We cannot wish for that we know not.

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

I will carry on writing, to be sure. But I don’t know if I would want to publish again after Harry Potter.

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

Too much of what is called ‚education‘ is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

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

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 only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

Science is but an image of the truth.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

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

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

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.

But, you know, you can’t be a star at home.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.

You cannot open a book without learning something.

The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions. This attitude of mind – this attitude of uncertainty – is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire.

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.

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow.

The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

I’m married. My wife, Stella – a beautiful woman. She’s brought a lot of peace to my life, a lot of wisdom.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

The first two games for Churchill, I was so jittery that I didn’t know what to do. I was running more but didn’t know what to do. I’ve no bones accepting the fact that I didn’t know what was happening in the game.

A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

‚Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

U2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.

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.

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

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.

It’s so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.

We are like boxers, one never knows how much longer one has.

You will always have partial points of view, and you’ll always have the story behind the story that hasn’t come out yet. And any form of journalism you’re involved with is going to be up against a biased viewpoint and partial knowledge.

Many sophisticated, intelligent people lack wisdom and common sense.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

Whoever doesn’t know it must learn and find by experience that ‚a quiet conscience makes one strong!‘

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

I’m not a fortune-teller.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more.