He that won’t be counseled can’t be helped.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack.

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

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

Start with God – the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.

Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

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

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

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.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

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 object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.

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

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

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

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

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

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

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

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.

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

Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on.

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

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

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

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

Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

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