Quotes About Wisdom

The whole Earth is at the hand of the wise man, since the fatherland of an elevated soul is the Universe.

Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words.

James Agate, a great critic of the day, advised me that the way to learn your job properly was to learn Shakespeare, so I went to Stratford. It really sorts out the men from the boys.

suppose Life is an old man carrying flowers on his head.

Beauty is not, as fond men misdeem, an outward show of things that only seem.

By the time I'm old, I'm sure I'll have lived a full enough life. I think we're mortal for a reason. Life gets tiring, man!

When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the writings of Chrysippus, say to yourself, 'if Chrysippus had not written obscurely, this man would have had nothing to be proud of.'

Man is not in the world to set it right, but to see it rightly.

Few things are needful to make the wise man happy, but nothing satisfies the fool; - and this is the reason why so many of mankind are miserable.

A man of understanding finds less difficulty in submitting to a wrong-headed fellow, than in attempting to set him right.

In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.

The wisest man I have ever known once said to me: 'Nine out of every ten people improve on acquaintance,' and I have found his words true.

The gains in education are never really lost. Books may be burned and cities sacked, but truth, like the yearning for freedom, lives in the hearts of humble men.

In a man devoted to knowledge, pity seems almost ridiculous, like delicate hands on a cyclops.

The simple shepherds heard the voice of an angel and found their Lamb; the wise men saw the light of a star and found their Wisdom.

Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy. If anyone finds out he'll become happy at once.

I'm rarely asked to play the smartest man in the room.

Foolish, ignorant people indulge in careless lives, whereas a clever man guards his attention as his most precious possession.

You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger... Let a man overcome anger by love.

The fool who recognizes his foolishness, is a wise man. But the fool who believes himself a wise man, he really is a fool.

And he who lives a hundred years, idle and weak, a life of one day is better if a man has attained firm strength.

A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectible and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.

Between the two men, somewhere, a truth is lying, and that is what I try to find.

Life is too short for men to take it seriously.