Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

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

Best Quotes about Wisdom

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

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times.

Bible

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

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

Cato The Elder

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.

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

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

Buddha

Without wisdom, knowledge is more stupid than ignorance.

10.

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

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 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

13.

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

Pindar

14.

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

Aristophanes

15.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

16.

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

17.

Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.

Lee, Robert E.

18.

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

Garbutt, Frank

19.

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

Bible

20.

A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top .

21.

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

22.

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

Azai, Rabbi Ben

23.

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

24.

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

Quintilian

25.

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

Butler, Samuel

26.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

27.

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

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.

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

31.

The end result of wisdom is... good deeds.

Talmud, The

32.

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Phaedrus

33.

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

Evans, Bergen

34.

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

Bouton, E. S.

35.

Some folks are wise and some otherwise.

Billings, Josh

36.

Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.

Euripides

37.

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

Bible

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.

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

40.

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

Cullen Hightower

41.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.

Basho, Matsuo

42.

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

43.

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

Watson, Thomas J.

44.

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

Gabirol, Ibn

45.

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

Marilyn vos Savant

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

Proverb, Turkish

49.

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

Twain, Mark

50.

The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.

Boileau, Nicholas