Quotes About Wisdom

So many times in life we think we see what we want. That we know what we want. Looking back through the wrong end of that scope, I sometimes wonder why we still believe we know anything at all.

Smart is overrated. Most of the harm done in this world is done by people who fancy themselves smart. And they are—book smart. But most really smart people have no sense. They value their brains too highly. I'd rather have someone with sense. And a little heart.

The point is that it's you being destroyed by your hate. Not him. This is what the Buddha called picking up a hot coal to hurl at your enemy.

And in this one perfect but probably fleeting moment . . . nothing in my life has ever been a mistake.

But sometimes the hard parts of our lives come with something valuable attached.

If something works, I figure . . . just leave it alone. Let it be a thing that worked. Not everything needs to be picked apart for better understanding. Sometimes it's okay to just say thank you in the quiet of your head and move along.

She learned so much from these little talks with her son. He always swore he'd learned it from her and was only mirroring it back, but somehow the wisdom of her own advice surprised her as it came out of his mouth, and left her wondering if she was wise enough to heed it.

But I've learned in my life that not everything that happens needs to be talked about. Some things are better left alone.

He wished he could communicate what he knew to this frightened boy. But that never did any good anyway. People learned by what they experienced. It mattered little what anyone said to anyone.

Willie sat with her elbow on the table, her hand shading her eyes. "I wish you knew how remarkable you are, Ella. So much deeper than anybody else I know. Even the grownups." "Is that good, Willie? To be deep?

As long as you think you know everything, nothing changes.

People gripe about growing older—their aches and pains, how much harder everything is—as if they had forgotten that the alternative is dying young.

All guidance springs from an ability within yourself—if only the ability to be guided.

I think it's the things we don't talk about that make us old before our time.

How can it be good to know nothing?" "It's not. But if you know nothing, it's good to know that you know nothing." "Oh," Grace said. "Yeah, I guess." "Because as long as you think you know everything, nothing changes.

Accepting things. That's what the talk was about. About how insane it is to try to pretend something isn't a certain way, or that you can make it another way, just because you don't like it. And how that seems to be the one thing that makes addicts use drugs, and pretty much ruins everybody's lives. This thing about refusing to just accept the way things are when you can't change them anyway.

Grown-ups have it over you in sheer day-to-day life experience. I'll be the first to admit that we don't know everything, but you at least have to be open to the idea that we might know a few things you don't.

The one where you appeal to someone's ego. I don't care about that stuff anymore. Whether I'm looked upon as wise or not. I don't need to be right at this point in my life. I don't care what other people choose to do. I just know what I want to do now.

It might be an age thing. I think we get to a certain age where enough of people and their ugly trappings is enough.

I have a number of questions. If I had half as many answers, I'd be in great shape.

I know a man," he said, "A man who taught me that the reason people aren't happy is because they have these ideas about what the world should be. And the world is never just what they think it ought to be. If the world has to be a certain way for you to be happy, then you'll never be happy. Heck, I'm only twelve and even I know that.

But the moon doesn't say what it knows.

You're not using your head, dear," she says. "No, of course I'm not," he says. "I'm using my heart.

I wanted to find my voice, so I sat in silence. I wanted joy, so I cried my heart open. I wanted wisdom, so I capered in bodacious foolishness. I wanted freedom, so I felt my bonds.