Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

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

Best Quotes about Wisdom

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

Schopenhauer, Arthur

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 is meaningless until our own experience has given it meaning.

Evans, Bergen

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

Cocteau, Jean

It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.

Levenson, Samuel

Wisdom is knowledge, rightly applied.

The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.

Aurelius, Marcus

Action should culminate in wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita

It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

10.

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

Bible

11.

Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear.

Buddha

12.

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

13.

Wisdom overcomes fortune.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

14.

Some folks are wise and some otherwise.

Billings, Josh

15.

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

Garbutt, Frank

16.

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

Saroyan, William

17.

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be lead by the nose.

Twain, Mark

18.

Without wisdom, knowledge is more stupid than ignorance.

19.

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

Bible

20.

A nation's treasure is its scholars.

Proverb, Yiddish

21.

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Phaedrus

22.

The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.

Proverb, German

23.

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

Sophocles

24.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

25.

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

Fitzhenry, R. I.

26.

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.

27.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

28.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

29.

The wisest have the most authority.

Plato

30.

No man is wise enough by himself.

Titus Maccius Plautus

31.

Wisdom alone is the science of others sciences.

Plato

32.

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

Thurber, James

33.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Russell, Bertrand

34.

Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.

Cato The Elder

35.

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

36.

True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.

Bouton, E. S.

37.

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

Noll, Chuck

38.

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

Tolstoy, Count Leo

39.

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

Kraus, Karl

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Watson, Thomas J.

43.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life -- in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

Seneca

44.

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

45.

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

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

46.

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.

47.

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

48.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

49.

For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.

Bacon, Francis

50.

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