Quotes on wisdom

The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.

Author: Peter Abelard

Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.

Author: Abigail Adams

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

Author: Joseph Addison

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

Author: Aeschylus

Wisdom comes alone through suffering.

Author: Aeschylus

Memory is the mother of all wisdom.

Author: Aeschylus

After all my possessions had been burned, God gave me the wisdom to return to Jerusalem.

Author: Shmuel Agnon

Life's greatest lessons are often learned in the most unexpected moments.

Author: Samantha Greene

To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.

Author: Akhenaton

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.

Author: Akhenaton

Doubt the conventional wisdom unless you can verify it with reason and experiment.

Author: Steve Albini

Embrace the chaos of life, for within it lies the hidden beauty of unexpected possibilities.

Author: Sophia Martinez

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.

Author: Richard Allen

To know one's self is wisdom, but not to know one's neighbors is genius.

Author: Minna Antrim

A man may learn wisdom even from a foe.

Author: Aristophanes

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

Author: Aristotle

Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.

Author: Aristotle

The current wisdom now is that if the three networks are covering the news the same way the difference is the anchor people. I think that won't be true in the future.

Author: Roone Arledge

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.

Author: Mary Ash

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.

Author: Francis Assisi

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.

Author: Mary Astell

Unhappy is that Grandeur which makes us too great to be good; and that Wit which sets us at a distance from true Wisdom.

Author: Mary Astell

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

Author: Saint Augustine

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

Author: Francis Bacon

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

Author: Francis Bacon

Kindness is wisdom.

Author: Philip Bailey

In life, all good things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by.

Author: Lucille Ball

I am thinking of taking a fifth wife. Why not? Solomon had a thousand wives and he is a synonym for wisdom.

Author: John Barrymore

And I pray thee, loving Jesus, that as Thou hast graciously given me to drink in with delight the words of Thy knowledge, so Thou wouldst mercifully grant me to attain one day to Thee, the fountain of all wisdom and to appear forever before Thy face.

Author: Venerable Bede

What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away.

Author: Henry Beecher

We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.

Author: Stephen Benet

To light one candle to God and another to the Devil is the principle of wisdom.

Author: Jose Bergamin

The result showed the wisdom of your orders.

Author: John Bigelow

Wisdom has never made a bigot, but learning has.

Author: Josh Billings

Learning sleeps and snores in libraries, but wisdom is everywhere, wide awake, on tiptoe.

Author: Josh Billings

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

Author: William Blake

The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.

Author: William Blake

Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.

Author: Bodhidharma

Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother.

Author: Erma Bombeck

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

Author: Napoleon Bonaparte

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.

Author: Anne Bradstreet

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.

Author: David Brainerd

In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.

Author: Louis Brandeis

Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.

Author: Bertolt Brecht

Wisdom is keeping a sense of fallibility of all our views and opinions.

Author: Gerald Brenan

Second, this epic tale allows the audience to actually listen to the Native Americans and receive their wisdom. Spielberg conveys the respect for Native Americans that is normally lacking in Western films.

Author: Beau Bridges

Beauty, the eternal Spouse of the Wisdom of God and Angel of his Presence thru' all creation.

Author: Robert Bridges

I covered my face because they had taken my wisdom teeth out.

Author: Josh Brolin

Knowledge is going to make you stronger. Knowledge is going to let you control your life. Knowledge is going to give you the wisdom to teach their children. Knowledge is the thing that makes you smile in the face of disaster.

Author: Avery Brooks

Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.

Author: Merry Browne

To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.

Author: James Buchanan

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

Author: Buddha

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.

Author: Edmund Burke

Wisdom is knowing the right path to take; integrity is taking it without hesitation.

Author: Mandy Hale

If I don't have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.

Author: Leo Buscaglia

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.

Author: Jane Byrne

If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.

Author: George Byron

Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure, there is no sterner moralist than pleasure.

Author: Lord Byron

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Author: Thomas Carlyle

Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense.

Author: Julian Casablancas

Wisdom prepares for the worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day when it comes.

Author: Richard Cecil

Wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

Author: John Cheever

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

Author: John Cheever

The plan was criticized by some retired military officers embedded in TV studios. But with every advance by our coalition forces, the wisdom of that plan becomes more apparent.

Author: Dick Cheney

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

Author: Marcus Cicero

Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Author: Marcus Cicero

Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.

Author: William Clinton

Conventional wisdom holds that setting a timetable for getting American troops out of Iraq would be a mistake.

Author: Nick Clooney

The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness.

Author: Jean Cocteau

I chose Sony Classics, not just because of their practical experience, not just because of their wisdom in marketing, but mainly because of their integrity.

Author: Arthur Cohn

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

Author: Samuel Coleridge

Knowledge is the consequence of time, and multitude of days are fittest to teach wisdom.

Author: Jeremy Collier

Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.

Author: Charles Colton

Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

Author: Charles Colton

They are few in the midst of an overwhelming mass of brute force, and their submission is wisdom; but for a nation like England to submit to be robbed by any invader who chooses to visit her shores seemed to me to be nonsense.

Author: George Combe

Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness.

Author: Cyril Connolly

There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom, for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives.

Author: Cyril Connolly

The wisdom of age: don't stop walking.

Author: Mason Cooley

At sixty, I know little more about wisdom than I did at thirty, but I know a great deal more about folly.

Author: Mason Cooley

I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom; I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients.

Author: Gustave Courbet

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

Author: Norman Cousins

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

Author: William Cowper

They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.

Author: William Cowper

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more.

Author: William Cowper

Be there a will, and wisdom finds a way.

Author: George Crabbe

Now all the knowledge and wisdom that is in creatures, whether angels or men, is nothing else but a participation of that one eternal, immutable and increased wisdom of God.

Author: Ralph Cudworth

Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

Author: e. cummings

Books are the ever burning lamps of accumulated wisdom.

Author: George Curtis

The roots of wisdom grow deep in the soil of authenticity.

Author: Alice Walker

True wisdom is not in knowing all the answers, but in embracing the beauty of the unknown.

Author: Maya Angelou

Books should to one of these fours ends conduce, for wisdom, piety, delight, or use.

Author: John Denham

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.

Author: Charles Dickens

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

Author: Charles Dickens

What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes?

Author: Norman Douglas

The sublimity of wisdom is to do those things living, which are to be desired when dying.

Author: Norman Douglas

The pine stays green in winter... wisdom in hardship.

Author: Norman Douglas

We do not sit as a superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation.

Author: William Douglas

In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.

Author: Theodore Dreiser

I have no agenda except to be funny. Neither I or the writers profess to offer any worldly wisdom.

Author: Julia Dreyfus

All human wisdom is summed up in two words; wait and hope.

Author: Alexandre Dumas

Your law may be perfect, your knowledge of human affairs may be such as to enable you to apply it with wisdom and skill, and yet without individual acquaintance with men, their haunts and habits, the pursuit of the profession becomes difficult, slow, and expensive.

Author: William Dunbar

Spending two years on my uncle's ranch in Montana as a young man gave me the wisdom and the thrust to do westerns.

Author: Robert Duvall

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!

Author: William Eardley IV

The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.

Author: Dwight Eisenhower

More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.

Author: George Eliot

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

Author: George Eliot

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

Author: Ralph Emerson

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

Author: Ralph Emerson

Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise.

Author: Paul Engle

He whose wisdom cannot help him, gets no good from being wise.

Author: Quintus Ennius

It is wisdom in prosperity, when all is as thou wouldn't have it, to fear and suspect the worst.

Author: Desiderius Erasmus

Some wisdom you must learn from one who's wise.

Author: Euripides

Silence is true wisdom's best reply.

Author: Euripides

Cleverness is not wisdom.

Author: Euripides

The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it.

Author: William Faulkner

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.

Author: Martin Fischer

While many of us never knew Ronald Reagan personally, we felt close to him because we shared his lighthearted sense of humor, admired his uncommon virtue, and were moved by his remarkable wisdom.

Author: Randy Forbes

I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

Author: Anatole France

Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.

Author: Anatole France

Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.

Author: Felix Frankfurter

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

Author: Benjamin Franklin

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Author: Benjamin Franklin

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

Author: Robert Frost

In particular, for younger researchers on whom the future of mankind may depend. We believe that they are working with all the scientific wisdom at their disposal for the preservation of the inheritance of the earth and for the lasting survival of mankind.

Author: Kenichi Fukui

It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods.

Author: Margaret Fuller

The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.

Author: Solomon Gabirol

One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.

Author: John Galbraith

The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.

Author: John Galbraith

A wholesome oblivion of one's neighbours is the beginning of wisdom.

Author: Richard Gallienne

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

Author: Mohandas Gandhi

The greater the step forward in knowledge, the greater is the one taken backward in search of wisdom.

Author: Stephen Gardiner

All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.

Author: James Garfield

Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

Author: Khalil Gibran

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

Author: Khalil Gibran

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Author: Khalil Gibran

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

Author: Khalil Gibran

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.

Author: Khalil Gibran

Wisdom is found only in truth.

Author: Johann Goethe

Surely, God on high has not refused to give us enough wisdom to find ways to bring us an improvement in relations between the two great nations on earth.

Author: Mikhail Gorbachev

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

Author: Baltasar Gracian

Morality comes with the sad wisdom of age, when the sense of curiosity has withered.

Author: Graham Greene

Remembering is painful, it's difficult, but it can be inspiring and it can give wisdom.

Author: Paul Greengrass

Courage is always the surest wisdom.

Author: Wilfred Grenfell

I acknowledge the privilege of being alive in a human body at this moment, endowed with senses, memories, emotions, thoughts, and the space of mind in its wisdom aspect.

Author: Alex Grey

Genius unrefined resembles a flash of lightning, but wisdom is like the sun.

Author: Franz Grillparzer

We are to seek wisdom and understanding only in the length of days.

Author: Robert Hall

All human wisdom works and has worries and grief as reward.

Author: Johann Hamann

I continue to believe, contrary to the given wisdom, that it's more interesting to have an album - or, indeed, an individual song - which has variety rather than homogeneity.

Author: Peter Hammill

You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom.

Author: Herbie Hancock