Wisdom Quotes

"Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone."
-Horace Mann

"It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland."
-Horace Mann

"Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life - in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color."
-Seneca

"The arts are the servant; wisdom its master."
-Seneca

"Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time."
-Theodore Roosevelt

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . . it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair . . . in short, the period was so far like the present period . . . ."
-Charles Dickens

"He is a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom."
-Benjamin Franklin

"Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim Wisdom the source of virtue, and of fame, Obtained with labor, for mankind employed, And then, when most you share it, best enjoyed."
-Alfred North Whitehead

"Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom."
-Will Durant

"Supreme happiness will be the greatest cause of misery, and the perfection of wisdom the occassion of folly."
-Leonardo da Vinci

"They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom."
-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

"A prudent question is one half of wisdom."
-Sir Francis Bacon

"Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom."
-Sir Francis Bacon

"There is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom."
-Sir Francis Bacon

"There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool."
-Sir Francis Bacon

"Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache."
-G. K. Chesterton

"Strength and wisdom are not opposing values."
-Bill Clinton

"Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom."
-Chinese Proverb

"Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity."
-Robert Louis Stevenson

"Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it."
-David Starr Jordan

"The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it."
-William Faulkner

"Knowledge can be communicated, but wisdom cannot. A man can find it, he can live it, he can be filled and sustained by it, but he cannot utter or teach it."
-Hermann Hesse

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."
-Jimi Hendrix

"Whosover loveth wisdom is righteous, but he that keepeth company with fowl is weird."
-Woody Allen

"Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise."
-Samuel Johnson

"All is but lip-wisdom which wants experience."
-Sir Philip Sidney

"But goodness alone is never enough. A hard cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom invariably accomplishes evil."
-Robert A. Heinlein