Quotations about Wisdom
Every man is a damn fool at least ten minutes a day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. ~Elbert Hubbard, 1909
Experience is the father, and memory the mother of wisdom. ~Proverb
Wisdom begins at the end: remember it. ~John Webster (c.1580–c.1632)
Wisdom is not what you know but how quickly you adjust when the opposite proves true. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
To be the least wise in order to become the most wise — this is precisely what those Buddhists are aiming at without knowing it. ~Anatole France, Le crime de Sylvestre Bonnard, 1881, translated by Lafcadio Hearn, 1890
A good part of a reputation for wisdom is being lost for words when the situation calls for it. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
It is a question not of hope or despair, but of truth; not of optimism nor of Pessimism, but of wisdom. Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it. ~David Starr Jordan
One does not grow wiser by knowing more but by becoming less certain. ~Robert Brault, 2017, rbrault.blogspot.com
Some wise men would do well to exchange a portion of their weighty wisdom for the lighter burden of their neighbors' innocent folly. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882
The years teach much which the days never know. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Experience"
When I can look Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange — my youth.
~Sara Teasdale, "Wisdom"
Never does Nature say one thing and Wisdom another. ~Juvenal, translated by G. G. Ramsay, 1918
A single conversation with a wise man during the eating of a meal, is better than ten years' mere study of books. ~Chinese proverb [quoted in Justus Doolittle, A Vocabulary and Hand-Book of the Chinese Language, Romanized in the Mandarin Dialect, "Metaphorical and Proverbial Sentences," 1872
This would be a great time in the world for some man to come along that knew something. ~Will Rogers
Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences... ~Norman Cousins, 1978
He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom. ~James Huneker, "The Artist and His Wife," The Pathos of Distance: A Book of a Thousand and One Moments, 1913
If there is such a thing as the collected wisdom of the ages, you wonder where it resides today, and where exactly you would go to consult it. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
For each generation must find the wisdom of the ages in the form of its own wisdom. ~Erik H. Erikson, "Human Strength and the Cycle of Generations," Insight and Responsibility, 1964
...wisdom comes by disillusion... ~George Santayana, 1905
We become wise by observing what happens when we're not. ~Arnold H. Glasow (1905–1999)
Wisdom is digested experience... ~Janesville Daily Gazette (Janesville, Wisconsin), 1917 March 29th
To be not too sanguine of our conclusions, is one half of wisdom. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
He bids fair to grow wise, who has discovered that he is not so. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop
Than when we soar...
~William Wordsworth, "The Excursion," 1814
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Young Practitioner," 1871
Delay is always vexatious, but it is wisdom's opportunity. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
~William Cowper, "The Winter Walk at Noon"
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers... ~Alfred Lord Tennyson
If wisdom and diamonds grew on the same tree we could soon tell how much men loved wisdom. ~Lemuel K. Washburn, Is the Bible Worth Reading and Other Essays, 1911
The toughest test of good judgment is to know when to withhold your better judgment. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Why, thou say'st well. I do now remember a saying: "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." ~William Shakespeare, As You Like It, c.1599
It is not so much that the sage knows more than the fool as that the fool knows it for sure. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
He is truly wise who gains wisdom from another's mishap. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
As the art of reading (after a certain stage in one's education) is the art of skipping, so the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. ~William James, "Reasoning," 1878
To be wise for others is easier than to be wise for ourselves. ~François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom. ~Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
For Wisdom is not only to be acquired, but enjoyed. ~Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
There are subjects in which I wish to become knowledgeable, and subjects in which I wish to remain wise. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Silence is wisdom's sentinel. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882
Every wise man lives in an observatory. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
To be ultimately wise is to know everything, none of it for sure. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
You must be very wise if you know what you mean. ~John Kendrick Bangs, "Jimmieboy's Valentine," Bikey the Skicycle, 1902
Mr. Copperfield... told her, when she doubted herself, that a loving heart was better and stronger than wisdom... ~Charles Dickens, The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger, of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant To Be Published On Any Account), "Chapter IX: I have a memorable birthday," 1849 [This is often quoted as: "A loving heart is the truest wisdom."
"Some persons hold," he pursued, still hesitating, "that there is a wisdom of the Head, and that there is a wisdom of the Heart..." ~Charles Dickens, Hard Times, 1854
Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification. ~Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962)
No, no, no, no. How often must I tell you that we are made wise not by the recollections of our past, but by the responsibilities of our future. ~Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch, 1921
...common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge