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Quotes about wisdom

352 quotes from 209 people

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Nor is he the wisest man who never proved himself a fool.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), Stanza 124
And, because right is right, to follow right
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892“Oenone” (1832)
- Morality
No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
Hunter S. Thompson1937–2005
A word to the wise is infuriating.
Hunter S. Thompson1937–2005
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts; but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862
- Philosophy
None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854)In context
- Money
A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Democracy
A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Life Without Principle (1863), p. 488
There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854), Economy (1 of 3)In context
- Philosophy
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854), Where I Lived, and What I Lived ForIn context
- Advice
- Life & Death
The wise speak only of what they know.
J. R. R. Tolkien1892–1973
In doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom.
J. R. R. Tolkien1892–1973The Two Towers, Háma
Humanity unceasingly strives forward from a lower, more partial and obscure understanding of life to one more general and more lucid.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910What is Art? (1897)
We pass. But what the bee knows, the wisdom that sustains our passing life — however much we deny or ignore it — that for ever remains.
P. L. Travers1899–1996What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol, and Story (1989)
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
Harry S. Truman1884–1972Interview with Margaret Truman, sitting in for host Edward R. Murrow, on Person to Person, CBS Television (May 27, 1955)
- Advice
- Children