wisdom quotes

Silence is the virtue of fools.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

Rashness belongs to youth; prudence to old age.

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.

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

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

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.‘

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.

His priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even… knowledge, was foolproof.

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.

A fool is wise in his eyes.

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

The worst men often give the best advice.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

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.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

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.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

Old age: the crown of life, our play’s last act.

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

He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.

Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

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

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.

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

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.

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

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

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

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

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.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Half a truth is often a great lie.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

The only source of knowledge is experience.

Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream.

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

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.

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

I learned a great many years ago that in a fight between husband and wife, a third party should never get between the woman’s skillet and the man’s ax-helve.

In South Korea, they believe that when you turn 60, you’ve become a baby again and the rest of your life should be totally about joy and happiness, and people should leave you alone, and I just think that that’s the height of intelligence.