Quotes About Wisdom

Teach you children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary.

Mr. Sampson, you forget the difference between Plato and Zenocrates.

it was Zenocrates, not Plato, who denied that pain was an evil.

he is not fit to visit strange countries, who cannot rule his tongue before his own countrymen

The seductive love of narrative, when we ourselves are the heroes of the events which we tell, often disregards the attention due to the time and patience of the audience, and the best and wisest have yielded to its fascination.

It would be a great step toward a truly civil society if we understood that our public discourse isn't based on "hard facts," that all our wisdom is finite, and that nobody's opinion (not even yours or mine) is the final word.

One of the most pernicious of folk-sayings is, 'I cannot believe my eyes!' Why particularly should you believe your eyes? You were given eyes to see with, not to believe with. Believe your mind, your intuition, your reason, your emotion if you like - but not your eyes unaided by any of these interpreters. Your eyes can see the mirage, the hallucination, as easily as the actual scenery.

Truth is absolute and for all time. But one man cannot envisage all of truth; the best he can do is see one aspect of it whole. That is why I say to you, be a skeptic, Hodge. Always be the skeptic.

The books, always the books. And for themselves, not to become rich or famous like sensible people. Are we not foolish? But it is a pleasant folly and a sometimes blameless vice

We need a moderately-priced stock market… The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But, unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do. For the investor, a too-high purchase price for the stock of an excellent company can undo the effects of a subsequent decade of favorable business developments.

An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan.

If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.

Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing.

An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.

A horse that can count to ten is a remarkable horse—not a remarkable mathematician.

I try to invest in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

The more you learn, the more you earn.

In fact, when Warren Buffett was once asked about the key to success, he pointed to a stack of nearby books and said, "Read 500 pages like this every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.

Thomas J. Watson Sr. of IBM followed the same rule: "I'm no genius," he said. "I'm smart in spots—but I stay around those spots.")

I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful

as happens in Wall Street all too often, what the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end.