991 quotes
Speech was given to the ordinary sort or men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it.
Robert South
Clergyman · English
It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.
Sam Levenson
Author · American · 1911 – 1980
Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery.
Thomas Moore
Poet · Irish · 1779 – 1852
A short saying often contains much wisdom.
Sophocles
Poet · Greek
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
Francis Bacon
Philosopher · English · 1561 – 1626
The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
Michel de Montaigne
Philosopher · French · 1533 – 1592
Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
William Dean Howells
Author · American · 1837 – 1920
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
Anatole France
Novelist · French · 1844 – 1924
How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!
Alexander Pope
Poet · English · 1688 – 1744
A wholesome oblivion of one's neighbours is the beginning of wisdom.
Richard Le Gallienne
Poet · English
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
Edmund Burke
Statesman · Irish · 1729 – 1797
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
A monarchy conducted with infinite wisdom and infinite benevolence is the most perfect of all possible governments.
Ezra Stiles
Clergyman · American · 1727 – 1795
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
David Hume
Philosopher · Scottish · 1711 – 1776
No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.
Erica Jong
Novelist · American · b. 1942
Has fortune dealt you some bad cards. Then let wisdom make you a good gamester.
Francis Quarles
Poet · English · 1592 – 1644
If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.
William Butler Yeats
Poet · Irish · 1865 – 1939
Dogs are wise. They crawl away into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more.
Agatha Christie
Writer · English · 1890 – 1976
People always blame the girl; she should have said no. A monosyllable, but conventional wisdom has always been that boys can't manage it.
Anna Quindlen
Journalist · American · b. 1953
The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.
William Blake
Poet · English · 1757 – 1827
One should proceed with caution. We may simply not be wise enough to do some of the kinds of engineering things that people are talking about doing.
Leon Kass
Educator · American · b. 1939
Hip is the sophistication of the wise primitive in a giant jungle.
Norman Mailer
Novelist · American · 1923 – 2007
In Greece wise men speak and fools decide.
George Santayana
Philosopher · American · 1863 – 1952
A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.
Hippocrates
Scientist · Greek
Theology in general seems to me a substitution of human ingenuity for divine wisdom.
Julia Ward Howe
Activist · American · 1819 – 1910
Genius unrefined resembles a flash of lightning, but wisdom is like the sun.
Franz Grillparzer
Poet · Austrian · 1791 – 1872
The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.
James Allen
Author · British
Mainstream media tend to just mouth the conventional wisdom, to see everything through the filter of right and left.
Arianna Huffington
Journalist · American · b. 1950
Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.
Plutarch
Philosopher · Greek
Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
Aesop
Author · Greek
A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
Robert Frost
Poet · American · 1874 – 1963
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness.
Sacha Guitry
Director · French · 1885 – 1957
No man was ever wise by chance.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Statesman · Roman
Our experience is composed rather of illusions that of wisdom acquired.
Joseph Roux
Clergyman · French
Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
William Osler
Scientist · Canadian · 1849 – 1919
The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow.
Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.
Marcus Fabius Quintilian
Philosopher · Roman
To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.
Thomas Carlyle
Philosopher · Scottish · 1795 – 1881
Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.
Samuel Smiles
Author · Scottish · 1812 – 1904
The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.
Dean Inge
Author · English · 1860 – 1954
To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.
Wilson Mizner
Dramatist · American · 1876 – 1933
A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat.
Louis L'Amour
Author · American · 1908 – 1988
Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.
Titus Maccius Plautus
Poet · Roman
Great deeds give choice of many tales. Choose a slight tale, enrich it large, and then let wise men listen.
Pindar
If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.
Omar N. Bradley
Soldier · American · 1893 – 1981
It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law.
Thomas Hobbes
Philosopher · English · 1588 – 1679
It takes a wise man to handle a lie, a fool had better remain honest.
Norman Douglas
Writer · British · 1868 – 1952
