Quotes About Wisdom

I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.

I think Brother Albert hit it on the head. Life is loss. But out of that, as the book stresses, comes freedom. If we can accept that nothing is permanent, and change is inevitable, if we can adapt, then we're going to be happier people.

Be very, very careful who you let into your life. And learn to make peace with whatever happens.

As a child, Billy had held his grandfather's calloused hand, and together they'd walked through the forest, the old man touching the trees and describing their character. From him, young Billy learned that trees had feelings and personalities of their own.

But he'd never forgotten. That moment. When he'd met kindness for the first time. And been shown the path to wisdom in four simple, though not easy, sentences.

There are four statements that lead to wisdom...You need to learn to say: I don't know. I'm sorry. I need help, and I was wrong. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

There are four statements that lead to wisdom...You need to learn to say: I don't know. I'm sorry. I need help, and I was wrong.

It had taken Beauvoir years to see the power of pausing. And of patience. Of taking a breath to consider all options, all angles, and not simply acting on the most obvious.

What is essential is invisible to the

This village was old, and you don't get to be old without knowing grief. And loss.

Gamache in anger. "He knew that's

As much as Gabri liked to refer to the elderly poet as the Labrador on the leg of life, she was indeed trained.

the four sentences that lead to wisdom. He'd said them only once, never repeating them. But once had been enough for Gamache. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I need help. I don't know.

Really? You have that ability, Chief Inspector? To just forget? Lucky you." They held each other's eyes. No one with gray in their hair got there without things they'd prefer to forget. But could not.

Don't believe everything you think. Chief Inspector Gamache wrote that on the board for the incoming cadets at the start of every year at the Sûreté academy, and it stayed there all year. At first the students in the class he taught laughed. It sounded clever but silly. Little by little most got it. And those who didn't did not progress further. That phrase was as powerful as any weapon they'd be handed.

Instead the wiry, self-contained man had stared at him for a few seconds then invited him to sit and told him the four sentences that lead to wisdom. He'd said them only once, never repeating them. But once had been enough for Gamache. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I need help. I don't know.

Be very, very careful who you let into your life. And learn to make peace with whatever happens. You can't erase the past. It's trapped in there with you. But you can make peace with it. If you don't,' he said, 'you'll be at perpetual war.

first two were obvious.

Oscar Wilde said there's no sin except stupidity.

Your vast well of ignorance is finally paying off.

he understands," said Gamache quietly, as though

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Armand wondered if Florence understood that line from The

Give bad news swiftly, and spread out the good news. Machiavelli.

heart. And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.