Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about wisdom

352 quotes from 209 people

Most readBy personPage 22 of 24

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919)In context
- History
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Hamlet (c. 1600), Act I, Scene III, spoken by PoloniusIn context
- Advice
I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much rather have been merry than wise.
Jane Austen1775–1817Emma (1815), Volume II, Chapter XIIIn context
- Happiness
“Speak in French when you can’t think of the English for a thing⁠—turn out your toes as you walk⁠—and remember who you are!”
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter IIIn context
- Advice
Life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.
F. Scott Fitzgerald1896–1940The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter IIn context
A traveller’s chief aim should be to make men wiser and better, and to improve their minds by the bad, as well as good, example of what they deliver concerning foreign places.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms, Chapter XIIIn context
- Writing
What’s gone and what’s past help,
Should be past grief.
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Winter’s Tale (c. 1611), Act III, Scene II, spoken by PaulinaIn context
- Emotion
All places that the eye of heaven visits
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
Teach thy necessity to reason thus:
There is no virtue like necessity.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Richard II (c. 1595), Act I, Scene III, spoken by GauntIn context
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965Of Human Bondage (1915), Chapter LIIIIn context
- Advice
- Morality
It’s no good crying over spilt milk, because all the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965Of Human Bondage (1915), Chapter LXVIIIn context
- Advice
- Philosophy
I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894Kidnapped (1886), Chapter XIVIn context
- Good & Evil
Every trail has its end, and every calamity brings its lesson!
James Fenimore Cooper1789–1851The Last of the Mohicans (1826), Chapter XXVIn context
- Experience
It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892), A Case of IdentityIn context
Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,⁠—‘Wait and hope.’
Alexandre Dumas1802–1870The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), Volume Five, Chapter 117In context
- Hope
Never fear quarrels, but seek adventures.
Alexandre Dumas1802–1870The Three Musketeers (1844), Chapter IIn context
- Advice
- Courage