We cannot advance without new experiments in living, but no wise man tries every day what he has proved wrong the day before.
Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know -- and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It is better to know -- even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction -- than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder. That was the choice of Achilles, and it is mine, too.
The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.
In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.
There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.
— Basho
Wise men still seek Him today.
Action should culminate in wisdom.
When you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion alike, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end, and you life in the wisdom of the Self.
The live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you stemma to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. [1 Corinthians 3:18-19]
— Bible
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. [Proverbs 3:13-15]
— Bible
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.
— Bible
The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. [Proverbs 15: 31]
— Bible
In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
— Bible
Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times.
— Bible
Through wisdom is a house built; and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge shall every room be filled with precious and pleasant riches.
— Bible
Wisdom is better than weapons of war. [9:18b, Ecclesiastes]
— Bible
So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
— Bible
The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. [Psalms 19:7]
— Bible
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all your getting get understanding.
— Bible
Better to get wisdom than gold.
— Bible
The wisdom of a learned man comet by opportunity of leisure: and he that hath little business shall become wise. [Ecclesiasticus 38:25]
— Bible
Some folks are wise and some otherwise.
The price of wisdom is eternal thought.
What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all the man hath, his house, his wife, his children.
The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
The fool who persists in his folly will become wise.
The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
The only one who is wiser than anyone is everyone.
The ultimate wisdom which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls faith rather than reason.
True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.
Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.
Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear.
— Buddha
As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.
— Buddha
Nine times out of ten it is over the Bridge of Sighs that we pass the narrow gulf from youth to manhood. That interval is usually marked by an ill placed or disappointed affection. We recover and we find ourselves a new being. The intellect has become hardened by the fire through which it has passed. The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone.
If I don't have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.
Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it.
Great men are the commissioned guides of mankind, who rule their fellows because they are wiser.
The greatest event for the world is the arrival of a new and wise person.
Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
Time ripens all things; no man is born wise.
The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.
Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil -- not the strength to choose between the two.
Everything I know I learned after I was thirty.
The extreme limit of wisdom --that's what the public calls madness.
A wise man thinks what is easy is difficult.
The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.
Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.
No one over thirty-five is worth meeting who has not something to teach us, --something more than we could learn for ourselves, from a book.
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.
Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, and integrated wholeness.
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, or several signatures of that one archetypal seal, or like so many multiplied reflections of one and the same face, made in several glasses, whereof some are clearer, some obscurer, some standing nearer, some further off.
All human wisdom is summed up in two words; wait and hope.
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.
Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.
Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.
Let us be poised, and wise, and our own, today.
Life is a festival only to the wise.
There is a time when a man distinguishes the idea of felicity from the idea of wealth; it is the beginning of wisdom.
A wise man is he who does not grieve for the thing which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God.
Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.
Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech.
— Evangel
Wisdom is meaningless until our own experience has given it meaning.
Timing, degree and conviction are the three wise men in this life.
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.
Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.
Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.
The doors of wisdom are never shut.
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.
The beginning of wisdom is to desire it.
Kings may be judges of the earth, but wise men are the judges of kings.
One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.
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.
The man who questions opinions is wise. The man who quarrels with facts is a fool.
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.
Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.
This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.
Wisdom is found only in truth.
Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, and fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.
The wise man can pick up a grain of sand and envision a whole universe. But the stupid man will just lay down on some seaweed and roll around in it until he's completely draped in it. Then he'll stand up and go hey, I'm Vine Man.
Knowledge can be communicated, but wisdom cannot. A man can find it, he can live it, he can be filled and sustained by it, but he cannot utter or teach it.
I have known it for a long time but I have only just experienced it. Now I know it not only with my intellect, but with my eyes, with my heart, with my stomach.
There often seems to be a playfulness to wise people, as if either their equanimity has as its source this playfulness or the playfulness flows from the equanimity; and they can persuade other people who are in a state of agitation to calm down and manage a smile.
Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.
The wisdom of others remains dull till it is writ over with our own blood. We are essentially apart from the world; it bursts into our consciousness only when it sinks its teeth and nails into us.
It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.
Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.
— Horace
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
Wisdom is learning what to overlook.
He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.
Wisdom overcomes fortune.
Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.
It is more easy to be wise for others than for ourselves.
It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.
As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.
It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd preferred to talk.
Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.
It may serve as a comfort to us, in all our calamities and afflictions, that he that loses anything and gets wisdom by it is a gainer by the loss.
It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.
We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.
He swallowed a lot of wisdom, but all of it seems to have gone down the wrong way.
There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather.
A wise man will see to it that his acts always seem voluntary and not done by compulsion, however much he may be compelled by necessity.
It is not from reason that justice springs, but goodness is born of wisdom.
The Universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson. The mountain teaches stability and grandeur; the ocean immensity and change. Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes, -- every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. Even the bee and ant have brought their little lessons of industry and economy.
Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one's being.
By the time your life is finished, you will have learned just enough to begin it well.
No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.
That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.
Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.
We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.
Wisdom hath her excesses, and no less need of moderation than folly.
There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.
Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?
The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill temper.
A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning.
Behold, my son, with what little wisdom the world is ruled.
Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable.
Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
— Phaedrus
The days that are still to come are the wisest witnesses.
— Pindar
Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.
— Plato
The wisest have the most authority.
— Plato
Wisdom alone is the science of others sciences.
— Plato
Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.
No man is wise enough by himself.
By others faults the wise correct their own.
— Proverb
A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything
The heart of the wise man lies quiet like limpid water.
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month's study of books.
Beauty is the wisdom of women. Wisdom is the beauty of men.
Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.
Wise care keeps what it has gained.
The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.
Everyone is wise until he speaks.
He alone is wise who can accommodate himself to all contingencies of life; but the fool contends, and struggling, like a swimmer, against the stream.
The foolish sayings of a rich man pass for wise ones.
Even though you know a thousand things, ask the man who knows one.
A nation's treasure is its scholars.
Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.
It is not wise to be wiser than necessary.
Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her.
To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
More wisdom is latent in things as they are than in all the words men use.
Wisdom comes by disillusionment.
Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.
They would need to be already wise, in order to love wisdom.
The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.
Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life -- in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.
— Seneca
To be wise and love exceeds man's might.
So wise so young, they say, do never live long.
The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.
Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.
The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.
Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.
Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.
The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.
— Socrates
True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
— Socrates
Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.
— Socrates
Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.
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.
The greatest wisdom is to realize one's lack of it
The wise man avoids evil by anticipating it.
Who is a wise man? He who learns of all men.
Who is wise? One who learns from all.
The end result of wisdom is... good deeds.
Wisdom is perishable. Unlike information or knowledge, it cannot be stored in a computer or recorded in a book. It expires with each passing generation.
It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make sense.
The only thing that we know is that we know nothing and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.
A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that he can no longer be lead by the nose.
Wisdom is knowledge, rightly applied.
If wisdom were on sale in the open market, the stupid would not even ask the price.
Many people might have attained wisdom had they not assumed they already had it.
The best mind might be the wisest mind if it were a mind alone that produces wisdom.
The wise man says it cannot be done, but the fool goes and does it.
What a wonderful world this would be if there were as many wise people as there are cleaver people.
Wise are they who have learned these truths: Trouble is temporary. Time is a tonic. Tribulation is a test tube.
Wise men are not always silent, but they know when to be.
Without wisdom, knowledge is more stupid than ignorance.
You can buy education, but wisdom is a gift from God.
Understanding the limitations of human beings as well as understanding your own is the beginning of true wisdom.
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
— Voltaire
Committing a great truth to memory is admirable; committing it to life is wisdom.
Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.
Wisdom begins at the end.
Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
It seems to me that, in every culture, I come across a chapter headed Wisdom. And then I know exactly what is going to follow: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Look at those they call unfortunate and at a closer view, you'll find many of them are unwise.
If you wish to know the road up the mountain, ask the man who goes back and forth on it.
— Zenrin