I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.

Experience which was once claimed by the aged is now claimed exclusively by the young.

The first step in a person’s salvation is knowledge of their sin.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

I’m not really book-smart.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man’s own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.

Study men, not historians.

No driver is perfect.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

Until I began to learn to draw, I was never much interested in looking at art.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education… Without a gentle contempt for education no man’s education is complete.

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.

An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow.

I am not promising that God will give you everything you want. There are times when we want things that God knows would not be good for us.

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

Kids will remind you that, even though you’ve gone down a road 100 times, it’s brand new for them – and that’s healthy.

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

To discover and know has always been a deep tendency of our nature. Can we not recognize it already in caveman?

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

Wisdom is found only in truth.

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

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

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it.

Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

I’ve learned never to say never.

It is easy to dismiss the world as ‚irrelevant,‘ or consumed by ‚paranoid anti-Americanism,‘ but perhaps not wise.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

I’m sure a lot of people out there make mistakes.

Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything, or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

Prices are important not because money is considered paramount but because prices are a fast and effective conveyor of information through a vast society in which fragmented knowledge must be coordinated.

The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.