991 quotes
Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many and varied interests.
Andrew Johnson
President · American · 1808 – 1875
Central banks don't have divine wisdom. They try to do the best analysis they can and must be prepared to stand or fall by the quality of that analysis.
Mary Kay Ash
Businessman · American · 1918 – 2001
Our greatest stupidities may be very wise.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Philosopher · Austrian · 1889 – 1951
The ant is knowing and wise, but he doesn't know enough to take a vacation.
Clarence Day
Author · American · 1874 – 1935
A loving heart is the truest wisdom.
Charles Dickens
Novelist · English · 1812 – 1870
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.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Writer · English · 1874 – 1936
Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.
Norman Cousins
Editor · American · b. 1915
Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance.
Saadi
Poet · Iranian
The fool wanders, a wise man travels.
Thomas Fuller
Clergyman · English · 1608 – 1661
It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.
Diogenes
Philosopher · Greek
The lips of the wise are as the doors of a cabinet; no sooner are they opened, but treasures are poured out before thee.
Akhenaton
Statesman · Egyptian
Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.
James Madison
President · American · 1751 – 1836
Sciences may be learned by rote, but wisdom not.
Laurence Sterne
Novelist · Irish · 1713 – 1768
Politics is a place of humble hopes and strangely modest requirements, where all are good who are not criminal and all are wise who are not ridiculously otherwise.
Frank Moore Colby
Educator · American
The doors of wisdom are never shut.
Benjamin Franklin
Politician · American · 1706 – 1790
The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
Poet · Spanish
If I don't have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.
Leo Buscaglia
Author · American · 1924 – 1998
Wise anger is like fire from a flint: there is great ado to get it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately.
Edward Everett Hale
Clergyman · American · 1822 – 1909
Who is the wise man? He who sees what's going to be born.
King Solomon
Royalty
We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
Samuel Smiles
Author · Scottish · 1812 – 1904
The Relation we bear to the Wisdom of the Father, the Son of His Love, gives us indeed a dignity which otherwise we have no pretence to. It makes us something, something considerable even in God's Eyes.
Mary Astell
Writer · English · 1666 – 1731
We all admire the wisdom of people who come to us for advice.
Arthur Helps
Historian · British · 1813 – 1875
Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.
Thomas Aquinas
Theologian · Italian
In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare!
Homer
Poet · Greek
The fool wonders, the wise man asks.
Benjamin Disraeli
Statesman · British · 1804 – 1881
A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.
Roy H. Williams
Businessman · American
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Reinhold Niebuhr
Theologian · American · 1892 – 1971
Wisdom, prudence, forethought, these are essential. But not second to these that noble courage which adventures the right, and leaves the consequences to God.
Robert Dale Owen
Politician · Scottish · 1801 – 1877
The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom... in a clarification of life - not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.
Robert Frost
Poet · American · 1874 – 1963
A wise man's question contains half the answer.
Wisdom is not acquired save as the result of investigation.
Sara Teasdale
Author · American · 1884 – 1933
Wisdom is a sacred communion.
Victor Hugo
Author · French · 1802 – 1885
The all-seeing eye of God beheld our deplorable state; infinite pity touched the heart of the Father of mercies; and infinite wisdom laid the plan of our recovery.
David Brainerd
Clergyman · American
Lord, give us the wisdom to utter words that are gentle and tender, for tomorrow we may have to eat them.
Mo Udall
Politician · American · 1922 – 1998
For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom.
John Webster
Playwright · English
No wise man ever wished to be younger.
Jonathan Swift
Writer · Irish · 1667 – 1745
Why should I ask the wise men: Whence is my beginning? I am busy with the thought: Where will be my end?
Muhammad Iqbal
Poet · Pakistani · 1877 – 1938
No mortal man, moreover is wise at all moments.
Pliny the Elder
Author · Roman
The mobilisation which Bush has been able to perform since 11 September 2001 has to be fought - at least by Americans - in the name of a wise, honourable and democratic patriotism.
Todd Gitlin
Sociologist · American
Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, there is no reason either in football or in poetry why the two should not meet in a man's life if he has the weight and cares about the words.
Archibald MacLeish
Poet · American · 1892 – 1982
A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell!
This land, which we have watered with our tears and our blood, is now our mother country, and we are well satisfied to stay where wisdom abounds and gospel is free.
Richard V. Allen
Public Servant · American
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
Baltasar Gracian
Philosopher · Spanish · 1601 – 1658
Wise thinkers prevail everywhere.
Sophocles
Patience is the companion of wisdom.
Saint Augustine
Saint · 354 – 430
One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.
Amos Bronson Alcott
Educator · American · 1799 – 1888
Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.
Horace
Poet · Roman
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots - suspicion.
Demosthenes
Statesman · Greek
