Quotes About Wisdom

And yet the wise are of opinion that wherever man is, the dark powers who would feed his rapacities are there too, no less than the bright beings who store their honey in the cells of his heart, and the twilight beings who flit hither and thither, and that they encompass him with a passionate and melancholy multitude.

TO HIS HEART, BIIDING IT HAVE NO FEAR Be you still, be you still, trembling heart; Remember the wisdom out of the old days: Him who trembles before the flame and the flood, And the winds that blow through the starry ways, Let the starry winds and the flame and the flood Cover over and hide, for he has no part With the lonely, majestical multitude.

Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.

Because to him, who ponders well, My rhymes more than their rhyming tell Of the dim wisdoms old and deep That God gives unto man in sleep

The jester walked in the garden: The garden had fallen still; He bade his soul rise upward And stand on her window-sill. It rose in a straight blue garment, When owls began to call: It has grown wise-tongued by thinking Of a quiet and light footfall; But the young queen would not listen; She rose in her pale night-gown; She drew in the heavy casement And pushed the latches down...

Be you still, be you still, trembling heart; Remember the wisdom out of the old days: *Him who trembles before the flame and the flood, And the winds that blow through the starry ways, Let the starry winds and the flame and the flood Cover over and hide, for he has no part With the lonely, majestical multitude*.

Bodily decrepitude is wisdom

I turn away and shut the door, and on the stair Wonder how many times I could have proved my worth In something that all others understand or share; But O! ambitious heart, had such a proof drawn forth A company of friends, a conscience set at ease, It had but made us pine the more. The abstract joy, The half-read wisdom of daemonic images, Suffice the ageing man as once the growing boy.

Socrates. The wise are doubtful, and I should not be singular if, like them, I also doubted.

If I had to live my life over, I'd live over a saloon.

The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois

Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.

There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.

There are good books which are only for adults. There are no good books which are only for children.

Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know.

Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers.

Let not Time deceive you, You cannot conquer Time.

Dear little not-so-innocents, beware of Old Grandmother Spider: rump her endearments – She's not quite as nice as She looks, nor you quite as tough as you think.

An appetite for knowledge is apt to rush one off one's feet, like any other appetite if not curbed. I often stand in the in the centre of the Library here and think despairingly how impossible it is ever to become possessed of all the wealth of facts and ideas contained in the books surrounding me on every hand.

Aunque sea una gran hazaña añadir algo, aunque sólo sea una pizca, a la suma del conocimiento humano, más grande todavía es añadir un pensamiento. Para un hombre, es mejor intentar ser a la vez poeta y naturalista que ser demasiado naturalista y pasar por alto la belleza de las cosas, o demasiado poeta y no entenderlas o no poder ver siquiera las bellezas escondidas que sólo se revelan tras una observación atenta.

There was an old man of St. Bees, Who was stung in the arm by a wasp; When they asked, "Does it hurt?" He replied, "No, it doesn't, But I thought all the while 'twas a Hornet.

The story of each stone leads back to a mountain.

I needed my mistakes in their order to get me here

O nobly-born, listen on distractedly. On the Second Day [of death] the pure form of water will shine as a white light.