Wisdom Quotes
I hope you enjoy this collection of wisdom quotes from some of the wisest people of all time.
"The doors of wisdom are never shut."
~ Benjamin Franklin
"Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers."
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
"Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another."
~ Juvenal
"Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone."
~ Horace
"How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!"
~ Homer
"A child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer."
~ Author Unknown
Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.
~ Norman Cousins
"Every wise man lives in an observatory."
~ Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
"Of all parts of wisdom the practice is the best."
~ John Tillotson
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"Wisdom belongs to the aged, and understanding to the old."
~ Bible (NLT) - Job 12:12
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise."
~ Bible (NIV) - Psalm 111:10
"Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."
~ Bible (NLT) - Proverbs 1:7
"Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 4:6-7
"When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise."
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 11:2
"Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 12:18
"Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice."
~ Bible (NIV) - Bible - Proverbs 13:10
"The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 14:1
"How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!"
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 16:16
"Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 19:20
"A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 29:11
"Wisdom brightens a man's face and changes its hard appearance."
~ Bible (NIV) - Ecclesiastes 8:1
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."
~ Bible (NIV) - James 1:5
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"Wisdom begins in wonder."
~ Socrates
"Wisdom comes by disillusionment."
~ George Santayana
"Wisdom is found only in truth."
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
~ Thomas Jefferson
"Memory is the mother of all wisdom."
~ Aeschylus
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"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."
~ Confucius
"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men."
~ Confucius
"The man of wisdom is never of two minds;
the man of benevolence never worries;
the man of courage is never afraid."
~ Confucius
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"The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others."
~ Solomon Ibn Gabriol
"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook."
~ William James
"Perspective is worth 80 IQ points."
~ Alan Kay
"Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 19:20
"Be happy. It's one way of being wise."
~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."
~ Confucius
"He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom."
~ James Huneker
"From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own."
~ Publilius Syrus
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"Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself."
~ Tom Wilson
"Some folks are wise and some are otherwise."
~ Tobias Smollett
"Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit."
~ Elbert Hubbard
"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
"He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become at sixty as wise as he thought himself at twenty."
~ Mary Wilson Little
"How can you be a sage if you're pretty? You can't get your wizard papers without wrinkles."
~ Bill Veeck
"There are subjects in which I wish to become knowledgeable, and subjects in which I wish to remain wise."
~ Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
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"Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself."
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
~ Socrates
"By associating with wise people you will become wise yourself."
~ Menander
"Wise men make more opportunities than they find."
~ Francis Bacon
"Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time."
~ Theodore Roosevelt
"Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar."
~ William Wordsworth
"The more a man knows, the more he forgives."
~ Catherine the Great
"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk."
~ Doug Larson
"We can be Knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom."
~ Michel de Montaigne
"I believe that all wisdom consists in caring immensely for a few right things, and not caring a straw about the rest."
~ John Buchan
"We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future."
~ George Bernard Shaw
"Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification."
~ Martin H. Fischer
"A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew."
~ Herb Caen
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"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."
~ Henry Ford
"Wisdom is a sacred communion."
~ Victor Hugo
"On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows,In every rill a sweet instruction flows."
~ Edward Young
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."
~ Bible (NIV) - James 1:5
"The child, offered the mother's breast,
Will not in the beginning grab it;
But soon it clings to it with zest.
And thus at wisdom's copious breasts
You'll drink each day with greater zest."
~ ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The seat of knowledge is in the head, of wisdom,in the heart."
~ William Hazlitt
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"Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago."
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it."
~ William Faulkner
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"A wise man learns by the mistakes of others,
a fool by his own."
~ Latin Proverb
"A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study."
~ Chinese Proverb
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"One who understands much displays a greater simplicity of character than one who understands little."
~ Alexander Chase
"Don't follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise."
~ Joan Rivers
"Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 12:18
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It
"Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one."
~ Diogenes
"It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them."
~ Epictetus
"A wise man learns by the mistakes of others,
a fool by his own."
~ Latin Proverb
"The man of wisdom is never of two minds;
the man of benevolence never worries;
the man of courage is never afraid."
~ Confucius
"A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."
~ Author Unknown
"A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool."
~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
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"There is a wisdom of the head, and... a wisdom of the heart."
~ Charles Dickens
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"Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength."
~ Phil Jackson
"The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom."
~ Thomas Huxley
"Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding."
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 4:6-7
"Wisdom outweighs any wealth."
~ Sophocles
"Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness."
~ Sophocles
"How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!"
~ Bible (NIV) - Proverbs 16:16
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"The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it."
~ Jean Paul
"He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become at sixty as wise as he thought himself at twenty."
~ Mary Wilson Little
"Years teach us more than books."
~ Berthold Auerbach
"The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions."
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
"How can you be a sage if you're pretty? You can't get your wizard papers without wrinkles."
~ Bill Veeck
"The years teach much which the days never knew."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"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
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"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom."
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"The truest wisdom is a resolute determination."
~ Napoleon Bonaparte
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"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it."
~ John Steinbeck
"As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round."
~ Ben Hogan
"It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary."
~ Richard Whately
"Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart."
~ Phil Jackson
"I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done."
~ Lucille Ball
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"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
~ George S. Patton
"The opportunity for brotherhood presents itself every time you meet a human being."
~ Jane Wyman
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."
~ Nelson Mandela
"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."
~ Nelson Mandela
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"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men."
~ Confucius
"Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it."
~ David Starr Jordan
"A loving heart is the truest wisdom."
~ Charles Dickens
"Patience is the companion of wisdom."
~ Saint Augustine
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