Wisdom Quotes



I hope you enjoy this collection of wisdom quotes from some of the wisest people of all time.

Wisdom Quotes Index

About Wisdom
Bible Verses
Building Blocks of Wisdom
Confucius
How to be Wise
Humorous
Insightful
Inspirational
Lack of Wisdom
Proverbs
Recognizing Wisdom
Types of Wisdom
Value of Wisdom
Wisdom and Age
Wisdom Defined
Wisdom in Approaching Life
Wisdom in Human Interactions
Wisdom’s Companions

About Wisdom

"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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Bible Verses

"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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Building Blocks of Wisdom

"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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Confucius

"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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How to be Wise

"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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Humorous

"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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Insightful

"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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Inspirational

"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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Lack of Wisdom

"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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Proverbs

"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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Recognizing Wisdom

"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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Types of Wisdom

"There is a wisdom of the head, and... a wisdom of the heart."
~ Charles Dickens

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Value of Wisdom

"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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Wisdom and Age

"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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Wisdom Defined

"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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Wisdom in Approaching Life

"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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Wisdom in Human Interactions

"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’s Companions

"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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