Quotes About Discernment

The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.

To keep your secret is wisdom to expect others to keep it is folly.

Sometimes the most intelligent thing is not to do anything, certainly nothing loaded with the imbecility of emotionality.

All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told.

I have a good eye, uncle: I can see a church by daylight.

A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?

It adds a precious seeing to the eye.

For I am nothing if not critical.

A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!

How should I your true love knowFrom another one?By his cockle hat and staff,And his sandal shoon.

I have seen better faces in my timeThan stands on any shoulder that I seeBefore me at this instant.

Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;Between two blades, which bears the better temper;Between two horses, which doth bear him best;Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;I have perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgment;But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice take each man's censure but reserve thy judgement.

Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are showing you the grounds of it.

We ought to bring all matters to the Lord, not only urgent ones, and discover His heart and mind on them.

The practice of the Christian life consists of the discernment of (the seeing and hearing), and the reliance upon (the reckless and uncalculating dependence), and the celebration (the ready and spontaneous enjoyment) of the presence of the Word of God in the common life of the world.

Never give reasons for what you think or do until you must. Maybe after a while, a better reason will pop into your head.

How can we judge fairly of the characters and merits of men, of the wisdom or folly of actions, unless we have . . . an accurate knowledge of all particulars, so that we may live as it were in the times, and among the persons, of whom we read, see with their eyes, and reason and decide on their premises?

For a multitude of causes, unknown to former times, are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor... To this tendency of life and manners the literature and theatrical exhibitions of the country have conformed themselves.

To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.

Among the whites some think they can see and choose for others.

If you wish to discover a man's true feelings, it is always best to provoke him.

You might not be the smartest feller in town, but you've got more sense than most people.

But as Lindbergh's friend former president Herbert Hoover instructed, "When you had been in politics long enough, you learned not to say things just because they are true."21