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

Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.

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.

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

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.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

The formula ‚Two and two make five‘ is not without its attractions.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

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

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean.

The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.

If I went back to my 20-year-old self, what I would tell my 20-year-old self is, ‚You don’t know anything.‘ Because everyone, when they’re young, they think they know what’s going on in the world, and you don’t.

When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn’t got any.

He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.

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.

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

A clever man commits no minor blunders.

It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

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

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

Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

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

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

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

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

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.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.

Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses though he be not drunk.

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

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.

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

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

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.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.