Quotes About Wisdom

What makes a witch, then? If it is not divinity?

All heroes are fools, he liked to say. What he meant was, all heroes but me.

It was so simple. If you want it, I will do it. If it would make you happy, I will go with you. Is there a moment that a heart cracks? But a cracked heart was not enough, and I had grown wise enough to know it.

I sifted and resifted my memories of Aeëtes, all those hours we had leaned against each other. That old sickening feeling returned: that every moment of my life I had been a fool.

Frail she was, but crafty, with a mind like a spike-toothed

A true-made bow, Odysseus had called her. A fixed star. A woman who knew herself. "I asked her how she did it once, how she understood the world so clearly. She told me that it was a matter of keeping very still and showing no emotions, leaving room for others to reveal themselves.

Daedalus had said to me once: Even the best iron grows brittle with too much beating.

Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart? O

You cannot make that promise, I wanted to shout. You know nothing. But whose fault was that? I had kept the face of the world veiled from him. I had painted his history in bright, bold colors, and he had fallen in love with my art. And now it was too late to go back and change it. If I was so old, I should be wise. I should know better than to howl when the bird was already flown.

Each man or woman who passed, she knew their history and would tell it to me, for she said that you must understand people if you would rule them.

But a cracked heart was not enough, and I had grown wise enough to know it. I kissed him and left him there.

Once when I was young I asked what mortals looked like. My father said, "You may say they are shaped like us, but only as the worm is shaped like the whale.

It is not fair," I said. "It cannot be." "Those are two different things," my grandmother said.

It was the sort of secret I loved to discover, for it made me feel cynical and wise.

I do not plan to tell her. Telegonus, these are gods. You must keep your tricks close or you will lose everything.

Whatever you do, I wanted to say, do not be too happy. It will bring down fire on your head. I said nothing, and let her dance.

because I knew nothing, nothing was beneath me.

Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?

They have wrinkles, but no wisdom.

Useless information is my curse, I'm afraid

Every prince needs to know his lands, and there's no better way to learn than by grazing the goats.

In the old days I would have rushed forth with a brimming cup of answers, to give him all he wanted. But I was not the same as I had been.

The things that make us happy make us wise.

The better you tell an old story, the more you are talking about right now.