Wisdom Quotes

The wise man knows that he is in the end the measure of himself and the last keeper of his own counsel

It is better to be wise alone than to be foolish with a crowd.

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one

To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living

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

Do not seek to rule others, or to have great possessions. He who is content is rich, though he owns little.

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger

The wind does not break a tree that bends

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends; turn the old, return to them

Do not seek what you are, let yourself become what you may be

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer

The highest good is like water; it nourishes all things and does not compete

Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something

Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and listen. No more is needed

Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another

The unexamined life is not worth living

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man

We see things not as they are, but as we are

The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness

What we call learning is only a process of recollection

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

You must not confuse brilliance with wisdom. Brilliance is knowing what to say. Wisdom is knowing whether or not to say it.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers

Turn your wounds into wisdom

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God

The highest wisdom has but one science—the science of the whole—the science explaining the whole creation and man's place in it.

The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Wisdom is like rainwater—both gather in small drops

The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook

Do not be wise in words, be wise in deeds

Time is the wisest counselor of all.

The highest form of wisdom is kindness

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

No man was ever wise by chance.

We learn from failure, not from success

To understand everything is to forgive everything

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment

Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment

It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.

There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy

The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom

The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them

Patience is the companion of wisdom

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge

Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom.

All men's gains are the fruit of venturing

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for

In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.

The fox condemns the trap, not himself.

Wisdom sits in places, observing the world in silence, learning from the rhythms of things

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it

It takes a great deal of experience to become natural. Once you've got it, you’ve got wisdom.

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens

Do not seek after the sages of the past. Seek what they sought

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom

Silence is a source of great strength

It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

He who looks outside, dreams; he who looks inside, awakes

It is not wisdom but authority that makes a law

Wisdom cries out in the streets, she raises her voice in the public squares

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing

He who knows others is clever; he who knows himself has discernment. He who conquers others has force; he who conquers himself is truly strong.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

To attain knowledge, add things every day; to attain understanding, subtract things every day

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less

I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men

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

Wisdom begins in wonder

The seat of knowledge is in the head, of wisdom, in the heart.

The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet

The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk.

In youth we learn, in age we understand

Beware the barrenness of a busy life

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how

The wise does at once what the fool does at last