Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

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

My company survives because I’ve learned to respect the ideas of people younger than me and recognize when my wisdom is obsolete.

A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.

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

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.

Youth is wasted on the young.

The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

I consider wisdom supernatural because it isn’t taught by men – it’s a gift from God.

You learn from a conglomeration of the incredible past – whatever experience gotten in any way whatsoever.

I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator.

We should all start to live before we get too old.

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

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

I have the problems of, I must confess, old age.

Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.

No one can pass through life, any more than he can pass through a bit of country, without leaving tracks behind, and those tracks may often be helpful to those coming after him in finding their way.

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

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

If you have the insight of non-self, if you have the insight of impermanence, you should make that insight into a concentration that you keep alive throughout the day. Then what you say, what you think, and what you do will then be in the light of that wisdom and you will avoid making mistakes and creating suffering.

I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money! Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors.

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

We call first truths those we discover after all the others.

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.

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

Those who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, don’t have knowledge.

Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

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

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

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

Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

If you wished to be loved, love.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

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

Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.

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

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

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.

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

All that I know about my life, it seems, I have learned in books.

If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

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

He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.