Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

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

Best Quotes about Wisdom

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Franklin, Benjamin

Asimov, Isaac

He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God.

Epictetus

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

Wisdom overcomes fortune.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

The wise man can pick up a grain of sand and envision a whole universe. But the stupid man will just lay down on some seaweed and roll around in it until he's completely draped in it. Then he'll stand up and go hey, I'm Vine Man.

Handey, Jack

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

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

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

Marx, Eleanor

10.

The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill temper.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

11.

Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.

Titus Maccius Plautus

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

15.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Socrates

16.

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

Noll, Chuck

17.

There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather.

Luther, Martin

18.

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

19.

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

Larson, Doug

20.

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

21.

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

Bible

22.

Wisdom is learning what to overlook.

James, William

23.

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

Bible

24.

Who is a wise man? He who learns of all men.

Talmud, The

25.

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

26.

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

Bible

27.

Wisdom is what's left after we've run out of personal opinions.

Cullen Hightower

28.

One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

29.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Bacon, Francis

30.

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

31.

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

Santayana, George

32.

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

Brecht, Bertolt

33.

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

34.

Some folks are wise and some otherwise.

Billings, Josh

35.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

36.

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

Garbutt, Frank

37.

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

Socrates

38.

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

Saroyan, William

39.

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

Thurber, James

40.

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

41.

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

42.

The wisest have the most authority.

Plato

43.

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

44.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

45.

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

46.

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

Fitzhenry, R. I.

47.

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

48.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

49.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

50.

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