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.

Humanity I love you because when you’re hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

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

Is man one of God’s blunders? Or is God one of man’s blunders?

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

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.

I’m grateful to intelligent people. That doesn’t mean educated. That doesn’t mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call ‚mother wit‘ means intelligence that you had in your mother’s womb. That’s what you rely on. You know what’s right to do.

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.

I say there is no darkness but ignorance.

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.

A lot of psychological principles and even medical principles, you see them coming around to what the Bible said hundreds of years ago: a merry heart is good like a medicine.

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.

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

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

God has already done everything He’s going to do. The ball is now in your court. If you want success, if you want wisdom, if you want to be prosperous and healthy, you’re going to have to do more than meditate and believe; you must boldly declare words of faith and victory over yourself and your family.

If one by one we counted people out For the least sin, it wouldn’t take us long To get so we had no one left to live with. For to be social is to be forgiving.

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

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.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

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

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.

A witty saying proves nothing.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

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

Our best thoughts come from others.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

I am not young enough to know everything.

Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes, Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn’t take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always.

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.

I know love is the answer.

I have lived long enough both in years and in accomplishments.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.

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.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

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

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.

The cautious seldom err.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

I tell you in truth: all men are Prophets or else God does not exist.

There is only a finger’s difference between a wise man and a fool.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.

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

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

A man is the whole encyclopedia of facts.

North Americans don’t understand… that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.

Do not rebuke mockers, or they will hate you; rebuke the wise, and they will love you.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Beauty and folly are old companions.