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

No man is wise enough by himself.

Titus Maccius Plautus

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

Aristophanes

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

Confucius

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

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

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

Action should culminate in wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita

It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.

Levenson, Samuel

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

Marilyn vos Savant

10.

The price of wisdom is eternal thought.

Birch, Frank

11.

Committing a great truth to memory is admirable; committing it to life is wisdom.

Ward, William A.

12.

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

13.

The wisest have the most authority.

Plato

14.

Wisdom is learning what to overlook.

James, William

15.

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

Cato The Elder

16.

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

Young, Andrew

17.

By others faults the wise correct their own.

Proverb

18.

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

19.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

20.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Socrates

21.

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

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

22.

Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.

Brecht, Bertolt

23.

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

24.

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

Buddha

25.

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

26.

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

Fitzhenry, R. I.

27.

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

Proverb, Chinese

28.

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

Proverb, Turkish

29.

Great men are the commissioned guides of mankind, who rule their fellows because they are wiser.

Carlyle, Thomas

30.

Wise care keeps what it has gained.

Proverb, Danish

31.

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

32.

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

Cocteau, Jean

33.

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

34.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Franklin, Benjamin

35.

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

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

36.

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

Mencken, H. L.

37.

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

Tolstoy, Count Leo

38.

Inner wisdom is more important than wealth. The more you spend it, the more you gain.

Oprah Winfrey

39.

Wisdom is knowledge, rightly applied.

40.

Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.

Kraus, Karl

41.

Who is a wise man? He who learns of all men.

Talmud, The

42.

There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather.

Luther, Martin

43.

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

Larson, Doug

44.

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

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

45.

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

46.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Russell, Bertrand

47.

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Phaedrus

48.

Who is wise? One who learns from all.

Talmud, The

49.

We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.