quotations about wisdom
Wisdom is a strange thing; you learn to fight for what you can achieve and give up on the things that are impossible.
RAY WILLIAMS
"Ray Williams reflects on 90 years", Goulburn Post, April 9, 2017
A word to the wise isn't as good as a word from the wise.
GRENVILLE KLEISER
Dictionary of Proverbs
True wisdom is less presuming than folly; the wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.
ROBERT DODSLEY
The Economy of Life
Cunning is seeing a hundred yards ahead--wisdom, fifty miles in advance.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos
In an active life is sown the seed of wisdom; but he who reflects not, never reaps.
EDWARD YOUNG
The Centaur Not Fabulous
It is not hoary hairs that bring wisdom; some have an old head on young shoulders.
MENANDER
attributed, Day's Collacon
For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned, yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves, for they see their own wit at hand, and other men's at a distance. But this proveth rather that men are in that point equal, than unequal. For there is not ordinarily a greater sign of the equal distribution of any thing than that every man is contented with his share.
THOMAS HOBBES
Leviathan
Justice without wisdom is impossible.
JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE
Short Studies on Great Subjects
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
ALFRED TENNYSON
Locksley Hall
When wisdom leaves the house folly enters it.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Wisdom never comes to those who believe they have nothing left to learn.
CHARLES DE LINT
"The Forest is Crying", The Ivory and the Horn
On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows,
In every rill a sweet instruction flows.
EDWARD YOUNG
Love of Fame
Wisdom is a right understanding, a faculty of discerning good from evil, what is to be chosen and what rejected; a judgment grounded upon the true value of things, and not the common opinion of them.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Knowledge is horizontal; it's the accumulation of facts. Wisdom is vertical; it sees life from God's perspective.
BOB RUSSELL
"Praying for political leaders", Church Central, January 26, 2016
The man of wisdom is the man of years.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
In my experience, nothing has taught me more than the failures I've experienced--because they gave me wisdom to understand what to do differently next time.
DONALD CHESTNUT
"If 50 is the new 40, then what does that mean for 40?", Campaign Live, April 3, 2017
Where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
THOMAS GRAY
Odes on a Distant Prospect of Eton College
He who understands the wise is wise already.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook E", Aphorisms
The wise man is but a clever infant spelling letters from a hierographical prophetic book, the lexicon of which lies in eternity.
THOMAS CARLYLE
attributed, Day's Collacon
The wealth of mankind is the wisdom they leave.
JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY
"Rules of the Road"