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 thinks what is easy is difficult.

Collins, John Churton

Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times.

Bible

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

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

Santayana, George

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

Kraus, Karl

We cannot advance without new experiments in living, but no wise man tries every day what he has proved wrong the day before.

Adams, James Truslow

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

Marx, Eleanor

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

Evangel

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

10.

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

Pindar

11.

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

12.

The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.

Boileau, Nicholas

13.

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

14.

The price of wisdom is eternal thought.

Birch, Frank

15.

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

Ward, William A.

16.

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

Proverb, Chinese

17.

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Phaedrus

18.

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

19.

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

Fitzhenry, R. I.

20.

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

Mencken, H. L.

21.

The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.

Proverb, German

22.

The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.

Gabirol, Ibn

23.

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

Oprah Winfrey

24.

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

Maeterlinck, Maurice

25.

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.

Ziggy

26.

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

Proverb, Camerounian

27.

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

Brecht, Bertolt

28.

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

29.

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

Noll, Chuck

30.

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

Saroyan, William

31.

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

Proverb, Turkish

32.

Wisdom overcomes fortune.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

33.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Gibran, Kahlil

34.

Great men are the commissioned guides of mankind, who rule their fellows because they are wiser.

Carlyle, Thomas

35.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

36.

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

37.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

38.

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

39.

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

40.

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

41.

Without wisdom, knowledge is more stupid than ignorance.

42.

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

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

43.

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

Quintilian

44.

Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.

Watson, Thomas J.