Quotes About Wisdom

FAUST You seem to like eavesdropping. MEPHISTOPHELES I am not omniscient, but I know a lot.

Und ich habe wieder bei diesem kleinen Geschäft gefunden, daß Mißverständnisse und Trägheit vielleicht mehr Irrungen in der Welt machen als List und Bosheit. Wenigstens sind die beiden letzteren gewiß seltener.

I, for my share, cannot understand," continued she, "how men have made themselves believe that God speaks to us through books and histories. The man to whom the universe does not reveal directly what relation it has to him, whose heart does not tell him what he owes to himself and others, that man will scarcely learn it out of books, which generally do little more than give our errors names.

Of what importance is it that I have learned, with every schoolboy, that the world is round? Man needs but little earth for enjoyment, and still less for his final repose.

A part of that Power that, always wishing for Evil, only knows how to do Good. -Mephistopheles

Intelligent people are always the best encyclopaedia.

It is the most foolish of all errors for young people of good intelligence to imagine that they will forfeit their originality if they acknowledge truth already acknowledged by others.

The eye is the worst way to judge.

Es ist ein großer Unterschied, ob ich lese zum Genuss und Belebung oder zur Erkenntnis und Belehrung.

Allein wer andre wohl zu leiten strebt muß fähig sein viel zu entbehren

To wisdom's final fruit, profoundly true: Of freedom and of life he only is deserving Who every cay must conquer them anew. Thus here, by danger girt, the active day Of childhood, manhood, age will pass away.

To wisdom's final fruit, profoundly true: Of freedom and of life he only is deserving Who every day must conquer them anew. Thus here, by danger girt, the active day Of childhood, manhood, age will pass away.

I prefer an injurious truth to a useful error. Truth heals any pain it may inflict on us.

El diablo es viejo; envejeced, pues, para comprenderlo.

El que por complacer a los demás, contra su gusto y sin necesidad, se fatiga corriendo tras la fortuna, los honores u otra cosa cualquiera, es siempre un loco.

When your thirtieth year is over, A man's as good as dead.

One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if possible, speak a few reasonable words

AUTHOR: Who writes anything good these days, Or reads with moderate intelligence! And what the dear young folk all praise, [4090] I've never seen such stupid nonsense.

lo que se toma por inteligencia suele ser vanidad y tontería.

O happy he, who still renews The hope, from Error's deeps to rise forever! That which one does not know, one needs to use; And what one knows, one uses never.

Unhappily, moreover, on such occasions, a multitude of painful discoveries about my own sex were forced upon me; and, in truth, I was then wiser, as a girl of sixteen, than I now am, now that I scarcely understand myself. Why are we so wise when young,—so wise, and ever growing less so?

Time is master: age lies on the sand.

Los hombres, como los niños, caminando a tientas sobre la tierra, ignorando de dónde vienen y adónde van, son poco menos que autómatas y, exactamente como los niños, se dejan gobernar con juguetes, confites y azotes.

You need just what you do not know, and what you really know is worthless.