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Wisdom quotes

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“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” - 1623

“Wisdom is the daughter of experience.” Leonardo da Vinci, “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci” - 1478 – 1519

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“For the function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil; whereas, inasmuch as all things morally wrong are evil, trickery prefers the evil to the good.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, “On Duties” - 44 BC

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Emile, or On Education” - 1762

“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.” Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist” - 1988

“O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure” - 1623

“A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“Chastisement for errors past Wisdom brings to age at last.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

“For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves: For they see their own wit at hand, and other...” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring” - 1954

“The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“Wisdom is to speak the truth and act in keeping with its nature.” Heraclitus, “On Nature” - c. 535 – c. 475 BCE

“True words aren't eloquent; eloquent words aren't true. Wise men don't need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.” Lewis Carroll, “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” - 1865

“At fifteen, life had taught me that surrender, sometimes, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.” Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” - 1969

“Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Return of the King” - 1955

“I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.” Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” - 1895

“Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. ” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Real wisdom is being stored away in the subcellars by the misers of learning.” Henry Miller, “Tropic of Cancer” - 1934

“Wisdom . . . is the oneness of mind that guides and permeates all things.” Heraclitus, “On Nature” - c. 535 – c. 475 BCE

“Sure enough, of all paths a man could strike into, there is, at any given moment, a best path for every man; a thing which, here and now, it were of all things wisest for him to do” Thomas Carlyle, “Past and Present” - 1843

“It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.” Jack London, “White Fang” - 1906

“The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly.” William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” - 1623

“Man . . . how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!” Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein” - 1818

“And the first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him; and when they are capable and faithful he may always be considered wise, because he has known how to recognize the capable and...” Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince” - 1532

“In science, as in art, and, as I believe, in every other sphere of human activity, there may be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, but it is only in one or two of them. And, in scientific inquiry, at any rate, it is to that one or two that we...” Thomas Henry Huxley, “The Advance of Science in the Last Half-Century” - 1887

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 2012

“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.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” - 1597

“I have heard men talk of the blessings of freedom . . . but I wish any wise man would teach me what use to make of it now that I have it.” Walter Scott, “Ivanhoe” - 1820

“Mad are thy subjects all, and even the wisest heart Straight to folly will fall, at a touch of thy poisoned dart.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

“She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! alas! she must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.” Jane Austen, “Persuasion” - 1816

“Do my best all-round keep good company, read good books, love good things, and cultivate soul and body as faithfully and wisely as I can.” Louisa May Alcott, “Rose in Bloom” - 1876

“Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents.” William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night” - 1623

“She hath more hair than wit, and more faults than hairs, and more wealth than faults.” William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” - 1623

“With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.” Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” - 1854

“No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.” Henry Kissinger, “White House Years” - 1979

“Then, moreover, the white locks of age were sometimes found to be the thatch of an intellectual tenement in good repair.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” - 1850

“You are bound to go up and down, just as I did in my youth, but do keep your clarity of mind, and if fools or sages dare to criticise don't blame yourself too much.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “This Side of Paradise” - 1920

“Take heed, I have often heard it said in a vulgar proverb, the wise may be instructed by a fool.” François Rabelais, “Gargantua and Pantagruel” - 1534

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” - 1836

“all men feel sometimes the falsehood which they cannot demonstrate. For men are wiser than they know.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Compensation” - 1841

“I wonder what becomes of lost opportunities. Perhaps our guardian angel gathers them up as we drop them, and will give them back to us in the beautiful sometime when we have grown wiser, and learned how to use them rightly.” Helen Keller, “The Story of My Life” - 1903

“If everything in the universe were sensible, nothing would happen.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge. Let us be silent, content in our little corner, meek and gentle like them. That is the wisdom of life.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.” William Shakespeare, “Henry VI, Part 3” - 1595

Related topics

foolishness stupidity life age madness heart wit simplicity love strength men self-knowledge modesty knowledge listening happiness understanding experience pain books

Related authors

William Shakespeare (22)
Sophocles (5)
J. R. R. Tolkien (4)
Heraclitus (3)
Francis Bacon (3)
Jane Austen (2)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (2)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2)
Lao Tzu (2)
Michel de Montaigne (2)
Niccolò Machiavelli (2)
Oscar Wilde (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Mark Twain (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
Lewis Carroll (1)
Herman Melville (1)
John Green (1)
Charles Dickens (1)

Related sources

Antigone (5)
As You Like It (4)
Richard II (3)
On Nature (3)
The Essays of Francis Bacon (3)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (2)
Henry IV, Part 2 (2)
Tao Te Ching (2)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (2)
The Prince (2)
The Fellowship of the Ring (2)
Romeo and Juliet (1)
Hamlet (1)
Twelfth Night (1)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1)
The Merchant of Venice (1)
King Lear (1)
Richard III (1)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1)
This Side of Paradise (1)

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William Shakespeare quotes about wisdom