Quotes About Wisdom

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.

Every great discovery or decision comes by an act of divination. Facts are fitted round afterwards.

The great virtue in life is real courage that knows how to face facts and live beyond them.

I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.

It's good to be clever but cleverness should be muted and buried in the sand. Nobody should be able to detect it but me.

Proverbs are in the world of thought what gold coin is in the world of business - great value in small compass, and equally current among all people. Sometimes the proverb may be false, the coin counterfeit, but in both cases the false proves the value of the true.

Theology is like rowing a boat. You can only move forward when you are looking backwards.

The problem with learning the truth about things is that you lose the confidence that comes from being dumb.

The idea of writing down one's difficulties and perplexities is not a new one. Great men have found it valuable in clearing their minds and helping them to wise and deliberate judgment—why shouldn't I, in my smaller way, find a solution to my difficulties in the same manner?

I like you to be happy and carefree, but... but nobody ought to live in a fool's Paradise.

She had been born in the days when children were taught to venerate the aged, but she had lived long enough to learn that she could count upon no respect from the young.

I'm glad you're here, Monkey," said Arthur Abbott at last. "I'm getting old, I suppose. Anyhow, I've come to the time of life when one old friend seems better than all the new friends in the world.

Knowledge is less hard to bear than ignorance if you possess an imagination.

She should know all there was to know - all that I knew, and, what was more important still, she should know that there was no more to know. Knowledge is less hard to bear than ignorance if you possess an imagination like Clementina's.

Arnold was very clever," she said at last. "He saw how unsettled the world was—everything slipping downhill. He was sure there was going to be another war. Sometimes I almost feel glad he didn't live to see it. He said things were going from bad to worse and he was quite right, of course . . . but it doesn't help to be miserable; it doesn't make things right to keep on grieving over them. It clouds the sun, that's all.

At the end of a year the matter would be reconsidered. Mr. Whitney insisted on the year's probation—Ernest might want to marry, or he, himself, might die; anything might happen in a year— "Good," said Ernest at last, stretching his arms, "I'm free." "You are bound," thought Mr. Whitney but he was too wise to say so.

It suddenly struck him that life was very unfair. You had to decide your whole life before you had any experience to guide you. Youth makes the bed, and middle age has, perforce, to lie upon it. The experience of others, however wise, is of no use to youth. Each soul must adventure of itself blindly into the dark. Perhaps, however, it is as well that youth does not know or reck of the dangers and sorrows with which the path of life is beset.

When we're young we make our beds and when we're older we have to lie on them. I'd make myself a comfortable bed if I were you—straight and tidy with the blankets well tucked in at the foot—then it'll not come adrift when you lie in it. If a bed's not properly made at the start the blankets'll maybe fall off in the night and you'll wake up shivering

Nothing in this world is permanent-neither sorrow nor joy-and only a foolish person would ask for permanence. We don't stand still, thought Robert. We are travellers upon the path of life.

That would be foolish," he said thoughtfully. " You see, Davie, if I was wanting a man to help me with the lambing I'd never wait until the lambing had started. I'd get him into the way of things before. He'd be some help to me then. It's the same with war. I'll need to learn to be a soldier before the fighting starts. That's the sensible way of doing.

When you're very young you take people as you find them. It's only when you've had experience that you begin to measure and weigh.

The idea of writing down one's difficulties and perplexities is not a new one. Great men have found it valuable in clearing their minds and helping them to wise and deliberate judgment—why shouldn't I, in my smaller way, find a solution to my difficulties in the same manner? My mind needs clearing, God knows, and if pen and paper will help me to clear it, I shall not grudge the time or the labor involved.

Every day,' nodded Julia. 'I've learnt quite a lot. What an easy way of making money, isn't it?' 'But, look here! You mustn't try speculating on your own. It's frightfully risky. The thing to do is to put your pile into something safe.' 'Oh, I know,' she agreed. 'I've learnt enough about business to know that I don't know much.' 'Some people never learn as much as that.

Never make the first move." - Loor (The Rivers of Zadaa)