Quotes About Discernment

Opening your eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true.

He was always clever, even as a boy, but it is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are

Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer.

The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy

People forget that stereotypes aren't bad because they are always untrue. Stereotypes are bad because they are not always true. If we allow ourselves to judge another based on a stereotype, we have allowed a gross generalization to replace our own thinking.

It was the recommendation of John of the Cross (in a manner similar to that of Gamaliel) that one should not pay particular attention to any phenomena or experiences. If an experience were truly and directly of God, he felt, its truth would become evident naturally in one's life. If it were of something "else," it would certainly not be worthy of attention. Therefore, no special attention was necessary.

The key to understanding complicated things is knowing what not to look at.

Intelligence is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas.

Agesilaus, the Spartan king, was once invited to hear a mimic imitate the nightingale, but declined with the comment that he had heard the nightingale itself.

A woman is more influenced by what she divines than by what she is told.

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbours.

The common sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Law school taught me one thing: how to take two situations that are exactly the same and show how they are different.

To some lawyers, all facts are created equal.

Liberality consists less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies; That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright - But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.'

When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses before zebras.

There is no wisdom equal to that which comes after the event.

One must always tell what one sees. Above all, which is more difficult, one must always see what one sees.

What runs through a person like water through a sieve.