The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

Children always turn to the light.

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.

The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.

People think that at the top there isn’t much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.

Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can’t expect an angel to look out.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

No country can act wisely simultaneously in every part of the globe at every moment of time.

As a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.

I have a memory, and I can just eliminate mistakes when they come up because I’ve already made them.

Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.

We can continue to learn generation after generation and now is time to begin to learn how to love in a non-discriminatory way because we are intelligent enough, but we are not loving enough as a species.

I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these ‚how‘ and ‚why‘ questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.

Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

The pace at which people are taking to digital technology defies our stereotypes of age, education, language and income.

The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.

For me, there are two types of people: the young and the experienced.

Give thy thoughts no tongue.

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

My company survives because I’ve learned to respect the ideas of people younger than me and recognize when my wisdom is obsolete.

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.

No man was ever wise by chance.

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.

Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

After many years of great mercy, after tasting of the powers of the world to come, we still are so weak, so foolish; but, oh! when we get away from self to God, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, victory.