Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

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

Best Quotes about Wisdom

A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top .

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

Noll, Chuck

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

Bible

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

Garbutt, Frank

No man is wise enough by himself.

Titus Maccius Plautus

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

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

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Socrates

Action should culminate in wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita

10.

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

11.

It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

12.

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

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

13.

Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.

Titus Maccius Plautus

14.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know -- and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It is better to know -- even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction -- than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder. That was the choice of Achilles, and it is mine, too.

Asimov, Isaac

15.

When you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion alike, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end, and you life in the wisdom of the Self.

Bhagavad Gita

16.

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

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

17.

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

18.

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

Bible

19.

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

20.

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.

21.

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

Bible

22.

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

23.

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

Azai, Rabbi Ben

24.

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

25.

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

Socrates

26.

Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times.

Bible

27.

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

Proverb, Spanish

28.

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

Fitzhenry, R. I.

29.

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

30.

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

Bible

31.

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.

32.

Who is wise? One who learns from all.

Talmud, The

33.

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

Chaucer, Geoffrey

34.

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

35.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

36.

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

37.

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

Quintilian

38.

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

39.

Wisdom overcomes fortune.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

40.

We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

41.

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

Basho, Matsuo

42.

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

Cocteau, Jean

43.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

44.

The only thing that we know is that we know nothing and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.

Tolstoy, Count Leo

45.

Wisdom is knowledge, rightly applied.

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 is nothing more than healed pain.

Lee, Robert E.

48.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

49.

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

50.

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