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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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

“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

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

“Wisdom . . . is the oneness of mind that guides and permeates all things.” Heraclitus, On Nature

“Wisdom is to speak the truth and act in keeping with its nature.” Heraclitus, On Nature

“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

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

“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

“Then we may begin by assuming that there are three classes of men—lovers of wisdom, lovers of honour, lovers of gain?” Plato, The Republic

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

“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

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.” Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum

“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

“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

“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

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

“The wise speak only of what they know” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

“For this is hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver. Thus passed with the lonesome one months and years; his wisdom meanwhile increased, and caused him pain by its abundance.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“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

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

“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again—and that is well; but also she will...” Mark Twain, Following the Equator

“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

“Wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes, but presently prevent the ways to wail.” William Shakespeare, Richard II

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

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

“It is of the greatest important in this world that a man should know himself, and the measure of his own strength and means; and he who knows that he has not a genius for fighting must learn how to govern by the arts of peace.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“All places that the eye of heaven visits are to a wise man ports and happy havens. Teach thy necessity to reason thus; there is no virtue like necessity.” William Shakespeare, Richard II

“I would much rather have been merry than wise.” Jane Austen, Emma

“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

“Wisdom is the understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by Love.” Honoré de Balzac, Séraphîta

“Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one, and so begin to be wise!” George MacDonald, Lilith

“Is it so far from madness to wisdom?” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“Since the little wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery that wise men have makes a great show.” William Shakespeare, As You Like It

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

“I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.” William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2

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

“Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.” William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2

“It is a wise father that knows his own child.” William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.” William Shakespeare, King Lear

“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

“But there is no estimating the wit and wisdom concealed and latent in our lower fellow mortals until made manifest by profound experiences; for it is through suffering that dogs as well as saints are developed and made perfect.” John Muir, Stickeen

“The first years of man must make provision for the last. He that never thinks, never can be wise.” Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

“I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.” William Shakespeare, Henry VIII

“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

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

Related authors

William Shakespeare (22)
Lao Tzu (2)
J. R. R. Tolkien (4)
Heraclitus (3)
Jane Austen (2)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (2)
Mark Twain (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Sophocles (5)
Francis Bacon (3)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2)
George R. R. Martin (2)
Michel de Montaigne (2)
Niccolò Machiavelli (2)
Leonardo da Vinci (1)
Paulo Coelho (1)
Oscar Wilde (1)
Henry David Thoreau (1)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1)

Related sources

On Nature (3)
Tao Te Ching (2)
Henry IV, Part 2 (2)
Romeo and Juliet (1)
Richard III (1)
Antigone (5)
As You Like It (4)
Richard II (3)
The Essays of Francis Bacon (3)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (2)
A Game of Thrones (2)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (2)
The Prince (2)
The Fellowship of the Ring (2)
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1)
Hamlet (1)
Twelfth Night (1)
The Alchemist (1)
Measure for Measure (1)
The Merchant of Venice (1)

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William Shakespeare quotes about wisdom