quotations about wisdom
What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees.
SRI AUROBINDO
Thoughts and Aphorisms
Better to be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
AESOP
"Juno and the Peacock", Aesop's Fables
Was not this ... what we spoke of as the great advantage of wisdom -- to know what is known and what is unknown to us?
PLATO
Charmides
If you desire to be wiser yet, think yourself not yet wise.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Lear
My wisdom has long accumulated like a cloud, it becomes stiller and darker. So does all wisdom which shall one day bear lightnings.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Seen from the distance of 50 years, a lot of the assumed political wisdom is noteworthy mostly for just how wrong it was.
LILY ROTHMAN
"50 Years Ago This Week: Why the Presidential Campaign Starts Earlier Than Ever", Time, April 10, 2017
Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
The Prince
Wisdom is wisdom, wherever found.
G. DAVID NORDLEY
"The Fountain", Asimov's Science Fiction, June 1, 2013
All wisdom ends in paradox.
JEFFREY EUGENIDES
The Virgin Suicides
Wisdom teaches us to live content upon a bone gnawed bare.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
The wise form right judgment of the present from what is past.
SOPHOCLES
attributed, Day's Collacon
A wise man is out of the reach of fortune.
THOMAS BROWNE
Religio Medici
Wisdom is the only thing which can relieve us from the sway of the passions and the fear of danger, and which can teach us to bear the injuries of fortune itself with moderation, and which shows us all the ways which lead to tranquility and peace.
CICERO
The Academic Questions: Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations of M. T. Cicero
Beware of a leader who doesn't have scars or walk with a limp. One of the characteristics of a great leader is wisdom, and the best way to get wisdom is through experience. Normally that experience includes a few failures -- that's where battle scars and limps come from.
INGAR GREV
"Here's why companies don't want to hire people over the age of 40", The Business Journals, January 26, 2016
There are few who would need advisers, if they were only accustomed to appeal to themselves in their calmest, holiest moments. If, when embarrassed with doubt as to any course of action, they would turn aside from the immediate tumult of the world, and from the vain speaking of those who "darken counsel by words without knowledge;" and would then commune with their hearts alone, at night, the heavens their silent counsellors, they would act not always in accordance with the wise men of this world, but with that wisdom which bringeth peace.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
A man remains ignorant because he loves ignorance, and chooses ignorant thoughts; a man becomes wise because he loves wisdom and chooses wise thoughts.
JAMES ALLEN
Above Life's Turmoil
Some people look to religion. Others, great works of classical art. For most of us though, life lessons are to be found in the movies (or even its unruly, younger sibling: Television), where guiding wisdom is dispensed by sages as undoubtable as Yoda, Don Corleone or Hannibal Lector.
MATTHEW PRIEST
"21 nuggets of cinematic wisdom", Esquire, January 14, 2016
The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Proverbs of Hell
Many things imperfect by nature are made perfect by wisdom.
NICCOLO UZZANO
attributed, Day's Collacon