Quotes About Wisdom

Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.

Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon with them, but they are the money of fools.

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called "Facts". They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.

Scientia potentia est. Knowledge is power.

Leisure is the mother of Philosophy

Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools.

He that is to govern a whole Nation, must read in himselfe, not this, or that particular man; but Man-kind;

Apothegms form a short cut to much knowledge.

The master Wen-yu summed it up when he answered a demand for the First Principle of Ch'an with, "If words could tell you, it would become the Second Principle.

There's no escaping the Taoist adage, "Those who speak do not know, those who know do not speak.

Words can point the way, but the path must be traveled in silence.

It is easier to be tranquil about existence when you recognize the pointlessness of solemnity.

All that was worth handing on died with them; the rest, they put into their books.8

The koan describes three monks watching a banner flutter in the breeze. One monk observes, "The banner is moving," but the second insists, "The wind is moving.

the only way to really understand the message is to stop trying to "understand" it.

There is nothing difficult about the Great Way But, avoid choosing! Only when you neither love nor hate, Does it appear in all clarity. Do not be anti- or pro- anything. The conflict of longing and loathing, This is the disease of the mind. Not knowing the profound meaning of things, We disturb our (original) peace of mind to no purpose.

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.

Only in a spontaneous utterance is there real, uncalculated evidence of enlightenment.)

There is a story that one of the Seven Sages, a man named Liu Ling (ca. 221-330), habitually received guests while completely naked. His response to adverse comment was to declare, "I take the whole universe as my house and my own room as my clothing. Why, then, do you enter here into my trousers."14

The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest blunders and commit the fewest sins.

Science is simply common sense at its best.

The medieval university looked backwards it professed to be a storehouse of old knowledge. The modern university looks forward, and is a factory of new knowledge.

No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life.