Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

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.

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.

Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.

An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.

Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.

There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.

Sometimes the majority just means all the fools are on the same side.

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

One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.

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.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man.

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.

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

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as knowing what to do next.

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

The wisest hustler can suddenly fall for the worst tramp and lose all of his money on her. The hustler is aware of his own weaknesses and openings to con. This awareness is his edge.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

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

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

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

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.

Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

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.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

Step with care and great tact, and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.

Then not only an old man, but also a drunkard, becomes a second time a child.

The more extensive a man’s knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do.

How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

Man is the most intelligent of the animals – and the most silly.

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

My old drama coach used to say, ‚Don’t just do something, stand there.‘ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.

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

Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.

I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination.