Quotes About Wisdom

Judging a man is easy. Compassion is hard.

Don't go wishing for what you know nothing about.

To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.

I enjoy books. No room is fit for occupation without a lining of books. They contain the condensed experiences of humanity. To live fully, one has to read widely.

A noisy bed-frame is the last sound many a man has heard. I do not intend to join the august company of deceased fools.

When I was young, I admired people who were clever. Now that I am old, I admire people who are kind.

I do not rest on the broad upland of a system that includes a series of sure statements about the absolutes, but on a narrow, rocky ridge between the gulfs where there is no sureness of expressible knowledge but [only] the certainty of meeting what remains, undisclosed.

If a man wishes to guide the people in his house the right way, he must not grow angry at them. For anger does not only make one's soul impure; it transfers impurity to the souls of those with whom one is angry.

In order to speak to the world what I have heard, I am not bound to step into the street. I may remain standing in the door of my ancestral house. …

There is something that can only be found in one place. It is a great treasure, which may be called the fulfilment of existence. The place where this treasure can be found is the place on which one stands.

Those who tell of two ways and praise one are recognized as prophets or great teachers. They save men from confusion and hard choices. They offer a single choice that is easy to make because those who do not take the path that is commended to them live a wretched life. To walk far on this path may be difficult, but the choice is easy, and to hear the celebration of this path is pleasant. Wisdom offers simple schemes, but truth is not so simple.

The legendary anecdote goes one stop beyond: the single incident in question conveys the meaning of life.

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty–they merely move it from their faces into their hearts.

She [Kali] does according to her wisdom in destroying what is useless or what has lived its destined time.

voices in the study of positive psychology, framed the traits as hope, wisdom, creativity, future-mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance. V. Paraphrased from a speech given by Bruce Springsteen

King of Prussia, PA

The emptiness of your knowing everything about things you want to change, can't change anything.

The man who has the courage to say he is wrong has to face the worst hatred; the hatred of those who think he is right.

Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

Use this advice to prod your thinking, but don't use it as a replacement for your thinking. In the end you have to make, and live with, the decisions yourself.

Never try to walk across a river just because it has an average depth of four feet.

We must learn to draw from misfortune the means of future strength.

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.

Truth is rarely writ in ink; it lives in nature.