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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

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

“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

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

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

“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

“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

“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”

“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

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

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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Yea, so it falls, sire, when misfortune comes, The wisest even lose their mother wit.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

“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

“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

“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 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” - 1988

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

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

“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 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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

“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

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)
George R. R. Martin (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)
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)
A Game of Thrones (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)

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William Shakespeare quotes about wisdom