Wisdom Quotes

Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar.

William Wordsworth

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

Kahlil Gibran

The extreme limit of wisdom - - That is what the public calls madness.

Jean Cocteau

A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be led by the nose.

Mark Twain

Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.

Chinese Prove

There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.

Pearl Buck

Before we acquire great power, we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Between the amateur and the professional... there is a difference not only in degree but in kind. The skillful man is, within the function of his skill, a different psychological organization... A tennis player or a watchmaker or an airplane pilot is an automatism but he is also criticism and wisdom.

Bernard De Voto

Knowledge, without common sense, says Lee, is folly; without method, it is waste; without kindness, it is fanaticism; without religion, it is death. But with common sense, it is wisdom with method, it is power; with clarity, it is beneficence; with religion, it is virtue, and life, and peace.

Austin Farra

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, Odes

Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.

Sigmund Freud

How terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it.

Sophocles, Tiresias. Oedipus the King 315

Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Surely, to think your own the only wisdom, and yours the only word, the only will, betrays a shallow spirit, an empty heart.

Sophocles

Of all possessions wisdom alone is immortal.

Isocrates

Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.

Karl Kraus

There is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.

Sir Francis Bacon

What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes? But the man who orders his life according to their teachings cannot go far wrong.

Norman Douglas

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.

John Stuart Mill

A country is considered the more civilized the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak or a powerful one too powerful.

Primo Levi

The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whosover loveth wisdom is righteous, but he that keepeth company with fowl is weird.

Woody Allen, "Without Feathers".

Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the life - Long attempt to acquire it.

Albert Einstein

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

Benjamin Disraeli

Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.

Walter Stegne

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

Plutarch

The only infallible criterion of wisdom to vulgar minds - - Success.

Edmund Burke

Where duty is plain, delay is both foolish and hazardous where it is not, delay may provide both wisdom and safety.

Tryon Edwards

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

Charles Caleb Colton

A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance. Observe how the greatest minds yield in some degree to the superstitions of their age.

Henry David Thoreau

The beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right names.

Chinese Prove

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

Thomas Carlyle

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

Sandra Carey

Mingle some brief folly with your wisdom.

Horace

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.

Chuang - Tzu, On Leveling All Things

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Reinhold Niebuh

The motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one.

Honore De Balzac

Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength and idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.

Dee W. Hock, Fast Company

These days people seek knowledge, not wisdom. Knowledge is of the past, wisdom is of the future.

Vernon Coope