Quotes About Wisdom

You'll have your heart cut out with a grapefruit knife; love does that. You won't have a chance against me until you're very old, if then.

Everybody should read something. Otherwise we all fall down into the pit of ignorance. Many are down there. Some people fall in it forever. Their lives mean nothing. They should not exist. (From the short story, "Charity".)

Do you read, Mr. Quinn?" he asked. "Everybody should read something. Otherwise we all fall down into the pit of ignorance. Many are down there. Some people fall in it forever. Their lives mean nothing. They should not exist.

As my mother once said to me, 'They're quite crazy, dear – men are. What you look for is one of them whose insanity is large enough, and calm and generous enough, to include you.

The worst mistakes I've made have been the ones directed by sweet-natured hopefulness.

The teachers complain that the students today are all lazy, ignorant, and stupid. But the truth is that you're smarter than they are. You're not even old enough to drive and you already know that none of this matters.

A wise man once told me, Life's greatest fear is having knowledge of something, and dying before having the opportunity to share it." -Charles Blair

Where is the proof, said I, that daemons may not be subjected to the control of men? This truth may be distorted and debased in the minds of the ignorant. The dogmas of the vulgar, with regard to this subject, are glaringly absurd; but though these may justly be neglected by the wise, we are scarcely justified in totally rejecting the possibility that man may obtain supernatural aid.

Why should you waste your time in idleness, and torment yourself with unprofitable wishes? Books are at hand; books from which most sciences and languages can be learned. Read, analyse, digest; collect facts, and investigate theories: ascertain the dictates of reason, and supply yourself with the inclination and the power to adhere to them.

Morals were restrictive, but they were grounded on human experience.

Almost everyone is born a genius and buried an idiot.

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubt, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

You have to die a few times before you can really live.

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

Proverbs are potted wisdom.

One of my former teachers repeatedly reminded us that an imbalance in theology was the same as doctrinal insanity.

Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.

The greatest genius is never so great as when it is chastised and subdued by the highest reason.

Ignorance is a blank sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one, on which we must first erase

The greatest friend of Truth is time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion Humility.

Hurry is the mark of a weak mind, dispatch of a strong one.

Time, the cradle of hope.... Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it: he that has made it his friend will have little to fear from his enemies, but he that has made it his enemy will have little to hope from his friends.

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer

When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.