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.

There is no sin except stupidity.

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

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.

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

Listen to many, speak to a few.

It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

Peace if possible, truth at all costs.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

Cunning… is but the low mimic of wisdom.

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.

He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

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

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

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

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

The worst men often give the best advice.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

I love to go to the zoo. But not on Sunday. I don’t like to see the people making fun of the animals, when it should be the other way around.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

I like some animals more than some people, some people more than some animals.

Lord keep us all from sin. Teach us how to walk circumspectly; enable us to guard our minds against error of doctrine, our hearts against wrong feelings, and our lives against evil actions.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.

To learn something but not to do is really not to learn. To know something but not to do is really not to know.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

It is not well to make great changes in old age.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Man seems to be the only animal whose food soils him, making necessary much washing and shield-like bibs and napkins. Moles living in the earth and eating slimy worms are yet as clean as seals or fishes, whose lives are one perpetual wash.

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

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

Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun!

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

There should be a point to movies. Sure, you’re giving people a diversion from the cold world for a bit, but at the same time, you pass on some facts and rules and maybe a little bit of wisdom.

A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache.