Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.

- Elizabeth, Queen

Best Quotes about 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

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

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Socrates

A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything

Proverb, African

A wise man thinks what is easy is difficult.

Collins, John Churton

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

Evans, Bergen

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

A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her.

Rowland, Helen

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

Quintilian

10.

The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.

Blake, William

11.

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

12.

The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. [Proverbs 15: 31]

Bible

13.

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

14.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

15.

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

16.

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

17.

The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

Blake, William

18.

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.

Horace

19.

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

23.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

24.

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

25.

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

Cato The Elder

26.

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

Proverb, Camerounian

27.

A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

28.

Wisdom is knowledge, rightly applied.

29.

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

30.

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

Oprah Winfrey

31.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

32.

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

33.

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

Galbraith, John Kenneth

34.

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

35.

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

Watson, Thomas J.

36.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

37.

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

38.

No man is wise enough by himself.

Titus Maccius Plautus

39.

Understanding the limitations of human beings as well as understanding your own is the beginning of true wisdom.

40.

Beauty is the wisdom of women. Wisdom is the beauty of men.

Proverb, Chinese

41.

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

42.

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

Epictetus

43.

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

44.

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

Kraus, Karl

45.

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty.

Clemenceau, Georges

46.

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

47.

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.