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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

“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

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

“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

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

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

“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

“Wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes, but presently prevent the ways to wail.” William Shakespeare, “Richard II” - 1595

“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

“I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.” William Shakespeare, “Henry IV, Part 2” - 1600

“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” - 1600

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

“He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer the worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs his outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly, and ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, to bring it into danger.” William Shakespeare, “Timon of Athens” - 1623

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

“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

“Therefore all the wild elephants to-night will—but why should I waste wisdom on a river-turtle?” Rudyard Kipling, “The Jungle Book” - 1894

“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

“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” - 1897

“Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forc'd by...” Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” - 1791

“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”

“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

“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” - 1895

“Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.” Francis Bacon, “The Essays of Francis Bacon” - 1597

“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

“Behold the beast, for which I have turned back; Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage, For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.” Dante Alighieri, “Divine Comedy” - 1320

“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” - 1891

“Wisdom is the understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by Love.” Honoré de Balzac, “Séraphîta” - 1834

Related topics

stupidity age life foolishness wit love madness strength men self-knowledge modesty heart pain thought peace error government science women slowness

Related authors

William Shakespeare (22)
Sophocles (5)
Francis Bacon (3)
Niccolò Machiavelli (2)
Jane Austen (1)
Oscar Wilde (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Lewis Carroll (1)
Herman Melville (1)
Heraclitus (1)
Maya Angelou (1)
Rudyard Kipling (1)
Jack London (1)
Bertrand Russell (1)
John Muir (1)
Paulo Coelho (1)
Benjamin Franklin (1)
Plato (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1)

Related sources

Antigone (5)
As You Like It (4)
Richard II (3)
The Essays of Francis Bacon (3)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (2)
Henry IV, Part 2 (2)
The Prince (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)
Measure for Measure (1)
Henry VIII (1)
Timon of Athens (1)
Henry VI, Part 3 (1)

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William Shakespeare quotes about wisdom