Quotes about wisdom
352 quotes from 209 people
Gore Vidal1925–2012“Writing Plays for Television” in New World Writing, #10 (1956)You do ill if you praise, and still worse if you reprove in a matter you do not understand.
Leonardo da Vinci1452–1519The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, tr. J. P. Richter, XIX: Philosophical Maxims
Virgil70–19 BCAeneid (29–19 BC), Book V, Line 710There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
Kurt Vonnegut1922–2007God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)- Kurt Vonnegut1922–2007“Knowing What’s Nice”, an essay from In These Times (2003)
Alan Watts1915–1973The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness (1962), p. 26 (This statement was redacted from later editions.)Keep the other person’s well being in mind when you feel an attack of soul-purging truth coming on.
Betty White1922–2021If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t) (2011)The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900Bruce Bashford Oscar Wilde: The Critic as Humanist, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1999, p. 68.I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900An Ideal Husband (1895)
Thornton Wilder1897–1975The Skin of Our Teeth (1942), Act One
Woodrow Wilson1856–1924Speech on Military Preparedness, Pittsburgh (29 January 1916)Don’t for heaven’s sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense.
Ludwig Wittgenstein1889–1951Culture and Value (1980), p. 56e
