

42.

By the time your life is finished, you will have learned just enough to begin it well.

Marx, Eleanor

43.

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

Bible

44.

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

Young, Andrew

45.

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.

46.

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

47.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

48.

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

Marilyn vos Savant

49.

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

Garbutt, Frank

50.

Wisdom is not finally tested in the schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.

Walt Whitman