Authors matching 'wisdom':

Wisdom Quotes


A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
– Sir Francis Bacon

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.
– Anton Chekhov

Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.
– David Starr Jordan

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
– William Arthur Ward

Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.
– Merry Browne

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
– Confucius

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
– William James

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.
– Daniel J. Boorstin

Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child.
– Ron Wild
In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.
– Ansel Adams
Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.
– Joseph Addison
He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
– Aeschylus
Memory is the mother of all wisdom.
– Aeschylus
Wisdom comes alone through suffering.
– Aeschylus
Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
– Aesop
The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.
– James Allen
This land, which we have watered with our tears and our blood, is now our mother country, and we are well satisfied to stay where wisdom abounds and gospel is free.
– Richard Allen
Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to.
– Greg Anderson
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
– Aristotle
Central banks don't have divine wisdom. They try to do the best analysis they can and must be prepared to stand or fall by the quality of that analysis.
– Mary Kay Ash
Every silver lining has a cloud.
– Mary Kay Ash
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
– Isaac Asimov
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
– Saint Augustine
Public opinion is no more than this: what people think that other people think.
– Alfred Austin
To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.
– Akhenaton
It is impossible to love and to be wise.
– Sir Francis Bacon
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
– Sir Francis Bacon
There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
– Sir Francis Bacon
There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man's own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.
– Sir Francis Bacon
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
I am thinking of taking a fifth wife. Why not? Solomon had a thousand wives and he is a synonym for wisdom.
– John Barrymore
Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.
– Henry Ward Beecher
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
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
Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.
– Walter Benjamin
Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization.
– Bo Bennett
Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess, and yet all the honesty in the world ain't lawful tender for a loaf of bread.
– Josh Billings
Learning sleeps and snores in libraries, but wisdom is everywhere, wide awake, on tiptoe.
– Josh Billings
The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
– Josh Billings
Wisdom has never made a bigot, but learning has.
– Josh Billings
The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
– William Blake
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
– William Blake
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
Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother.
– Erma Bombeck
Man is wise and constantly in quest of more wisdom; but the ultimate wisdom, which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls forth faith rather than reason.
– Hal Borland
If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.
– Omar N. Bradley
Imagination allows us to escape the predictable. It enables us to reply to the common wisdom that we cannot soar by saying, Just watch!
– Bill Bradley
Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.
– Bertolt Brecht
Beauty, the eternal Spouse of the Wisdom of God and Angel of his Presence thru' all creation.
– Robert Bridges
Evil can be a teacher, if you look at the wisdom of its negative power.
– Tom Brown, Jr.
To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.
– James Buchanan
Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.
– Buddha
To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
– Buddha
A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool.
– Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
– Edmund Burke
The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.
– John Burroughs
If I don't have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.
– Leo Buscaglia
Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.
– Lord Byron
Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure, there is no sterner moralist than pleasure.
– Lord Byron
Kindness is wisdom.
– Philip James Bailey
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.
– Stephen Vincent Benet
Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.
– Anne Bradstreet
Knowledge is going to make you stronger. Knowledge is going to let you control your life. Knowledge is going to give you the wisdom to teach their children. Knowledge is the thing that makes you smile in the face of disaster.
– Avery Brooks
For all my education, accomplishments, and so called 'wisdom'... I can't fathom my own heart.
– Michael Caine
I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
– Thomas Carlyle
In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.
– Thomas Carlyle
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.
– Jimmy Carter
Wisdom prepares for the worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day when it comes.
– Richard Cecil
Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.
– John Cheever
People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.
– Anton Chekhov
The plan was criticized by some retired military officers embedded in TV studios. But with every advance by our coalition forces, the wisdom of that plan becomes more apparent.
– Dick Cheney
In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool.
– Lord Chesterfield
Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.
– G. K. Chesterton
Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.
– Bill Clinton
The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness.
– Jean Cocteau
Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
– Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.
– Charles Caleb Colton
There is this difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.
– Charles Caleb Colton
They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
– Confucius
When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
– Confucius
Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness.
– Cyril Connolly
There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom, for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives.
– Cyril Connolly
Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.
– Norman Cousins
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
– William Cowper
A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.
– Herb Caen
You can't sweep other people off their feet, if you can't be swept off your own.
– Clarence Day
A loving heart is the truest wisdom.
– Charles Dickens
There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.
– Charles Dickens
Man is only great when he acts from passion.
– Benjamin Disraeli
The pine stays green in winter... wisdom in hardship.
– Norman Douglas
The sublimity of wisdom is to do those things living, which are to be desired when dying.
– Norman Douglas
We do not sit as a superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation.
– William O. Douglas
It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Books should to one of these fours ends conduce, for wisdom, piety, delight, or use.
– John Denham