Quotes About Wisdom

We are often reminded that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, and I believe deeply in the truth of that sentiment. Few things are as vital as remembering and passing on history to future generations.

gauging the truth of a person merely by looking is a fool's habit.

May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor ever remember what is best forgotten.

Science is the most reliable guide in life.

All these years you drone on about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, then you go and sell your own daughter.

If the sages have managed to transcend the fetters of samsara, why do they feel the need to leave these mementoes behind?

Não é preciso ser ingente para ser sublime

Seek it by study of the laws of being, the laws of nature, the laws of the supernatural; and seek it by making the profound obeisance of the soul to the dim star that burns within.

Ni Jesús ni Buda volverán para rescatarnos, lo que necesitamos para transformarnos está dentro nuestro.

How short lived knowledge is. When I was 20 I knew it all: now at 70 I can't understand a thing

Each person is worth the value put on them by the affection of others, and that is where popular wisdom has found that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

É melhor cair das nuvens que de um segundo andar

Men are so stupid and concerned with their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived.

An arrow may fly through the air and leave no trace; but an ill thought leaves a trail like a serpent.

Nor must you find fault with me if I often give you what I have borrowed from my various reading, in the very words of the authors themselves.

Modesty is a shining light; it prepares the mind to receive knowledge, and the heart for truth.

We live in the present, we dream of the future, but we learn eternal truths from the past.

Instinct is the nose of the mind.

Whatever truth you have chosen, read only a small portion of it, endeavouring to taste and digest it, to extract the essence and substance thereof, and proceed no farther while any savour or relish remains in the passage: when this subsides, pick up your book again and proceed as before, seldom reading more than half a page at a time, for it is not the quantity that is read, but the manner of reading, that yields us profit.

Men should keep their eyes wide open before marriage, and half-shut afterwards.

Robert Frost: "Now when I am old my teachers are the young.

believe we can recognize truth when we see it, just not at first and not without ever relenting in our efforts to learn more.

Over the decades, I have given speeches of many types, but commencement addresses (along with remarks at funerals) are the hardest to prepare. At my own graduation, the principal speaker was the secretary of defense, who advised the young ladies of Wellesley to find suitable husbands and raise smart children.

A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.