991 quotes
To comprehend the Wisdom of this Injunction the better, and explain the Duty before us, it should be considered, that Government is the only Means by which human Happiness can be attained.
Charles Inglis
Clergyman · Canadian
I never think of myself as wise. I think of myself as possessing a critical intelligence which I intend to allow to operate.
Harold Pinter
Dramatist · English · b. 1930
If God had sufficient wisdom and power to construct such a beautiful world as this, then we must admit that his wisdom and power are immeasurably greater than that of man, and hence he is qualified to reign as king.
Orson Pratt
Theologian · American · 1811 – 1881
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.
Calvin Coolidge
President · American · 1872 – 1933
Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.
Harper Lee
Novelist · American · b. 1926
Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.
Thomas Gray
Poet · English · 1716 – 1771
It can't possibly last for years and browsing has its limits. Only a certain amount is healthy or wise.
Judith Krantz
Novelist · American · b. 1928
Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.
Bodhidharma
Leader · Indian
It is not white hair that engenders wisdom.
Menander
Poet · Greek
The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Scientist · French · b. 1908
To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
Buddha
Leader
Maybe politically it wasn't wise but when people have different view points I think the public has a right to hear it and the public has a right to make decisions based on those view points.
Scott McCallum
Politician · American · b. 1950
A word to the wise is enough.
Titus Maccius Plautus
Poet · Roman
It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to.
Fannie Hurst
Writer · American · 1885 – 1968
I find that to be a fool as to worldly wisdom, and to commit my cause to God, not fearing to offend men, who take offence at the simplicity of truth, is the only way to remain unmoved at the sentiments of others.
John Woolman
Clergyman · American · 1720 – 1772
Wise people say nothing in dangerous times.
John Selden
Statesman · English · 1584 – 1654
There are some persons in this world, who, unable to give better proof of being wise, take a strange delight in showing what they think they have sagaciously read in mankind by uncharitable suspicions of them.
Herman Melville
Novelist · American · 1819 – 1891
The residence of the Plymouth settlers in the Netherlands, and the later conquest of the Dutch colonies, had brought the Americans into contact with the singularly wise and free institutions of the Dutch.
Albert Bushnell Hart
Historian · American · 1854 – 1943
But the law of God came from heaven indeed. God wrote it with his finger, it is the fountain of all wisdom, and therefore shall it continue for ever, and never have an end.
John Jewel
Clergyman · English · 1522 – 1571
Wisdom prepares for the worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day when it comes.
Richard Cecil
Clergyman · English · 1748 – 1810
Today, certain people file for bankruptcy, businesses and individuals, and it no longer has the stigma it once had. Now it's almost considered wise, a way to regroup and come back again.
David Dinkins
Politician · American · b. 1927
One reason the human race has such a low opinion of itself is that it gets so much of its wisdom from writers.
Wilfrid Sheed
Novelist · English · b. 1930
Imagination allows us to escape the predictable. It enables us to reply to the common wisdom that we cannot soar by saying, "Just watch!"
Bill Bradley
Politician · American · b. 1943
If a wise man behaves prudently, how can he be overcome by his enemies? Even a single man, by right action, can overcome a host of foes.
Saskya Pandita
Wise it is to comprehend the whole.
Edward Young
Poet · English · 1683 – 1765
But Paul, in his preaching of the Gospel, is a debtor to deliver the word not to Barbarians only, but also to Greeks, and not only to the unwise, who would easily agree with him, but also to the wise.
Origen
Theologian
We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.
E. O. Wilson
Scientist · American · b. 1929
A word to the wise is infuriating.
Hunter S. Thompson
Journalist · American · 1937 – 2005
Cleverness is not wisdom.
Euripides
A man may learn wisdom even from a foe.
Aristophanes
There is only a finger's difference between a wise man and a fool.
Diogenes of Sinope
Philosopher · Greek
Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die? Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom.
Alan Paton
Novelist · South African · 1903 – 1988
As I visited the various neighborhoods in the campaign, I learned fast that it's a mistake to think that all of the wisdom and possible solutions to our problems are available only in this building.
Jane Byrne
Politician · American · b. 1934
A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.
Grantland Rice
Journalist · American · 1880 – 1954
In justice to human society it may perhaps be said of almost all the polities and civil institutions in the world, however imperfect, that they have been founded in and carried on with very considerable wisdom.
Ezra Stiles
Clergyman · American · 1727 – 1795
It's very hard to know what wisdom is.
James Hillman
Psychologist · American
Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.
Wallace Stegner
Novelist · American · 1909 – 1993
No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.
Anne Bradstreet
Poet · American
Lord, bless me with the ability to achieve all that I can, and the wisdom to realize it doesn't all have to be by tomorrow!
William Eardley IV
Public Servant · American · b. 1964
For the wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimensions.
Laozi
Philosopher · Chinese
I believe that President Clinton considered the legal merits of the arguments for the pardon as he understood them, and he rendered his judgment, wise or unwise, on the merits.
John Podesta
Lawyer · American · b. 1949
Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise.
Samuel Lover
Artist · Irish · 1797 – 1868
Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
Charles Spurgeon
Clergyman · British · 1834 – 1892
Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.
e. e. cummings
Poet · American · 1894 – 1962
Be there a will, and wisdom finds a way.
George Crabbe
Poet · English · 1754 – 1832
He whose wisdom cannot help him, gets no good from being wise.
Quintus Ennius
That is a good question for you to ask, not a wise question for me to answer.
Anthony Eden
Politician · English · 1897 – 1977
