Quotes about wisdom
352 quotes from 209 people
Francis Bacon1561–1626Essays, 52. ‘Of Ceremonies and Respects’A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778Emile: Or, On Education, book IIThe older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956“Advice to Young Men” in Prejudices: Third Series (1922).It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
Walter Lippmann1889–1974A Preface to Morals (1929), Ch. XV: “The Moralist in an Unbelieving World”, §2, p. 324.Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.
The highest form of wisdom is to get drunk and go to pieces.
In the vain laughter of folly, wisdom hears half its applause.
The wise man learns more from the fool than the fool learns from the wise man.
