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Quotes about wisdom

352 quotes from 209 people

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Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.
Robert Fulghumborn 1937It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It (1988)
- Advice
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.
Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948Harijan (17 February 1940)
It is better to have a bad method than to have none.
Charles de Gaulle1890–1970Le Fil de l’épée (1932), Il vaut mieux avoir une méthode mauvaise plutôt que de n’en avoir aucune.
- Advice
Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.
Kahlil Gibran1883–1931Khalil Gibran, in What Has Wisdom Got to Do with It?—365 Daily Wisdom Confessions and …, p. 85.
Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.” For the soul walks upon all paths.
Kahlil Gibran1883–1931The Prophet (1923)In context
Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg1933–2020Statement of advice on being presented the Radcliffe Medal, as quoted in “Honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg” by Colleen Walsh, in The Harvard Gazette (29 May 2015)
- Advice
- Leadership
I’ve studied now Philosophy
And Jurisprudence, Medicine,⁠—
And even, alas! Theology,⁠—
From end to end, with labor keen;
And here, poor fool! with all my lore
I stand, no wiser than before:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Scene I, spoken by FaustIn context
- Knowledge
Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
Baltasar Gracián1601–1658
- Courage
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
Baltasar Gracián1601–1658
- Work
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Baltasar Gracián1601–1658
When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see.
Baltasar Gracián1601–1658The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647), Maxim 7 (p. 4)
- Advice
Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing⁠—absolute nothing⁠—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
Kenneth Grahame1859–1932The Wind in the Willows (1908), Chapter IIn context
- Advice
- Happiness
Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.
Dag Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 1925–1930
- Advice
- Motivation & Goals
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 Hawthorne1804–1864The Snow-Image, and Other Tales, Preface (1852)
- Writing
- Youth
The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.
William Hazlitt1778–1830“Common Places,” No. 1, The Literary Examiner (September—December 1823), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)
- Happiness