Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

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

Best Quotes about Wisdom

Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.

Elizabeth, Queen

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

Maeterlinck, Maurice

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

Evangel

The price of wisdom is eternal thought.

Birch, Frank

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Franklin, Benjamin

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

Santayana, George

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

10.

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

Proverb, Chinese

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.

The wisest have the most authority.

Plato

13.

Some folks are wise and some otherwise.

Billings, Josh

14.

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

15.

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

Basho, Matsuo

16.

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

Cato The Elder

17.

Wisdom overcomes fortune.

Juvenal, (Decimus Junius Juvenalis)

18.

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

19.

The heart of the wise man lies quiet like limpid water.

Proverb, Camerounian

20.

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

Evans, Bergen

21.

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

22.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

23.

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

Marx, Eleanor

24.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

25.

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

26.

A wise man thinks what is easy is difficult.

Collins, John Churton

27.

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

Bouton, E. S.

28.

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

Goldsmith, Oliver

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

Proverb, Turkish

32.

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

Marilyn vos Savant

33.

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

Confucius

34.

Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.

Hoover, Herbert Clark

35.

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil -- not the strength to choose between the two.

Cheever, John

36.

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

37.

The only one who is wiser than anyone is everyone.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

38.

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. [Proverbs 3:13-15]

Bible

39.

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

40.

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

Noll, Chuck

41.

Who is wise? One who learns from all.

Talmud, The

42.

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

43.

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

Quarles, Francis

44.

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

Twain, Mark

45.

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

46.

No man is wise enough by himself.

Titus Maccius Plautus

47.

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

Larson, Doug

48.

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

Bible

49.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Franklin, Benjamin

50.

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