Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

By the time your life is finished, you will have learned just enough to begin it well.

- Marx, Eleanor

Best Quotes about Wisdom

1.

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

2.

It is not from reason that justice springs, but goodness is born of wisdom.

Maeterlinck, Maurice

3.

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

Bouton, E. S.

4.

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

5.

One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

6.

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.

Horace

7.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Socrates

8.

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

Marilyn vos Savant

9.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war. [9:18b, Ecclesiastes]

Bible

10.

As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.

Buddha

11.

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

Tolstoy, Count Leo

12.

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

Bible

13.

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

Fitzhenry, R. I.

14.

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

15.

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

16.

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.

Ziggy

17.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Russell, Bertrand

18.

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

19.

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

Zenrin

20.

Who is wise? One who learns from all.

Talmud, The

21.

No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

Mencken, H. L.

22.

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

Epictetus

23.

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

Santayana, George

24.

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

Sophocles

25.

Look at those they call unfortunate and at a closer view, you'll find many of them are unwise.

Young, Andrew

26.

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

27.

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

28.

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

29.

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

Thurber, James

30.

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

31.

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.

32.

Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.

Edmund Burke

33.

Some folks are wise and some otherwise.

Billings, Josh

34.

Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech.

Evangel

35.

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

36.

The wise man says it cannot be done, but the fool goes and does it.

37.

Action should culminate in wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita

38.

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.

39.

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

40.

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

41.

Many people might have attained wisdom had they not assumed they already had it.

42.

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

Pindar

43.

The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.

Proverb, German

44.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

45.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

46.

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

47.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

48.

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

Proverb, Spanish

49.

Wise care keeps what it has gained.

Proverb, Danish

50.

Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.