Quotes About Wisdom

Self-knowledge can be painful, but not half so damaging as self-ignorance.

Honesty always sounds like impudence to the vain and stupid.

The older you get, the more you believe in God, whatever face he wears.

Early to bed and early to rise," Mazer intoned, "makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.

The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them.

A certain great and powerful king once asked a poet: "What can I give you of all that I have?" He wisely replied, "Anything sir… except your secret."

The only way to stay out of trouble is to grow old, so I guess I'll concentrate on that. Maybe I'll live so long that I'll forget her—maybe I'll die trying.

Viele Menschen sind gut erzogen, um nicht mit vollem Mund zu sprechen, aber sie haben keine Bedenken, es mit leerem Kopf zu tun.

Many would never speak with a full mouth, but do it with an empty head

That man is intellectually of the mass who, in face of any problem, is satisfied with thinking the first thing he finds in his head. On the contrary, the excellent man is he who contemns what he finds in his mind without previous effort, and only accepts as worthy of him what is still far above him and what requires a further effort in order to be reached.

All good thinking is a matter of asking and answering three elementary questions. What is being said? Is it true? What of it?

We betray our modern arrogance and forget the place of mystery in God's dealing with us.

There is a time for stories, and there is a time for rational arguments, and the skill we need lies in knowing which to use, and when. Put

What Socrates called the "unexamined life" that is "not worth living" now seems to be the life more people have slipped into than ever before.

What we also need is a constructive overarching vision of Christian engagement in today's advanced modern world, one that is shaped by faith in God and a Christian perspective rather than by current wisdom, and one that can inspire Christians to move out with courage to confront the best and worst that we may encounter.

The story is told of Socrates walking through the market in Athens, with its groaning abundance of options, and saying to himself, "Who would have thought that there could be so many things that I can do without?"4

We must also and always be discerning about the spirit of the age in any generation, which today means squarely facing the seductions of technique.

There is a time for stories, and there is a time for rational arguments, and the skill we need lies in knowing which to use, and when.

Erudition lends conviction to self-deception.

Don't trust anyone over thirty," the 1960s radicals cried. "Don't trust anyone under three hundred," came Thomas Oden's wise reply.

Don't trust anyone over thirty," the 1960s radicals cried. "Don't trust anyone under three hundred," came Thomas Oden's wise reply. "Vox temporis" (the voice of the times) is no more trustworthy than "vox populi" (the voice of the people) when set against "vox dei" (the voice of God).

With the deepest things in life, there is always more to knowing than knowing will ever know, so the deepest knowledge must be learned in life, from experience, and under a master.

The way of the disciple is a different and deeper way of learning.