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Wisdom quotes

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

“So wise so young, they say, do never live long.” William Shakespeare, “Richard III” - 1597

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

“There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.” Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick” - 1851

“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

“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

“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

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

“In a word, it is the best and most natural arrangement that the wisest should govern the many, when it is assured that they will govern for its profit, and not for their own.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract” - 1762

“To err is common To all men, but the man who having erred Hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks The cure, is not a wastrel nor unwise.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

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

“Of happiness the chiefest part is a wise heart: And to defraud the gods in aught with peril's fraught.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 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

“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

“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, “Side Effects” - 1980

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

“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

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

“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

“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

“EDUCATION, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1906

“The wise speak only of what they know” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Two Towers” - 1954

“knowledge should lead to wisdom, and . . . if it doesn't, it's just a disgusting waste of time!” J. D. Salinger, “Franny and Zooey” - 1961

“why am I so stupid that if others are stupid—and I know they are—yet I won't be wiser?” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Crime and Punishment” - 1867

“Wisdom . . . is the oneness of mind that guides and permeates all things.” 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

“as happens in Wall Street all too often, what the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end.” Warren Buffett, “The Essays of Warren Buffett” - 1997

“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

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

“Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.” William Shakespeare, “King Lear” - 1623

“Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.” William Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night's Dream” - 1601

“But if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.” William Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night's Dream” - 1601

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

“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” - 1623

“The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.” William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” - 1623

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

“It is a wise father that knows his own child.” William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice” - 1600

“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

“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” - 1595

“For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite the man that mocks at it and sets it light.” William Shakespeare, “Richard II” - 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