Quotes About Wisdom

I was working on the principle, you see, that the more obvious you are, the less obvious you are.

Now, my mom always said two wrongs don't make a right. But she never said anything about four wrongs, and that always left me confused.

I went through life like an idiot for a great deal of the time, saying there's nothing I would change. That was a very arrogant thing to say. There's a lot I would change. There are people I would have steered clear of.

Homo sapiens. That's a label we invented for ourselves, of course: Latin for 'wise man'. It may be hoped that we will eventually either evolve into something worthier of that appellation or aspire to an even better one. How about Gens unanima - 'harmonious race' or ' a people of one spirit'?

True knowledge never shuts the door on more knowledge, but zeal often does.

Things that appear unlikely, impossible, or paradoxical from one point of view often make perfectly good sense from another.

As knowledge increases, the verdict of yesterday must be reversed today, and in the long run the most positive authority is the least to be trusted.

The gas-law of learning: . . . any amount of information no matter how small will fill any intellectual void no matter how large.

Next time I will ... From now on I will ... What makes me think I am wiser today than I will be tomorrow

The tools of the mind can be wrongly used, but the mind possesses no wrong tools.

I live from one tentative conclusion to the next, thinking each one is final. The only thing i know for sure is that I'am confused.

It seems that the truth is needed today is always a lie by tomorrow.

To err is human- I'm uncomfortable around gods.

Now that I know that I am no wiser than anyone else, does this wisdom make me wiser?

What an absurd amount of energy I have been wasting all my life trying to find out how things 'really are', when all the time they weren't.

Next time I will ..." "From now on I will ..." - What makes me think I am wiser today than I will be tomorrow?

[L]aughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.

A man cannot govern a nation if he cannot govern a city; he cannot govern a city if he cannot govern a family; he cannot govern a family unless he can govern himself; and he cannot govern himself unless his passions are subject to reason." By understanding many things, I have accomplished nothing." Hugo Grotius

When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn't play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again.

Corto à lui même: Ce serait bon de vivre dans une fable. Bouche Dorée à Corto: Oh oui!… Mais toi tu vis continuellement une fable et tu ne t'en aperçois plus. Lorsqu'un adulte entre dans le monde des fables, il ne peut plus en sortir. Le savais-tu?

Viagiar descanta, ma chi parte mona torna mona

Das Leben flieht wie Sand dahin, Doch schwer umkehret sich der Sinn.

I wanted to show that the fables and mythic tales which the ancients have handed down to us and in which painters and sculptors never cease to find mindless pleasure are the hieroglyphics of a secret, inexhaustible wisdom. I sometimes thought I felt its breath, as though coming from behind a veil.

Was weiß denn ich vom Menschenleben? Bin freilich scheinbar drin gestanden, Aber ich hab es höchstens verstanden, Konnte mich nie darein verweben.