Quotes About Wisdom

Diamonds are found only in the dark bowels of the earth; truths are found only in the depths of thought. It seemed to him that after descending into those depths after long groping in the blackest of this darkness, he had at last found one of these diamonds, one of these truths, and that he held it in his hand; and it blinded him to look at it. (pg. 231)

Common sense is in spite of, not the result of, education.

God knows better than we do what we need.

It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.

Each of our passions, even love, has a stomach that must not be overloaded. We must in everything write the word 'finis' in time; we must restrain ourselves, when it becomes urgent; we must draw the bolt on the appetite, play a fantasia on the violin, then break the strings with our own hand. The Wise man is he who knows when and how to stop.

What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears? The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.

Every blade has two edges; he who wounds with one wounds himself with the other.

The owl goes not into the nest of the lark.

When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door.

Sire, you are looking at a plain man, and I am looking at a great man. Each of us may benefit.

Profound hearts, wise minds, take life as God makes it; it is a long trial, and unintelligible preparation for the unknown destiny.

La vérité est comme le soleil, elle fait tout voir et ne se laisse pas regarder.

La lumière est dans le livre. Ouvrez le livre tout grand. Laissez-le rayonner, laissez-le faire.

People do not read stupidities with impunity.

The wise man is he who knows when and how to stop

He had, they said, tasted in succession all the apples of the tree of knowledge, and, whether from hunger or disgust, had ended by tasting the forbidden fruit.

This conflict between right and fact has endured since the origins of society. To bring the duel to an end, to consolidate the pure ideal with the human reality, to make the right peacefully interpenetrate the fact, and the fact the right, this is the work of the wise.

Knowledge is a weight added to conscience.

On ne lit pas impunément des niaiseries

To have lied is to have suffered.

Freedom begins where it ends ignorance

Science says the first word on everything, and the last word on nothing.

There is lucidity inspired by the nearness of the grave:to be close to death is to see clearly

Clearly, he had his own strange way of judging things. I suspect he acquired it from the Gospels.