Wisdom Quotes

To give oneself earnestly to the duties due to men, and, while respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom.

Reviewing what you have learned and learning anew, you are fit to be a teacher.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

I imagine God to be like my father. My father was always the voice of certainty in my life. Certainty in the wisdom, certainty in the path, certainty always in God. For me God is certainty in everything. Certainty that everything is good and everything is God.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!

If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.

From wonder into wonder existence opens.

I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

Step with care and great tact, and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act.

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.

There is nothing permanent except change.

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.

Once you label me you negate me.

You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success - or are they holding you back?

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

Even youngish men can acquire wisdom as time goes by.

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don't just want to possess it, it will find you.

To advise is not to compel.

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.

Even when you have doubts, take that step. Take chances. Mistakes are never a failure - they can be turned into wisdom.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare!

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

Never find fault with the absent.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Just as a mother would protect her only child with her life, even so let one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings.

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.

What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

All human wisdom is summed up in two words; wait and hope.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law.

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

All conventional wisdom has an element of truth to it, but good design requires more than an element of truth - it requires an ensemble of correct assumptions and valid calculations.

But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible value to him.

Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?

Outside of the cross of Jesus Christ, there is no hope in this world. That cross and resurrection at the core of the Gospel is the only hope for humanity. Wherever you go, ask God for wisdom on how to get that Gospel in, even in the toughest situations of life.

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.

We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity.

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.

We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

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

When in doubt, don't.

Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more.