Quotes About Wisdom

An Account of English Ants] The Subject indeed is small, but not inglorious. The Ant as the Prince of Wisdom is pleased to inform us, is exceeding wise. In this Light it may, without Vanity, boast of its being related to you, and therefore by right of Kindred merits your Protection.

A good father believes that he does wisely to encourage enterprise, productive skill, prudent self-denial, and judicious expenditure on the part of his son. The

Here, then, there would be a question of rights. The question whether voluntary charity is mischievous or not is one thing; the question whether legislation which forces one man to aid another is right and wise, as well as economically beneficial, is quite another question. Great

What have our ancestors been striving for, under the name of civil liberty, for the last five hundred years? They have been striving to bring it about that each man and woman might live out his or her life according to his or her own notions of happiness and up to the measure of his or her own virtue and wisdom. How

This habit of actively collecting examples of other people's foolish behavior is an invaluable antidote to idiocy. In fact, it's the second great anti-stupidity technique we should learn from Munger.

I don't have any wonderful insights that other people don't have. I just have slightly more consistently than others avoided idiocy. Other people are trying to be smart. All I'm trying to be is non-idiotic. I find that all you have to do to get ahead in life is to be non-idiotic and live a long time. It's harder to be non-idiotic than most people think.

Godliness, as well as the doctrine of our faith, is a mystery.

Christian, hath not God secretly instructed thee by his Spirit from the Word, how to read the shorthand of his providence? Dost

Indeed, God intended, by this way of rec onciling poor sinners to himself, to make work for angels and saints to admire the mystery of his wisdom, power, and love therein, to everlasting.

Masters, if wise, do not use to set their servants about such work as will not pay for the candle they burn in doing it. And truly nothing less than the glorifying of God, and saving our souls at last, can be worth the precious time we spend here.

God will not only be admired by his saints in glory for his love in their salvation, but for his wisdom in the way to it. The

When thou art come to thyself to own and blush at the brutish ignorance of thy mind, thou art fit to be admitted into Christ's school. If

Truth lies deep, and must be digged for. Since

The Christian goes for the fool, in the world's account, while he lives; but when death comes, the wise world will then confess they miscalled him, and shall take it to themselves: 'We fools counted his life to be madness, and his end to be without honour. But how is he now numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints? therefore, we have erred from the way of truth,' Wis. 5:4,5.

Quote the Scripture rather than men for thy judgment.

Is it thy head is weak—thy judgment I mean? watch thyself, and come not among those that drink no wine but that which thy weak parts cannot bear —seraphic notions and high-flown opinions—and do not think thyself much wronged to be forbidden their cup.

It is lawful to love our estate, life, liberty; but beware of sinful policy to save them. It is no wisdom to shuffle with God, by denying his truth, or shifting off our duty to keep correspondence with men.

Some books are learned at once reading, but the gospel is a mystery that will take up more than thy lifetime to understand it.

The true doctor studies harder than the freshman, because, as he knows more of learning, so by that knowledge he un derstands his own deficiency better; for the higher he ascends the hill of learning, the more his prospect en largeth, while the other, standing at the bottom, thinks he knows all in his little.

They are all such notions as never came into the heart of the wisest sophists in the world to conceive of; and therefore it is no wonder that a little child, under the preaching of the gospel, believes these mysteries which Plato and Aristotle were ignorant of, because they are not attained by our parts and industry, but communicated by divine and supernatural revelation.

Great ships cannot sail in narrow rivers and shallow waters, neither can minds truly great with the knowledge of God and heaven, find room enough in the creature to turn and expatiate[12] themselves in.

The gate into Christ's school is low, and these cannot stoop. The Master himself is so humble and lowly, that he will not teach a proud scholar. Therefore first become a fool in thine own eye. A wiser man than thyself hath confessed as much: 'I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy,' Prov. 30:2, 3.

Study may make one a great scholar in the Scriptures, but prayer makes a wise Christian, as it obtains sanctified knowledge, without which it is no perfect gift, but —a gift and no gift.

Knowledge doth not make the heart good, but it is impossible that without knowledge it should be good. There