Quotes About Wisdom

Don't buy anything. My philosophy is, if it flies, floats, or fucks, rent it.

Old guys have seen too much, and they trust no one.

Brodie smiled. He said, "When shit happens, you turn it into fertilizer for your tree of knowledge.

the older you get, the more baggage you have to carry, and the less you're able to lift it.

There was a big banner hung at the entrance to the stacks which read: "Find Buried Treasure—Read Books." Excellent advice.

Toda unanimidade é burra.

It was incongruous at Coombargana. In a great city such things happen now and then, where people are too strained and hurried to pay much attention to the griefs of others, but in a small rural community like ours, led by wise and tolerant people such as my father and mother, staffed by good types culled and weeded out over the years, such secret, catastrophic griefs do not occur. Troubles at Coombargana had always been small troubles in my lifetime.

You don't feel any different as you get older. Only, you can't do so much.

One grows old unknowingly. One accepts the passing of years as a phenomenon that has little bearing on one's personality. And then, quite suddenly, one comes to the realisation that one's contemporaries are growing a little old, falling off a little. One realises that one's hair is white.

If you judge after appearances, you will continue to be enslaved by the evidence of your senses.

for I had reached a point in my life when I came to view words differently. A closer look at language could reveal the secret of life.

No one can know the future, least of all, a historian, whose business is the past.

Wisdom consists of knowing how to distinguish the nature of trouble, and in choosing the lesser evil.

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in antiquity.

A prudent man will always try to follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been truly outstanding, so that, if he is not quite as skillful as they, at least some of their ability may rub off on him.

the wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.

When everyone feels free to tell you the truth, respect for you dwindles… A wise prince should take another course: choose wise men for your advisors, and allow only them the liberty of speaking the truth to the prince, and only on matters about which you ask, and nothing else. But you should question them about everything, listen patiently to their opinions, then form your own conclusions later.

It is a common fault of men not to reckon on storms in fair weather.

Returning to the question of being feared or loved, I conclude that since men love at their own will and fear at the will of the prince, a wise prince must build a foundation on what is his own, and not on what belongs to others.

It is a common fault not to anticipate storms when the sea is calm.

The Romans recognized potential difficulties in advance and always remedied them in time. They never let problems develop just so they could escape a war, for they knew that such wars cannot be avoided, only postponed to the advantage of others.

The people, as Cicero says, may be ignorant, but they can recognize the truth and will readily yield when some trustworthy man explains it to them.

Injuries, therefore, should be inflicted all at once, that their ill savour being less lasting may the less offend; whereas, benefits should be conferred little by little, that so they may be more fully relished.

he wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.