It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

Be smarter than other people, just don’t tell them so.

Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.

Everything in excess is opposed to nature.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

We are wiser than we know.

The last suit that you wear, you don’t need any pockets.

I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don’t just want to possess it, it will find you.

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

The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

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

Hearing voices no one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.

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.

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.

A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.

As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. For once they fear it, the one who tells it doesn’t stand a chance. And today, truth is still beautiful… but so frightening.

He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

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

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

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

I can resist everything except temptation.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‚This is a misfortune‘ but ‚To bear this worthily is good fortune.‘

No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

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.

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

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world – not even our troubles.

Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come.

Every time I plant a seed, He say kill it before it grow, he say kill it before they grow.

Ask an older person you respect to tell you his or her greatest regret.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable.

Of two evils, choose neither.

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

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

Gambling can turn into a dangerous two-way street when you least expect it. Weird things happen suddenly, and your life can go all to pieces.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning.

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

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

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

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.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

Thomas Jefferson once said, ‚We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.‘ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

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.