Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

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

Best Quotes about Wisdom

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

Bible

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

Levenson, Samuel

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

Action should culminate in wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

Santayana, George

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Bacon, Francis

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

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

Pindar

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

Larson, Doug

10.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

11.

Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

12.

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

Tolstoy, Count Leo

13.

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

Proverb, Chinese

14.

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

Proverb, Chinese

15.

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

Bible

16.

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

Ward, William A.

17.

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

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

18.

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

19.

He swallowed a lot of wisdom, but all of it seems to have gone down the wrong way.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

20.

Kings may be judges of the earth, but wise men are the judges of kings.

Gabirol, Ibn

21.

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.

Francis of Assisi, St.

22.

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

23.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Franklin, Benjamin

24.

Who is wise? One who learns from all.

Talmud, The

25.

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

Evans, Bergen

26.

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

27.

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

28.

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Phaedrus

29.

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

30.

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

31.

Wise care keeps what it has gained.

Proverb, Danish

32.

Wisdom alone is the science of others sciences.

Plato

33.

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.

Aristophanes

34.

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

Marcel Proust

35.

It is not white hair that engenders wisdom.

Menander

36.

Without wisdom, knowledge is more stupid than ignorance.

37.

Wise men still seek Him today.

Bell, Dan

38.

Wisdom is knowledge, rightly applied.

39.

The price of wisdom is eternal thought.

Birch, Frank

40.

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

41.

This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

42.

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

Noll, Chuck

43.

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

44.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Franklin, Benjamin

45.

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

46.

Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it.

Butler, Samuel

47.

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

48.

Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.

Euripides

49.

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

50.

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