Quotes About Wisdom

Aristotle says that in order to live alone one must either be an animal or a god. The third alternative is lacking. A man must be both; a philosopher.

The sage as astronomer.—As long as you still feel the stars as something 'above you', you have not yet acquired the gaze of a man of deep understanding.

Behind your thoughts and feelings, my brother, there is a mighty lord, an unknown sage - his name is self; he dwells in your body, he is your body. There is more reason in your body than in your best wisdom.

One should part from life as Ulysses parted from Nausicaa-- blessing it rather than in love with it.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth.

The worst things, however, are the petty thoughts. Verily, better to have done evilly than to have thought pettily!

I want, once and for all, not to know many things. Wisdom requires moderation in knowledge as in other things.

All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?

What are man's truths ultimately? Merely his irrefutable errors.

history would be nothing but a record of stupidity save for the cunning

If you still experience the stars as something over you, you still don't have the eyes of a knower.

Benditos sean los olvidadizos pues superan, incluso, sus propios errores

Thinking of yourself as a destiny, not wanting to be 'other' than you are -that is under such circumstances the highest wisdom.

It is unworthy of great spirits to spread abroad the agitation they feel

we know the way; we got our knowledge of it from thousands of years in the labyrinth. Who else has found it?—The man of today?—"I don't know either the way out or the way in; I am whatever doesn't know either the way out or the way in"—so sighs the man of today… . This is the sort of modernity that made us ill,—we sickened on lazy peace

Whoever knows he is deep tries to be clear, but whoever wants to seem deep to the crowd tries to be obscure. For the crowd supposes that anything it cannot see to the bottom must be deep: it is so timid and goes so unwillingly into the water.

Most books are born from the smoke and vapour of the brain: and to vapour and smoke may they well return. For having no fire within themselves, they shall be visited with fire.

what was silent in the father speaks in the son

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters

we must now and then be joyful in our folly, that we may continue to be joyful in our wisdom!

He who considers more deeply knows that, whatever his acts and judgements may be, he is always wrong.

One always has exaggerated ideas about what one doesn't know.

O Voltaire! O humanity! O idiocy! There is something ticklish in the truth, and in the SEARCH for the truth; and if man goes about it too humanely—il ne cherche le vrai que pour faire le bien—I wager he finds nothing!