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Quotes about wisdom

352 quotes from 209 people

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For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.
Alexander Pope1688–1744An Essay on Criticism (1711)In context
- Clever Jabs
The true Enlightenment thinker, the true rationalist, never wants to talk anyone into anything. No, he does not even want to convince; all the time he is aware that he may be wrong.
Karl Popper1902–1994On Freedom (1958)
- Debate
Experts often possess more data than judgment.
Colin Powell1937–2021
- Education
Never trust any complicated cocktail that remains perfectly clear until the last ingredient goes in, and then immediately clouds.
Terry Pratchett1948–2015alt.fan.pratchett (22 November 1993)
- Advice
- Comedy
We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.
Marcel Proust1871–1922
Bestow therefore thy youth so, that thou mayest have comfort to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.
Walter Raleigh1552–1618Instructions to his Son and to Posterity (published 1632), Chapter II
- Advice
- Youth
Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.
Ramakrishna1836–1886Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960) (152)
- Religion
You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn’t bear malice toward others.
Ramakrishna1836–1886The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), p. 514
- Advice
- Religion
Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919
A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick⁠—you will go far.” If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.
Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919National Duties (Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick) (1901)
- Leadership
- Power
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Christina Rossetti1830–1894Remember (1862)In context
- Advice
- Happiness
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778Emile: Or, On Education, book II
- Virtue
Experience comprises illusions lost, rather than wisdom gained.
Joseph Roux1834–1905Meditations of a Parish Priest (1866), Part 4, XXVIII (1886)
- Experience
Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it.
Whoever has polished it more sees more — more unseen forms become manifest to him.
Rumi1207–1273IV, 2909-10 (tr. Chittick)
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
John Ruskin1819–1900The Crown of Wild Olive (1866)
- Character