Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

- Sophocles

Best Quotes about Wisdom

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

Chaucer, Geoffrey

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

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

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

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

A nation's treasure is its scholars.

Proverb, Yiddish

The wisest have the most authority.

Plato

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

Santayana, George

Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.

Hoover, Herbert Clark

10.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Franklin, Benjamin

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.

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.

Aristophanes

13.

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

Quintilian

14.

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

15.

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

Marx, Eleanor

16.

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

17.

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

Pindar

18.

A wise man thinks what is easy is difficult.

Collins, John Churton

19.

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

20.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

21.

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.

22.

Action should culminate in wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita

23.

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

Cocteau, Jean

24.

Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it.

Robbie Gass

25.

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

26.

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Phaedrus

27.

As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.

Buddha

28.

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

29.

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

Bible

30.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

31.

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

32.

Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.

Kraus, Karl

33.

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

34.

A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything

Proverb, African

35.

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

36.

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

37.

If I don't have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.

Buscaglia, Leo

38.

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

39.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

40.

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

Oprah Winfrey

41.

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

Bible

42.

The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.

Proverb, German

43.

The wisdom of others remains dull till it is writ over with our own blood. We are essentially apart from the world; it bursts into our consciousness only when it sinks its teeth and nails into us.

Hoffer, Eric

44.

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

Proverb, Turkish

45.

Wise care keeps what it has gained.

Proverb, Danish

46.

The greatest wisdom is to realize one's lack of it

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

47.

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