quotations about wisdom
Wisdom is inconceivable apart from something about which it can be called into operation.
SABINE BARING-GOULD
The Origin and Development of Religious Belief: Christianity
Wisdom teaches us to live content upon a bone gnawed bare.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
A wise man who cultivates wisdom may sometimes drown in it.
EIJI YOSHIKAWA
Taiko
The wise form right judgment of the present from what is past.
SOPHOCLES
attributed, Day's Collacon
If you desire to be wiser yet, think yourself not yet wise.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
The clouds may drop down titles and estates, wealth may seek us; but wisdom must be sought.
EDWARD YOUNG
The Complaint; Or Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality
A wise man heedeth all things, and in his own eyes is a fool.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
Like gold in the hands of a savage are the sayings of wisdom in the mouth of a fool.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Wisdom is a palace, of which only the vestibule has yet been entered.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Contend not in wisdom with a fool, for thy sense maketh much of his conceit;
And some errors never would have thriven, had it not been for learned refutation.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
The disadvantage of becoming wise is that you realize how foolish you've been.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Be wise before the storm.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
WILLIAM JAMES
Principles of Psychology
Wisdom is also a deeper consciousness of ignorance.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Unless, we value wisdom, we are bound to suffer many things that we were never meant to suffer.
KILTON MOYO
"Teaching our children wisdom", NewsDay, March 30, 2017
Second thoughts are ever wiser.
EURIPIDES
Hippolytus
In youth men are apt to write more wisely than they really know or feel; and the remainder of life may be not idly spent in realizing and convincing themselves of the wisdom which they uttered long ago.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
preface, The Snow-Image
There are few who would need advisers, if they were only accustomed to appeal to themselves in their calmest, holiest moments. If, when embarrassed with doubt as to any course of action, they would turn aside from the immediate tumult of the world, and from the vain speaking of those who "darken counsel by words without knowledge;" and would then commune with their hearts alone, at night, the heavens their silent counsellors, they would act not always in accordance with the wise men of this world, but with that wisdom which bringeth peace.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
Some people look to religion. Others, great works of classical art. For most of us though, life lessons are to be found in the movies (or even its unruly, younger sibling: Television), where guiding wisdom is dispensed by sages as undoubtable as Yoda, Don Corleone or Hannibal Lector.
MATTHEW PRIEST
"21 nuggets of cinematic wisdom", Esquire, January 14, 2016
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, wisdom is the "Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct" and "sound judgement". My goodness, think if wisdom were a modern concept, regularly practiced, how much less shocking news we would have every day! If only celebrities didn't make such silly displays of themselves on late-night television shows; if tourists didn't insist on taking naked selfies on sacred mountains; if Justin Bieber could only behave like a sensible young man; if politicians were once again filled with serious integrity. Then our lives would not be spinning out of control with nonsense. What if Donald Trump had the wisdom to keep his mouth shut? What if scientists realize that just because they can create robot soldiers doesn't mean they should?
DOROTHY TURCOTTE
"The world in 2016 could use a little more wisdom", Niagara This Week, January 12, 2016