Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.

- Hoover, Herbert Clark

Best Quotes about Wisdom

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

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

Galbraith, John Kenneth

The ultimate wisdom which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls faith rather than reason.

Borland, Hal

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

Thurber, James

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

Aurelius, Marcus

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Cullen Hightower

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us, --something more than we could learn for ourselves, from a book.

Connolly, Cyril

10.

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

11.

Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.

Lee, Robert E.

12.

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

13.

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

14.

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

15.

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.

16.

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

Twain, Mark

17.

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

18.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

19.

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

Quintilian

20.

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

21.

Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, and integrated wholeness.

Covey, Stephen R.

22.

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

Confucius

23.

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

Saroyan, William

24.

If you wish to know the road up the mountain, ask the man who goes back and forth on it.

Zenrin

25.

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

Buddha

26.

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

Butler, Samuel

27.

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

Aristophanes

28.

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

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

29.

Wisdom overcomes fortune.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

30.

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

31.

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

Proverb, Chinese

32.

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

Bible

33.

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

34.

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty.

Clemenceau, Georges

35.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

36.

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

37.

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

Proverb, Turkish

38.

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

39.

In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.

Azai, Rabbi Ben

40.

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

41.

The foolish sayings of a rich man pass for wise ones.

Proverb, Spanish

42.

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

James Boswell

43.

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

44.

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

45.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Marilyn vos Savant

46.

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.

47.

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

48.

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

49.

What a wonderful world this would be if there were as many wise people as there are clever people.

50.

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

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von