Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

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

Best Quotes about Wisdom

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

Basho, Matsuo

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

Bible

Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.

Goldsmith, Oliver

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

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

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

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

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

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

Buddha

10.

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

Maeterlinck, Maurice

11.

Wisdom is not finally tested in the schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.

Walt Whitman

12.

The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.

Gabirol, Ibn

13.

The extreme limit of wisdom --that's what the public calls madness.

Cocteau, Jean

14.

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Phaedrus

15.

It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

16.

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

Quintilian

17.

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

Aurelius, Marcus

18.

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

Proverb, Chinese

19.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

20.

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

Ziggy

21.

The live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.

Bhagavad Gita

22.

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

23.

A nation's treasure is its scholars.

Proverb, Yiddish

24.

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

25.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

26.

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.

27.

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

Evans, Bergen

28.

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

29.

It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.

Quinault, Philippe

30.

The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.

Blake, William

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Buddha

34.

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

35.

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

Marx, Eleanor

36.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Bacon, Francis

37.

Wisdom overcomes fortune.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

38.

It is not white hair that engenders wisdom.

Menander

39.

Wisdom alone is the science of others sciences.

Plato

40.

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.

41.

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

Bible

42.

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

Proverb, Spanish

43.

Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.

Euripides

44.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

Immanuel Kant

45.

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

Bible

46.

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

47.

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

Watson, Thomas J.

48.

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

49.

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

Tolstoy, Count Leo

50.

Wise men still seek Him today.

Bell, Dan