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Wisdom Quotes

Focus on the mind and the soul. Read. Study. Enrol in a course of lectures. Pray. Become a member of a religious congregation. Study the Bible or other ancient works of wisdom.
– Jonathan Sacks
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Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.
– Aristotle
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Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.
– James Madison
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Every journey that is successful has culs-de-sac and speed bumps. I carry a wisdom gene through my life through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
– Peter Guber
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Even by common wisdom, there seem to be both people and objects in my dream that are outside myself, but clearly they were created in myself and are part of me, they are mental constructs in my own brain.
– Ray Kurzweil
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Economists often like startling theorems, results which seem to run counter to conventional wisdom.
– Joseph Stiglitz
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Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.
– Charles Stanley
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Dr. Johnson has said that the chief glory of a country arises from its authors. But then that is only as they are oracles of wisdom unless they teach virtue, they are more worthy of a halter than of the laurel.
– Jane Porter
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Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.
– Charles Caleb Colton
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Doubt the conventional wisdom unless you can verify it with reason and experiment.
– Steve Albini
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Don't taunt the alligator until after you've crossed the creek.
– Dan Rather
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Discipline is wisdom and vice versa.
– M. Scott Peck
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Conventional wisdom holds that setting a timetable for getting American troops out of Iraq would be a mistake.
– Nick Clooney
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Contemplation and wisdom are highest achievements and man is not totally at home with them.
– Gabriel Marcel
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Clinton is a big personality who has led a big life, and for some of the media conventional wisdom to boil it down to a view that 'all people are really interested in' are a few moments of madness in the Oval Office gets him, the importance of the presidency, and the significance of his life, all wrong.
– Alastair Campbell
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But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
– Edmund Burke
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But the Wisdom of God, which is His only-begotten Son, being in all respects incapable of change or alteration, and every good quality in Him being essential, and such as cannot be changed and converted, His glory is therefore declared to be pure and sincere.
– Origen
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But the law of God came from heaven indeed. God wrote it with his finger, it is the fountain of all wisdom, and therefore shall it continue for ever, and never have an end.
– John Jewel
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But in its final creation it was not the part of the Father's power to fail as though exhausted. It was not the part of His wisdom to waver in a needful matter through poverty of counsel.
– Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
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But I do think it's important to remember that writers do not have a monopoly of wisdom on their books. They can be wrong about their own books, they can often learn about their own books.
– China Mieville
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Books are the ever burning lamps of accumulated wisdom.
– George William Curtis
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Be there a will, and wisdom finds a way.
– George Crabbe
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Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen.
– Carl Sandburg
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At sixty, I know little more about wisdom than I did at thirty, but I know a great deal more about folly.
– Mason Cooley
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Ask Elizabeth is a community of voices, it's not me standing on a podium telling people how to run their lives, it's girls helping each other sharing their wisdom and advice and I create a space for them to do it.
– Elizabeth Berkley
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As I visited the various neighborhoods in the campaign, I learned fast that it's a mistake to think that all of the wisdom and possible solutions to our problems are available only in this building.
– Jane Byrne
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As great as Ed is, the wisdom out here is that he can't carry a movie. They'll pay him $3 million to be the second banana in Julia Roberts things. But they won't put up $3 million for an Ed Harris movie.
– George A. Romero
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As far as feeling freedom in my career now versus five years ago... I think if I feel any more free it's simply because of the experiences that I've had, and the wisdom I've accumulated from that time.
– Mary Chapin Carpenter
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As a parent and a citizen, I'll take a Bill Gates (or Warren Buffett) over Steve Jobs every time. If we must have billionaires, better they should ignore Jobs's example and instead embrace the morality and wisdom of the great industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
– Eric Alterman
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Around '93, '94, the conventional wisdom about the Internet was that it was a toy for academics and researchers. So it was very, very underestimated for about two years.
– Marc Andreessen
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Any successful nominee should possess both the temperament to interpret the law and the wisdom to do so fairly. The next Supreme Court Justice should have a record of protecting individual rights and a strong willingness to put aside any political agenda.
– Bennie Thompson
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And when the world is created, it is created in such a way that those eternal objects of God's loving wisdom become actualities - interacting with one another, relating to God in the finite realm.
– Rowan D. Williams
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And it is no less true, that personal security and private property rest entirely upon the wisdom, the stability, and the integrity of the courts of justice.
– Joseph Story
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Analysts may be correct that the presidential election won't primarily turn on entitlements reform, but by choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney can, contrary to conventional wisdom, make it a winning issue and lay the foundation for a reform mandate when he wins.
– David Limbaugh
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Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.
– Phil Jackson
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Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom, and perhaps more malice than either, that women are naturally incapable of acting prudently, or that they are necessarily determined to folly, I must by no means grant it.
– Mary Astell
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Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.
– George Santayana
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All human wisdom works and has worries and grief as reward.
– Johann Georg Hamann
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After all my possessions had been burned, God gave me the wisdom to return to Jerusalem.
– Shmuel Y. Agnon
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After a gig I always head back to the hotel, remembering granny's words of wisdom. I cancel the late-night pizza and watch the Jonathan Ross show instead.
– Jimmy Carr
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A wholesome oblivion of one's neighbours is the beginning of wisdom.
– Richard Le Gallienne
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A short saying often contains much wisdom.
– Sophocles
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A monarchy conducted with infinite wisdom and infinite benevolence is the most perfect of all possible governments.
– Ezra Stiles
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A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
– John C. Maxwell
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A great memory is never made synonymous with wisdom, any more than a dictionary would be called a treatise.
– John Henry Newman
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Apothegms are portable wisdom, the quintessential extracts of thought and feelings.
– William R. Alger
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More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
– Woody Allen
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Books of quotations are an elemental model of how culture is perpetuated, the wisdom of the trite passed on to posterity, to be added to, edited, and modified by subsequent generations.
– Robert Andrews
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If thou would'st have that stream of hard-earn'd knowledge, of Wisdom heaven-born, remain sweet running waters, thou should'st not leave it to become a stagnant pond.
– Sir Francis Bacon
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Another possible source of guidance for teenagers is television, but television's message has always been that the need for truth, wisdom and world peace pales by comparison with the need for a toothpaste that offers whiter teeth and fresher breath.
– Dave Barry
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When I ask him these questions and he answers, I haven't got the faintest idea what he's going to say, and what he says astounds me with his wisdom. It is so much more that I know.
– Edgar Bergen
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Mother's words of wisdom: Answer me! Don't talk with food in your mouth!
– Erma Bombeck
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On life's journey faith is nourishment, virtuous deeds are a shelter, wisdom is the light by day and right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.
– Buddha
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Prudent, cautious self-control is wisdom's root.
– Robert Burns
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Effective questioning brings insight, which fuels curiosity, which cultivates wisdom.
– Chip Bell
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A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.
– Richard de Bury
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He has the manner of a giant with the look of a child, a lazy activeness, a mad wisdom, a solitude encompassing the world.
– Jean Cocteau
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O Music! sphere-descended maid, Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!
– William Collins
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Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.
– Calvin Coolidge
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People expect Byzantine, Machiavellian logic from politicians. But the truth is simple. Trial lawyers learn a good rule: 'Don't decide what you don't have to decide.' That's not evasion, it's wisdom.
– Mario Cuomo
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Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.
– Sandra Carey
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Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.
– Tao Te Ching
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Conventional wisdom would say that if long rates don't go up when short rates go up that there's some sort of indication of slowing of an economy. On the other hand, people could argue that inflation's under control and the economy is healthy.
– Ander Crenshaw
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I see all those Solomons out there, I can't wait to hear your wisdom.
– Phil Donahue
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Most of our censure of others is only oblique praise of self, uttered to show the wisdom and superiority of the speaker. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the ill-desert of falsehood.
– Tryon Edwards
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The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
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This type of man who is devoted to the study of wisdom is always most unlucky in everything, and particularly when it comes to procreating children; I imagine this is because Nature wants to ensure that the evils of wisdom shall not spread further throughout mankind.
– Desiderius Erasmus
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There is wisdom in truth but not always happiness in knowledge.
– John Ellis
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Wisdom is meaningless until your own experience has given it meaning and there is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.
– Bergen Evens
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The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it.
– William Faulkner
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If we intend to pursue the history of our species in its further attainments, we may soon enter on subjects which will confine our observation to more narrow limits. The genius of political wisdom and civil arts appears to have chosen his seats in particular tracts of the earth, and to have selected his favourites in particular races of men.
– Adam Ferguson
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Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.
– Mahatma Gandhi
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Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfful to seek other than itself.
– Kahlil Gibran
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I subject my awareness to the perfection of being, the perfection of wisdom and perfection of love, all of these being co-present in the Vast Expanse. I share this panorama of Being and appreciate all I can share it with... the seamless interweaving of consciousness with each moment.
– Alex Grey
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When a child, my mother taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom and protection. Sometimes we prayed in silence, sometimes each one prayed aloud; sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us... and to Usen.
– Geronimo
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By contrast, wisdom captivates people's hearts and has the power to open a new age.
– Herbie Hancock
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Wisdom corresponds to the future; it is philosophy.
– Herbie Hancock
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Wisdom is on a higher plane, and as human beings, it's part of our 'being-ness' to have the capacity to manifest wisdom through creativity.
– Herbie Hancock
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Wisdom is the key to understanding the age, creating the time.
– Herbie Hancock
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For this is wisdom; to love, to live, to take what fate, or the gods may give. To ask no question, to make no prayer, to kiss the lips and caress the hair, speed passion's ebb as you greet its flow to have, - to hold - and - in time, - let go!
– Laurence Hope
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Mingle some brief folly with your wisdom.
– Horace
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Providence certainly does not favor just certain individuals, but the deep wisdom of its counsel, instruction and ennoblement extends to all.
– Wilhelm von Humboldt
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Our professed love of freedom is increasingly shown to be a sophistry that replaces wisdom and righteousness with self-gratification.
– Carl Henry
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A child's hand in yours-what tenderness it arouses, what power it conjures. You are instantly the very touchstone of wisdom and strength.
– Marjorie Holmes
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He is happiest who hath power to gather wisdom from a flower.
– Mary Howitt
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Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.
– George Iles
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Having harvested all the knowledge and wisdom we can from our mistakes and failures, we should put them behind us and go ahead.
– Edith Johnson
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I have found that great people do have in common an immense belief in themselves and in their mission. They also have great determination as well as an ability to work hard. At the crucial moment of decision, they draw on their accumulated wisdom. Above all, they have integrity.
– Yousuf Karsh
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A lawyer's relationship to justice and wisdom is on a par with a piano tuner's relationship to a concert. He neither composes the music, nor interprets it-he merely keeps the machinery running.
– Lucille Kallen
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One mans stupidity is another mans wisdom.
– Lindsay Kolb
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Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.
– Robert Gary Lee
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I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.
– Abraham Lincoln
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Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold.
– Bob Marley
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I doubt seriously whether a man can think with full wisdom and with deep convictions regarding certain of the basic issues today who has not at least reviewed in his mind the period of the Peloponnesian War and the fall of Athens.
– George C. Marshall
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Not till the fire is dying in the grate, Look we for any kinship with the stars. Oh, wisdom never comes when it is gold, And the great price we paid for it full worth: We have it only when we are half earth. Little avails that coinage to the old!
– Golda Meir
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To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.
– Herman Melville
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It is only from the belief of the goodness and wisdom of a supreme being, that our calamities can be borne in the manner which becomes a man.
– Henry MacKenzie
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I believe that the senior citizens of today have been overlooked as sources of strength, stability and vitality in our communities. And by too often discounting the value of seniors and the wisdom they offer, programs have been developed to assist seniors that do not truly address their very real needs and desires.
– Joe Manchin III
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Knowledge is the sculpture chiseled from the stone mass of information, as understanding is chiseled of knowledge, and wisdom of understanding.
– Francis Morrone
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Courageous, untroubled, mocking and violent-that is what Wisdom wants us to be. Wisdom is a woman, and loves only a warrior.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
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