Wisdom Quotes

Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut, that held its ground. – David Icke

Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live. – Robert Kennedy

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being. – Goethe

Trouble shared is trouble halved. – Lee Iacocca

True freedom is an inner thing. It is a state of mind. It is a deliberate exercise of choice. Thus, if we think we are bound by external forces, we are deceiving ourselves. It is our willing acquiescence to these outer demands that imprisons. Free yourself today. Take control of your thoughts. No day is so bad it can’t be fixed with a nap. Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.I often regret that I have spoken; never that I am silent. – Publilius Syrus

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. – Socrates

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us. – Socrates

True wisdom is knowing what you don’t know. – Confucius

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance. – Akhenaton

True wisdom is not found in yes-or-no answers, but in the open mind of not-knowing. – Melvin McLeod

True wisdom is remembering that in the end, no matter what, everything will be fine. – Maxime Lagacé

True wisdom listens more, talks less and can get along with all types of people. – Kiana Tom

Truth builds trust. – Marilyn Suttle

Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things. – Isaac Newton

Turn your wounds into wisdom. – Oprah Winfrey

Uncertainty is the root of all progress and all growth. We cannot learn anything without first not knowing something. – Mark Manson

Unhappy is that Grandeur which makes us too great to be good; and that Wit which sets us at a distance from true Wisdom. – Mary Astell

Unless, we value wisdom, we are bound to suffer many things that we were never meant to suffer. – Kilton Moyo

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. – Albert Einstein

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters. – African Proverb

Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. – Henry Van Dyke

Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense. – Julian Casablancas

Virtue has a veil, vice a mask. – Victor Hugo

Virtues are acquired through endeavor, which rests wholly upon yourself. – Sidney Lanier

War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes. – Thomas Paine

Was not this … what we spoke of as the great advantage of wisdom — to know what is known and what is unknown to us? – Plato

We all admire the wisdom of people who come to us for advice. – Arthur Helps

We all fall into biological and mental habits. It’s an easy way for us to navigate day-to-day work and life, but it also doesn’t do us any favours in terms of growing into wisdom, growing into a greater understanding of each other, growing into a deeper relationship – all the things that we really crave. – Genesis P-Orridge

We all grow up. Hopefully, we get wiser. Age brings wisdom, and fatherhood changes one’s life completely. – Frank Abagnale

We all have within us a deep wisdom, but sometimes we don’t know we have it. – Shakti Gawain

We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely. – E. O. Wilson

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. – George Bernard Shaw

We are shallow because we are ‘mayabang,’ ego driven, and do not have the humility to understand that we are only human, much too human to mistake knowledge for wisdom. – Sionil Jose

We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far. – Swami Vivekananda

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle

We are wiser than we know. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right. – Seneca

We believe in the wisdom of the front lines. – Charles Best

We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men’s wisdom. – Michel de Montaigne

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom. – Leo Tolstoy

We can stay young by focusing on a dream instead of on a regret. It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older one climbs with surprising strides. – George Sand

We can’t really digest food unless there’s hunger. So we can’t really assimilate spiritual wisdom unless we feel the need for it. – Radhanath Swami

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. – Max de Pree

We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. – Ben Sweetland

We can’t really digest food unless there’s hunger. So we can’t really assimilate spiritual wisdom unless we feel the need for it. – Radhanath Swami

We do not sit as a superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation. – William O. Douglas

We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us. – Marcel Proust

We dwell in the house of the body, but its perfection and intricate life are the work of a wisdom which never relaxes dominion over a single cell. – George William Russell

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already. – Georg C. Lichtenberg

We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal. – Thich Nhat Hanh

We know there is a deep reservoir of food wisdom out there, or else humans would not have survived to the extent we have. Much of this food wisdom is worth preserving and reviving and heeding. – Michael Pollan

We learn from each other. We learn from others’ mistakes, from their experience, their wisdom. It makes it easier for us to come to better decisions in our own lives. – Adrian Grenier

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery. – Samuel Smiles

We learned in World War II that no single nation holds a monopoly on wisdom, morality or right to power, but that we must fight for the weak and promote democracy. – Joe Baca

We live in a culture that doesn’t acknowledge or validate human intuition and doesn’t encourage us to rely on our intuitive wisdom. – Shakti Gawain

We must attain wisdom as we go up stairs, one step at a time. – Tsze-kung

We must be willing to let goof the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. – E. M. Forester

We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters. – Robert E. Lee

We must learn from the sermons of Christ, the wisdom of Lao Tzu, the teachings of Buddha. – Charles Lindbergh

We need to hear stories from older women. There’s a wealth of wisdom and real resilience there, but they’re silenced. – Hannah Gadsby

We never have more than we can bear. The present hour we are always able to endure. – H. E. Manning

We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it. – James M. Barrie

We respect our elders. There is wisdom that comes from experience, and I am not going to stop learning from wise counsel. – Marcia Fudge

We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t. Success often lies just the other side of failure. – Leo Buscaglia

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. – Mother Teresa

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started. – Henry Ward Beecher

We simply can no longer afford to deny the full potential of one half of the population. The world needs to tap into the talent and wisdom of women. Whether the issue is food security, economic recovery, health, or peace and security, the participation of women is needed now more than ever. – Michelle Bachelet

We tend to think of great thinkers and innovators as soloists, but the truth is that the greatest innovative thinking doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Innovation results from collaboration. – John C. Maxwell

We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom. – Stephen Vincent Benet

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave. – Dakota (Native American saying)

We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment. – Margaret Mead

We’re all going to change. Otherwise, it’s boring. – Alicia Keys

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. – Epictetus

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. – Henry David Thoreau

We’ve heard people say that teachers have no business going rogue and trying to select their own books, technology, and classes – and citizens have no business deciding what is worthy. We believe in teachers. We believe in the wisdom of the crowd. – Charles Best

What a new face courage puts on everything. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens. – Ellen Glasgow

What I like about graduation speeches is that they’re an opportunity for someone to make sense of their life and to impart that wisdom to someone else. It’s like a sanctioned self-help moment. – Bruce Eric Kaplan

What I want to do with my filmmaking is help kids experience the truth and wisdom of nature no matter where they are, whether or not they have the opportunity to go to a national park. – Louie Schwartzberg

What if Barack Obama established a Presidential Advisory Committee that would meet once every couple of months, bringing together the former presidents for a conference in order to seek their collective wisdom? There is a wealth of experience in former presidents that generally goes untapped. – Tony Campolo

What if, for starters, instead of constantly trying to prove how much smarter we are than others, we look for the intelligence in what others do. – Neil Strauss

What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes? – Norman Douglas

What is man’s ultimate direction in life? It is to look for love, truth, virtue, and beauty. – Shinichi Suzuki

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. – William Blake

What I’ve been able to do with my character, Madea, and the other characters, with the jokes, is use it as an anesthetic to get to the heart and soul of real issues. And what I’ve found on stage over the years is that, while making people laugh, I can drop in pearls of wisdom. – Tyler Perry

What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely. From an acting point of view, that’s how I approached the part. – Christopher Reeve

What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away. – Henry Ward Beecher

What we need and have not got at Westminster are real experience and wisdom, possessed by people who do not view politics as a career. – Peter Hitchens

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

What you do and say lives on in the hearts and minds of others, to some degree, with a definite result or consequence. – Charles F. Stanley

What you think of yourself is much more important than what others think of you.– Seneca

Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues – of my comrades in the movement – who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me. – Nelson Mandela

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you. – John Wooden

When a thing is done, it’s done. Don’t look back. Look forward to your next objective. – George C. Marshall

When an opponent comes forward, move in and greet him; if he wants to pull back, send him on his way. – Morihei Ueshiba

When anger enters the mind, wisdom departs. – Thomas A Kempis

When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield. – Quintilian

When faced with a crisis, winners not only work on resolving it, but try to find something beneficial in the situation. In the midst of chaos, they manage to discover that fine vein of positive thinking that can lead to new chances for success. – Dr. Irene C. Kassorla

When I can look life in the eyes, grown calm and very coldly wise, life will have given me the truth, and taken in exchange – my youth. – Sara Teasdale

When I rather guiltily read the books on which the TV series ‘Game Of Thrones’ is based, I was struck by one thing. The whole point of this saga is that ruthlessness pays, that evil generally wins, that justice is non-existent, and utter cynicism the only wisdom. It is the Middle Ages without the saving grace of Christianity. – Peter Hitchens

When I was born, the wisdom was that homosexuality was an illness; that it was caused largely by somebody’s mother, and a distorted relationship with the mother. And now, as I live my life – married to a husband, with kids – it’s an identity. – Andrew Solomon

When I wrote Living in the Light, I wanted to share about how I live my own life and to encourage people to tap into their own inner wisdom. – Shakti Gawain

When in doubt, don’t. – Benjamin Franklin

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. – Confucius

When looking for wise words, the best ones often come from our elders. – Catherine Pulsifer

When nobody around you seems to measure up, it’s time to check your yardstick. – Bill Lemley

When our imperfect judgments are aggregated in the right way, our collective intelligence is often excellent. – James Surowiecki

When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. – Isaac Asimov

When spirituality is the basis of your life, it gives you the strength, wisdom and courage to surmount the many storms of life that could destroy a weaker person who doesn’t have this foundation. – Radhanath Swami

When the interests of mankind are at stake, they will obey with joy the man whom they believe to be wiser than themselves. – Xenophon

When we contend, let us contend for all our rights – the doubtful and the certain, the unimportant and essential. It is as easy to contend, or even more so, for the whole as for a part. At the termination of the contest, secure all that our wisdom and valour and the fortune of war will permit. – John C. Calhoun

When we ignore wisdom, we then embrace foolishness. – Kilton Moyo

When we looked at the life cycle in our 40s, we looked to old people for wisdom. At 80, though, we look at other 80-year-olds to see who got wise and who not. Lots of old people don’t get wise, but you don’t get wise unless you age. – Erik Erikson

When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. – John F. Kennedy

When you are in conversation with other people, choose your words wisely. Your words have great power and you should be aware of this. – Daniel Smith

When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself. – Isaac Bashevis Singer

When you doubt, abstain. – Ambrose Bierce

When you experience difficulty at work or in your life, instead of looking back on it as something that was really challenging, look at it and ask yourself, ‘What wisdom did I learn from that?’ – Caroline Ghosn

When you get older, you learn certain life lessons. You apply that wisdom, and suddenly you say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a new lease on this thing. So let’s go.’ – Robert Redford

When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist. – Archbishop Helder Camara

When you give yourself, you receive more than you give. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

When you have success, be extra wary. When you are angry, take no action. When you are fearful, know you are going to exaggerate the dangers you face. – Robert Greene

When you say one thing, the clever person understands three. – Chinese Proverb

When you’re dealing with people who are offensive and irritating, you need to look past their behavior to their pain. When people are hurting others, it’s because they’re hurting on the inside. – Rick Warren

When you’re young, you wonder what all these old people are droning on about, trying to impart their wisdom. It’s not relevant to you because being young is such a specific thing. Thank God for that. Thank God for the young people who go out and demonstrate against rampant capitalism or whatever. – Helen Mirren

Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance. – Saadi

Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. – Mark Twain

Where can we find greater structural clarity than in the wooden buildings of old? Where else can we find such unity of material, construction and form? here, the wisdom of whole generations is stored. – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Where fear is present, wisdom cannot be. – Lactantius

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?” – Kahlil Gibran

Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? – S. Eliot

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. – Francis of Assisi

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge. – Leonardo da Vinci

Whether the aim is in heaven or on earth, wisdom or wealth, the essential condition of its pursuit and attainment is always security and order. – Johan Huizinga

Which way you choose to see your life in the future depends on your attitude today. – Amy E. Dean

While I have no empirical evidence to back this up, I bet that the number of homosexual people per thousand has not fluctuated all that much over the centuries. I do not believe the dented wisdom my father used to extol, that homosexuality was a sure sign of a civilization in decline. – Henry Rollins

While people are quick to praise the wisdom of the crowd, being an old-school journalist, I look at the wisdom of the crowd and know it can quickly turn into a mob mentality. – Jason Calacanis

While planning for the future is a worthy endeavour, you have to also enjoy the moment and cultivate the of deciding when to toggle between present and future from the experiences of the past. – Brian Maddox

Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother. – Erma Bombeck

Who is the wise man? He who sees what’s going to be born. – King Solomon

Who is wise in love, love most, say least. – Alfred Lord Tennyson

Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody. – Benjamin Franklin

Who knows whence he comes, where he is, and whither he tends, he, and he alone, is wise. – Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself. – Horace Mann

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. – Friedrich Nietzche

Whosoever would be wise, and consequently happy, must raze out of his mind all those false mistaken notions that have been imprinting there from his infancy; and endeavour to expel that pernicious infection of error, which it has been so long hatching from erroneous customs and examples, and, which will prove fatal to it, if too long neglected. – Wellins Calcott

Why would anyone walk through life satisfied with the light from the candle of their own understanding when, by reaching out to our Heavenly Father, they could experience the bright sun of spiritual knowledge that would expand their minds with wisdom and fill their souls with joy? – Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Wise it is to comprehend the whole. – Edward Young

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one. – Diogenes

Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts, by nature. – Marcus Tullius

Wise men are not always silent, but they know when to be. – Anonymous

Wise men make more opportunities than they find. – Francis Bacon

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. – Plato

Wise men, though all laws were abolished, would lead the same lives. – Aristophanes

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

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away. – Arthur Helps

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground. – Arthur Helps

Wit and playfulness represent a desperately serious transcendence of evil. Humor is both a form of wisdom and a means of survival. – Tom Robbins

With age comes common sense and wisdom. – Nas

With age comes wisdom and a high sex drive. And the wisdom to enjoy it. – Amber Valletta

With age comes wisdom. – Sreesanth

With pride, there are many curses. With humility, there come many blessings. – Ezra Taft Benson

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit. – Baltasar Gracian

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. – Benjamin Franklin

Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose. – Herbie Hancock

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience. – L. Mencken

Women are stronger than men – they do not die of wisdom. – James Stephens

Women’s strength, women’s industry, women’s wisdom are humankind’s greatest untapped resource. The challenge then for U.N. Women is to show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all. – Michelle Bachelet

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. – Socrates

Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching. – Satchel Paige

Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. – Hal Borland

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God’s gift, that’s why we call it the present. – Joan Rivers

You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear. – Sammy Davis, Jr.

You are a citizen of the world, and when you stop the labeling process you will begin to see God in every garden, every forest, every home, every creature, and every person, and inner peace will be your reward. – Wayne W. Dyer

You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success – or are they holding you back? – Clement Stone

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. – John Heywood

You can never plan the future by the past. – Edmund Burke

You can observe a lot by watching. – Yogi Berra

You can only apprehend the Infinite by a faculty that is superior to reason. – Plotinus

You can only die once. – Portuguese Proverb

You can only learn so much from books. You can only learn so much from education. Ultimately, it is the wisdom of God that will carry you through in the toughest situations of life. – Ravi Zacharias

You can only make sense of the online world by going offline and by getting the wisdom and emotional clarity to know how to make the best use of the Internet. – Pico Iyer

You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can’t practice to attain wisdom. – Herbie Hancock

You can’t be wise and in love at the same time. – Bob Dylan

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself. – Galileo Galilei

You can’t sweep other people off their feet, if you can’t be swept off your own. – Clarence Day

You have a gift that only you can give the world – that’s the whole reason you’re on the planet. Use your precious energy to build a magnificent life that really is attainable. The miracle of your existence calls for celebration every day.– Oprah

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. – Marcus Aurelius

You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out. – Steve Jobs

You have to find out what’s right for you, so it’s trial and error. You are going to be all right if you accept realistic goals for yourself. – Teri Garr

You have to know when to stop – that’s wisdom. – Hubert de Givenchy

You have to take the bitter with the sweet. – Anonymous

You know the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing you don’t put tomato in a fruit salad. – Gene Kesselman

You lose or you win the fight – and anything in life – in your mind. I can look at how the person walks, how he speaks, his expressions. It’s a wisdom. Eyes are the mirror of the soul. So you can read a lot. – Wladimir Klitschko

You may not have very much sense. But if you have enough to keep your mouth shut and look wise, it will not be long before you acquire a wide reputation as a fountain of Wisdom. – Robert Elliott Gonzales

You must accept responsibility for your actions, but not the credit for your achievements. – Denis Waitley

You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens. – Ethel Barrymore

You should never ask a horse or an actor to do something they cannot do. Wisdom will teach you to find out what they can do and then make it easy for them. – Tommy Lee Jones

You want people walking away from the conversation with some kernel of wisdom or some kind of impact. – Harry Dean Stanton

Young people, you need the wisdom of age, just as some of us older ones need your enthusiasm for life. – Ezra Taft Benson

Your art kind of changes as you get older, by nature of the fact that you’re hopefully gaining wisdom and you’re starting to watch things with a better overview. – Sheryl Crow

Your key to freedom lies in your power to control your thoughts. To teach is to touch a life forever. Put your interest in the future, because you’re going to spend the rest of your life there. Reflective thinking turns experience into insight. – John Maxwell

Your law may be perfect, your knowledge of human affairs may be such as to enable you to apply it with wisdom and skill, and yet without individual acquaintance with men, their haunts and habits, the pursuit of the profession becomes difficult, slow, and expensive. – William Dunbar

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again. – Joseph Campbell

Your task is to build a better world, God said. I answered, How? This world is such a large, vast place, and there’s nothing I can do that seems to matter. But God in all His wisdom said, just build a better you. – Anonymous

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is. – Will Rogers

You’ve heard that it’s wise to learn from experience, but it is wiser to learn from the experience of others. – Rick Warren

Wisdom Quotes

Wisdom Quotes From Wikiquote

Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.
- Peter Abelard (1079–1142) Sic et Non, Prologus; translation from Frank Pierrepont Graves A History of Education During the Middle Ages and the Transition to Modern Times ([1918] 2005) p. 53.

Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field.
- Isaac Asimov, The Roving Mind (1983), Ch. 25

For many of my years — perhaps twelve — had passed away since my nineteenth, when, upon the reading of Cicero’s Hortensius, I was roused to a desire for wisdom. And here I was, still postponing the abandonment of this world’s happiness to devote myself to the search. For not just the finding alone, but also the bare search for it, ought to have been preferred above the treasures and kingdoms of this world; better than all bodily pleasures, though they were to be had for the taking.
- Augustine, Confessions, A. Outler, trans. (Dover: 2002), Book 8, Chapter 7, p. 139

A fence to wisdom is silence.
- Akiba ben Joseph Pirkei Avot, 3:17

Wisdom is the science of the spirit, just as knowledge is the science of matter. Knowledge is separative and objective, whilst wisdom is synthetic and subjective. Knowledge divides; wisdom unites. Knowledge differentiates whilst wisdom blends.
- Alice Bailey Initiation, Human & Solar, Lucis Publishing (1922)

Wisdom concerns the one Self, knowledge deals with the not-self whilst the understanding is the point of view of the Ego [soul or higher self], or Thinker, or his relation between them.
- Alice Bailey Initiation, Human & Solar, Lucis Publishing (1922)

Wisdom, actuated and motivated by love, and intelligently applied to world problems, is much needed today… Many more must love with wisdom, and appreciate the group aspiration, before we shall see the next reality to be known and to emerge out of the darkness which we are now in the process of dispelling.
- Alice Bailey Esoteric Psychology, Vol. 1: A Treatise on the Seven Rays, Lucis Publishing (1936)

The storyteller is a man who has counsel for his readers. But if today “having counsel” is beginning to have an old-fashioned ring, this is because the communicability of experience is decreasing. In consequence we have no counsel either for ourselves or for others. After all, counsel is less an answer to a question than a proposal concerning the continuation of a story which is just unfolding. To seek this counsel one would first have to be able to tell the story. … Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom. The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.
- Walter Benjamin, “The Storyteller”

Do not go by revelation;
Do not go by tradition;
Do not go by hearsay;
Do not go on the authority of sacred texts;
Do not go on the grounds of pure logic;
Do not go by a view that seems rational;
Do not go by reflecting on mere appearances;
Do not go along with a considered view because you agree with it;
Do not go along on the grounds that the person is competent;
Do not go along because “the recluse is our teacher.”
Kalamas, when you yourselves know: These things are unwholesome, these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; and when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill, abandon them…
Kalamas, when you know for yourselves: These are wholesome; these things are not blameworthy; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness, having undertaken them, abide in them.
- Gautama Buddha, Kalama Sutta – Angutarra Nikaya 3.65

Wisdom is purified by morality, and morality is purified by wisdom: where one is, the other is, the moral man has wisdom and the wise man has morality, and the combination of morality and wisdom is called the highest thing in the world.
- Gautama Buddha, Digha Nikaya, M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 4 (Sonadanda Sutta), verse 22, p. 131

But these are foolish things to all the wise,
And I love wisdom more than she loves me;
My tendency is to philosophise
On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;
But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies,
What are we? and whence come we? what shall be
Our ultimate existence? What’s our present?
Are questions answerless, and yet incessant.
- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto VI, Stanza 63

If you look incessantly for variety, sooner or later you will discover that you need more wisdom.
- Fausto Cercignani in: Brian Morris, Simply Transcribed. Quotations from Writings by Fausto Cercignani, 2014, quote 51

It is certainly a good thing always to forgive with generosity, but it is no doubt just never to forget the wrongs received: they belong to the route that leads to inner maturity.
- Fausto Cercignani in: Brian Morris, Simply Transcribed. Quotations from Fausto Cercignani, 2013, p. 21

Don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes.
- Stephen Colbert Knox College commencement address (3 June 2006)

It seems the part of wisdom.
- William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book IV, line 336

Knowledge is proud that he has learn’d so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
- William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book VI, line 96

The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.
- Clarence Darrow, “Why I Am An Agnostic” (1929)
“I do not know.” The person who cannot make that statement is one who will never learn anything. And I have prided myself on my ability to learn.
- Said by the orcish warchief Thrall in Keith Decandido, Cycle of Hatred (2006)

To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Second Series (1844), Experience

Man thinks
Brutes have no wisdom, since they know not his:
Can we divine their world?
- George Eliot, The Spanish Gypsy (1868), Book II

Cleverness is not wisdom. And not to think mortal thoughts is to see few days.
- Euripides Bacchæ l.395

For in much wisdom there is much sorrow;
whoever increases knowledge increases grief.
- Ecclesiastes Chapter 1 Verse 18
Wisdom is a better defence for the wise than ten princes in the city.
- Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 Verse 19

How will people become wise

when they take hold of a plow

or pride themselves

in how well they handle an ox prod,

when they drive cattle

and are absorbed with their work,

and their conversation is about bulls?

Ecclesiasticus 38:25 CEB

A wise man changes his mind sometimes, but a fool never. To change your mind is the best evidence you have one. The last redoubt holding out for me was the year-day principle (on which I had written a defense in 1972 for the Southern Publishing Association Daniel volume which was published in 1978). This collapsed when I handled hundreds of books of commentary on Revelation in the Library of Congress stacks and found that the respective authors had in many cases suggested dates that seemed appropriate for their own time but ridiculous later. It became clear that we, as Adventists, had done the same as our predecessors.
- Desmond Ford Desmond Ford on His Previous Defense of the Year Day Principle”, Adventist Today, 2006
Wisdom is intelligence in context.
- Raheel Farooq

Laissez dire les sots: le savoir a son prix.
- Let fools the studious despise,
  There’s nothing lost by being wise.
- Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, VIII. 19. Quote reported in Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 419-23.

Wisdom makes but a slow defence against trouble, though at last a sure one.
- Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Chapter XXI

… quantum theory reminds us, as Bohr has put it, of the old wisdom that when searching for harmony in life one must never forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both players and spectators. It is understandable that in our scientific relation to nature our own activity becomes very important when we have to deal with parts of nature into which we can penetrate only by using the most elaborate tools.
- Werner Heisenberg: (1958). “The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory”. Physics and Philosophy 19: 44–58.

A boor cannot be sin-fearing, an ignoramus cannot be pious, a bashful one cannot learn, a short-tempered person cannot teach, nor does anyone who does much business grow wise.
- Hillel the Younger Pirkei Avot 2:5

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, reasonable, ready to obey, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, not hypocritical. Moreover, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peaceful conditions for those who are making peace.
- James, James 3:17, 18, NWT

There is nothing so easy as to be wise for others ; a species of prodigality, by the by — for such wisdom is wholly wasted.
- Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality (1831), Vol. I chapter 15

Ripe in wisdom was he, but patient, and simple, and childlike.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847), Part I, III, line 11

The sons of this system of things are wiser in a practical way toward their own generation than the sons of the light are.
- Luke 16ː8b; New World Translation

Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill
Is daily spun; but there exists no loom
To weave it into fabric
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, Upon this age, that never speaks its mind” (1938) “Huntsman, what quarry?”

Though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom’s gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book III, line 686

But to know
That which before us lies in daily life,
Is the prime wisdom.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VIII, line 192

Socrates * * *
Whom, well inspir’d, the oracle pronounc’d
Wisest of men.
- John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book IV, line 274

O the depth of God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How unsearchable his judgments are and beyond tracing out his ways are! For “who has come to know Jehovah’s mind, or who has become his adviser?” Or, “who has first given to him, so that it must be repaid to him?” Because from him and by him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
- Paul of Tarsus, Romans 11:33-36, NWT

Wisdom … never closes her school of thought but always opens her doors to those who thirst for the sweet water of discourse, and pouring on them an unstinted stream of undiluted doctrine, persuades them to be drunken with the drunkenness which is soberness itself.
- Philo, Every Good Man is Free, 13

Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?
‘Tis but to know how little can be known,
To see all other’s faults, and feel our own.
- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle IV, line 260

Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
- The poetic personification of Wisdom speaking in Book of Proverbs 8:1-14 (KJV)

I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
- The poetic personification of Wisdom speaking in Book of Proverbs 8:20 – 36 (KJV)

The wise person storms the city of the mighty, and overthrows the stronghold in which they trust.

- Proverbs 21:22

So that we may not be like the Athenians, who never consulted except after the event done.
- François Rabelais, Pantagruel (1532), Chapter XXIV

Students who memorize a lot of disconnected facts are not people who will later connect that knowledge into new discoveries.
- Research Paper Writings Expert, 2016

You are that rarest of creatures: a man with the wisdom to see beyond his own time.
- Alastair Reynolds, The Prefect (2007), Chapter 10

Wisdom precludes boldness.
- Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 87

To realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.
- Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World (1914), p. 167

Having granted the excellence of these maxims, I come to certain points in which I do not believe that one can grant either the superlative wisdom or the superlative goodness of Christ as depicted in the Gospels… there one does find some things that do not seem to be very wise. For one thing, he certainly thought that His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time. There are a great many texts that prove that. He says, for instance, “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come.” Then he says, “There are some standing here which shall not taste death till the Son of Man comes into His kingdom”; and there are a lot of places where it is quite clear that He believed that His second coming would happen during the lifetime of many then living. That was the belief of His earlier followers, and it was the basis of a good deal of His moral teaching. When He said, “Take no thought for the morrow,” and things of that sort, it was very largely because He thought that the second coming was going to be very soon, and that all ordinary mundane affairs did not count. I have, as a matter of fact, known some Christians who did believe that the second coming was imminent. I knew a parson who frightened his congregation terribly by telling them that the second coming was very imminent indeed, but they were much consoled when they found that he was planting trees in his garden. The early Christians did really believe it, and they did abstain from such things as planting trees in their gardens, because they did accept from Christ the belief that the second coming was imminent. In that respect, clearly He was not so wise as some other people have been, and He was certainly not superlatively wise.
- Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian (1927), “Defects in Christ’s Teaching”

There is the instance of the Gadarene swine, where it certainly was not very kind to the pigs to put the devils into them and make them rush down the hill into the sea. You must remember that He was omnipotent, and He could have made the devils simply go away; but He chose to send them into the pigs. Then there is the curious story of the fig-tree, which always rather puzzled me. You remember what happened about the fig-tree. “He was hungry; and seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, He came if haply He might find anything thereon; and when he came to it He found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it: ‘No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever’…. and Peter…. saith unto Him: ‘Master, behold the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away.'” This is a very curious story, because it was not the right time of year for figs, and you really could not blame the tree. I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to History. I think I should put Buddha and Socrates above Him in those respects.
- Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian (1927), “The Moral Problem”

I am interested in a phase that I think we are entering. I call it “teleological evolution,” evolution with a purpose. The idea of evolution by design, designing the future, anticipating the future. I think of the need for more wisdom in the world, to deal with the knowledge that we have. At one time we had wisdom, but little knowledge. Now we have a great deal of knowledge, but do we have enough wisdom to deal with that knowledge?
- Jonas Salk, in Academy of Achievement interview, in San Diego, California (16 May 1991)

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.
- George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 5 (1906), Ch. 8

The disease having been caused by allowing cleverness to displace wisdom, no amount of clever research is likely to produce a cure.
- E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered (1973), p. 35

Full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.
- William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act I, scene 1, line 115

Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it.
- William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act III, scene 13, line 79

Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
- William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act I, scene 5, line 48

To that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety.
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act III, scene 1, line 52

Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents.
- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act I, scene 5, line 14

My son, if you accept my sayings

And treasure up my commandments,

By making your ear attentive to wisdom

And inclining your heart to discernment;

Moreover, if you call out for understanding

And raise your voice for discernment;

If you keep seeking for it as for silver,

And you keep searching for it as for hidden treasures;

Then you will understand the fear of Jehovah,

And you will find the knowledge of God.

For Jehovah himself gives wisdom;

From his mouth come knowledge and discernment.

Solomon, Book of Proverbs 2: 1-6

Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding. Do not forget, and do not turn aside from the sayings of my mouth. Do not leave it, and it will keep you. Love it, and it will safeguard you. Wisdom is the prime thing. Acquire wisdom; and with all that you acquire, acquire understanding. Highly esteem it, and it will exalt you. It will glorify you because you embrace it. To your head it will give a wreath of charm; a crown of beauty it will bestow upon you.
- Solomon, Book of Proverbs, 4: 4-9

Be not wise in thine own eyes.
- Solomon, Proverbs 3:7, King James Version

Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.
- Solomon 4:6, New International Version

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
- Solomon 4:7, New International Version

O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
- Solomon, Proverbs 8:5, King James Version

For wisdom is better than rubies; And all the things that may be desired are not to be compared unto it.
- Solomon Proverbs 8:11, American Standard Version

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind. And the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart.
- Solomon, Book of Proverbs 11:29

The beginning of wisdom is the most sincere desire for instruction.

Wisdom of Solomon 6:17 NRSV

Those who get it obtain friendship with God.

Wisdom of Solomon 7:14 NRSV

For those who despise wisdom and instruction are doomed.
Vain is their hope, fruitless their labours,
and worthless their works.
- Book of Wisdom Chapter 3 Verse 11, New American Bible revised edition

It takes extraordinary wisdom and self-control to accept that many things have a logic we do not understand that is smarter than our own.
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010) Epistemology and Subtractive Knowledge, p. 78.

‘Tis held that sorrow makes us wise.
- Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849), Part CVIII

Nor is he the wisest man who never proved himself a fool.
- Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), Stanza 124

The wisest man is he who can account for his actions.
- Umar http://prayertiming.com/iq/index.php?nCatId=426

Wisdom is oftimes nearer when we stoop
Than when we soar.
- William Wordsworth, The Excursion (1814), Book III, line 232

As for Wisdom, the greatest blessing, does not incontinence exclude it and drive men to the opposite? Or don’t you think that incontinence prevents them from attending to useful things and understanding them, by drawing them away to things pleasant, and often so stuns their perception of good and evil that they choose the worse instead of the better?
- Xenophon, Socrates in Memorabilia, 4.5

There is no wisdom without leisure.
- Ancient Jewish Wisdom, cited by W. B. Yeats in an address given 3/28/1923.

On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows,
In every rill a sweet instruction flows.
- Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire I, line 249

Be wise to-day; ’tis madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is push’d out of life.
- Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night I, line 390

Wisdom, though richer than Peruvian mines,
And sweeter than the sweet ambrosial hive,
What is she, but the means of happiness?
That unobtain’d, than folly more a fool.
- Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night II, line 496

The man of wisdom is the man of years.
- Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night V, line 775

But wisdom, awful wisdom! which inspects,
Discerns, compares, weighs, separates, infers,
Seizes the right, and holds it to the last.
- Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night VIII, line 1,253

Teach me my days to number, and apply
My trembling heart to wisdom.
- Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night IX, line 1,312

Putting human affairs in exact formulas shows in itself a lack of the sense of humor and therefore a lack of wisdom.
- Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living (1937)

To speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do.
- Roger Ascham, Dedication to All the Gentlemen and Yeomen of England

A wise man is out of the reach of fortune.
- Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici; quoted as “That insolent paradox”

The wisdom of our ancestors.
- Edmund Burke, Observations an a Late Publicatian on the Present State of the Nation, Volume I, p. 516.

Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
- Cato. In Plutarch’s Life of Cato

Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart
Must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
- William Cowper, Expostulation, line 634

Some people are more nice than wise.
- William Cowper, Mutual Forbearance

But they whom truth and wisdom lead
Can gather honey from a weed.
- William Cowper, Pine-Apple and Bee, line 35

Who are a little wise the best fools be.
- John Donne, The Triple Fool

In much wisdom is much grief.
- Ecclesiastes. I. 18

The words of the wise are as goads.
- Ecclesiastes, XII. 11

Nequicquam sapere sapientem, qui ipse sibi prodesse non quiret.
- The wise man is wise in vain who cannot be wise to his own advantage.
- Ennius, I. Quoted by Cicero, De Officii, 3, 15

No one could be so wise as Thurlow looked.
- Charles James Fox. See Campbell’s Lives of the Lord Chancellors, Volume V, p. 661; also 551.

Some are weather-wise, some are otherwise.
- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard (1735)

Die Weisheit ist nur in der Wahrheit.
- Wisdom is only found in truth.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sprüche in Prosa, III

The heart is wiser than the intellect.
- Josiah Gilbert Holland, Kathrina, Part II, Stanza 9

Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage,
But, wise through time, and narrative with age,
In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice,
A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.
- Homer, The Iliad, Book III, line 199; Alexander Pope’s translation

For never, never, wicked man was wise.
- Homer, The Odyssey, Book II, line 320; Alexander Pope’s translation

In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare!
- Homer, The Odyssey, Book VII, line 379; Alexander Pope’s translation

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!
- Homer, The Odyssey, Book XIII, line 375; Alexander Pope’s translation

Utiliumque sagax rerum et divina futuri.
- Sagacious in making useful discoveries.
- Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), 218

Sapere aude.
- Dare to be wise.
- Horace, Epistles, I. 2. 40

Quis nam igitur liber? Sapiens qui sibi imperiosus.
- Who then is free? The wise man who can govern himself.
- Horace, Satires, II. 7. 83

He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
- Job. V. 13

Wisdom shall die with you.
- Job, XII. 2

The price of wisdom is above rubies.
- Job, XXVIII. 18

Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.
- Job, XXXII. 7

Great men are not always wise.
- Job, XXXII. 9

Away, thou strange justifier of thyself, to be wiser than thou wert, by the event.
- Ben Jonson, Silent Woman, Act II, scene 2. “Wise after the event.”

Victrix fortunæ sapientia.
- Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune.
- Juvenal, Satires, XIII. 20

Il est plus aisé d’être sage pour les autres, que pour soi-même.
- It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
- François de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes

Quisquis plus justo non sapit, ille sapit.
- Whoever is not too wise is wise.
- Martial, Epigrammata, XIV. 10. 2

* Be wise;
Soar not too high to fall; but stoop to rise.
- Philip Massinger, Duke of Milan, Act I, scene 2, line 45

Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
- Matthew. X. 16

Wisdom is justified of her children.
- Matthew, XI. 19; Luke, VII. 35

A little too wise they say do ne’er live long.
- Thomas Middleton, The Phœnix (1603-04), Act I, scene 1

Il est bon de frotter et limer notre cervelle centre celle d’autrui.
- It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.
- Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book I, Chapter XXIV

The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness: her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.
- Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book I, Chapter XXV

Le sage vit tant qu’il doibt, non pas tent qu’il peut.
- A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
- Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book II, Chapter III

Qui aura esté une fois bien fol ne sera nulle aultre fois bien sage.
- He who has once been very foolish will at no other time be very wise.
- Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book III, Chapter VI

O the depth of God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How unsearchable his judgments are and beyond tracing out his ways are! 34 For “who has come to know Jehovah’s mind, or who has become his adviser?” 35 Or, “who has first given to him, so that it must be repaid to him?” 36 Because from him and by him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
- Romans 11:33, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

Seven wise men on an old black settle,
Seven wise men of the Mermaid Inn,
Ringing blades of the one right metal,
What is the best that a blade can win?
- Alfred Noyes, Tales of The Mermaid Tavern, II

Some men never spake a wise word, yet doe wisely; some on the other side doe never a wise deed, and yet speake wisely.
- Sir Thomas Overbury, Crumms fal’n from King James Talk. In Works

When swelling buds their od’rous foliage shed,
And gently harden into fruit, the wise
Spare not the little offsprings, if they grow
Redundant.
- John Philips, Cider, Book I

Feliciter sapit qui alieno periculo sapit.
- He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another’s experience.
- Plautus, Mercator, IV. 7. 40

Nemo solus satis sapit.
- No man is wise enough by himself.
- Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, III. 3. 12

Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit.
- No one is wise at all times.
- Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, VII. 41. 2

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the street.
- Proverbs. I. 20

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding.
- Proverbs, IV. 7

Wisdom is better than rubies.
- Proverbs, VIII. 11

Get wisdom, because it is better than gold: and purchase prudence, for it is more precious than silver.
- Proverbs 16:16

“Those who seek me diligently find me.”
- The voice of Wisdom in Proverbs VIII. 17

Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.
- Francis Quarles, Emblems, Book II. Em. 2

Ce n’est pas être sage
D’être plus sage qu’il ne le faut.
- It is not wise to be wiser than is necessary.
- Quinault, Armide

The power is yours, but not the sight;
You see not upon what you tread;
You have the ages for your guide,
But not the wisdom to be led.
- Edwin Arlington Robinson, Cassandra

Wouldst thou wisely, and with pleasure,
Pass the days of life’s short measure,
From the slow one counsel take,
But a tool of him ne’er make;
Ne’er as friend the swift one know,
Nor the constant one as foe.
- Friedrich Schiller, Proverbs of Confucius, E. A. Bowring’s translation

The Italian seemes wise, and is wise; the Spaniard seemes wise, and is a foole; the French seemes a foole, and is wise; and the English seemes a foole and is a foole.
- Quoted as a common proverb by Thomas Scot, in The Highwaies of God and the King, p. 8. (1623)

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life—in a firmness of mind and mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do, as well as to talk; and to make our actions and words all of a color.
- Seneca the Younger, Epistles, XX

Nulli sapere casu obtigit.
- No man was ever wise by chance.
- Seneca the Younger, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, LXXVI

Melius in malis sapimus, secunda rectum auferunt.
- We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.
- Seneca the Younger, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, XCIV

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
- Socrates, in Plato, Phaedrus, Section CCXXXV

A short saying oft contains much wisdom.
- Sophocles, Aletes, Frag. 99

Happy those
Who in the after-days shall live, when Time
Hath spoken, and the multitude of years
Taught wisdom to mankind!
- Robert Southey, Joan of Arc, Book I

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.
- Charles Spurgeon, Gleanings among the Sheaves, The First Lesson

By Wisdom wealth is won;
But riches purchased wisdom yet for none.
- Bayard Taylor, The Wisdom of Ali

“The Prophet’s words were true;
The mouth of Ali is the golden door
Of Wisdom.”
When his friends to Ali bore
These words, he smiled and said: “And should they ask
The same until my dying day, the task
Were easy; for the stream from Wisdom’s well,
Which God supplies, is inexhaustible.”
- Bayard Taylor, The Wisdom of Ali

True wisdom consists not in seeing what is immediately before our eyes, but in foreseeing what is to come.
- Terence, Adelphi, III. 3. 32

The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
- I Timothy, XVI. 8

Wisdom alone is true ambition’s aim
Wisdom the source of virtue, and of fame,
Obtained with labour, for mankind employed,
And then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.
- William Whitehead, On Nobility

Wisdom sits alone,
Topmost in heaven:—she is its light—its God;
And in the heart of man she sits as high—
Though grovelling eyes forget her oftentimes,
Seeing but this world’s idols. The pure mind
Sees her forever: and in youth we come
Fill’d with her sainted ravishment, and kneel,
Worshipping God through her sweet altar fires,
And then is knowledge “good.”
- Nathaniel Parker Willis, The Scholar of Thibet. Ben Khorat, Part II, line 93

Wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age.
- Wisdom of Solomon, IV. 8

And he is oft the wisest man
Who is not wise at all.
- William Wordsworth, The Oak and the Broom

The wise man is but a clever infant, spelling letters from a hieroglyphical prophetic book, the lexicon of which lies in eternity.
- Thomas Carlyle, p. 617

The heart is wiser than the intellect.
- Josiah Gilbert Holland, p. 616

What in me is dark, Illumine, what is low, raise and support.
- John Milton, p. 617

For knowledge to become wisdom, and for the soul to grow, the soul must be rooted in God: and it is through prayer that there comes to us that which is the strength of our strength, and the virtue of our virtue, the Holy Spirit.
- William Mountford, p. 616

The question is, whether, like the Divine Child in the Temple, we are turning knowledge into wisdom, and whether, understanding more of the mysteries of life, we are feeling more of its sacred law; and whether, having left behind the priests and the scribes and the doctors and the fathers, we are about our Father’s business, and becoming wise to God.
- Frederick William Robertson, p. 617

Drop, drop—in our sleep, upon the heart
sorrow falls, memory’s pain,
and to us, though against our very will,
even in our own despite,
comes wisdom
by the awful grace of God.
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon. The above lines are from Edith Hamilton, trans., Three Greek Plays, p. 170 (1937).

[The argument of Alcidamas:] Everyone honours the wise. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians actually made Chilon a member of their senate, though they are the least literary of men; the inhabitants of Lampsacus gave public burial to Anaxagoras, though he was an alien, and honour him even to this day.
- Aristotle, Rhetoric, book 2, The Complete Works of Aristotle, rev. Oxford trans., ed. Jonathan Barnes, vol. 2, p. 2228–29 (1984)

Ask counsel of both times—of the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest.
- Francis Bacon, “Of Great Place”, The Essays, or Counsels Civil & Moral of Francis Bacon, p. 48 (1905). Based on the 1625 edition but with modernized spelling.

Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.
- Felix Frankfurter, Henslee v. Union Planters Bank, 335 U.S. 600 (1948) (dissenting)

Standing in this presence, mindful of the solemnity of this occasion, feeling the emotions which no one may know until he senses the great weight of responsibility for himself, I must utter my belief in the divine inspiration of the founding fathers.
- Warren G. Harding, inaugural address, March 4, 1921.

The poet’s aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory.
- Horace, Ars Poetica, lines 333–37.

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.
- Attributed to John Stuart Mill.

Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable.
- John Patrick, The Teahouse of the August Moon, act I, scene i, p. 6 (1957).

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
- Attributed to Mark Twain in The Reader’s Digest (September 1939), p. 22.

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