Quotes About Wisdom

Anyone of my generation who trusts government probably has an I.Q. that would make a good golf score.

And to say that society ought to be governed by the opinion of the wisest and best, though true, is useless. Whose opinion is to decide who are the wisest and best?

Not only did he [Dean Acheson] not suffer fools gladly, he did not suffer them at all.

As I get older ... I become more convinced that good government is not a substitute for self-government.

All things being equal, letting people make decisions for themselves will produce smarter outcomes, collectively, than relying on government planners.

Doing what's right isn't the problem. It's knowing what's right.

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. (Don't overdo it.)

To comprehend the Wisdom of this Injunction the better, and explain the Duty before us, it should be considered, that Government is the only Means by which human Happiness can be attained.

Democracy, loudly upheld as a cure for much of the ailing world, has proved no guarantor of political wisdom, even if it remains the least bad form of government.

You may not be able to change the course of government, but you can achieve some peace. And books were the path to that. I grew up in a house where books were everywhere.

We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.

In life you make the small decisions with your head and the big decisions with your heart.

In the school of the woods, there is no graduation day.

Nothing worth knowing can be taught.

The things taught in schools & colleges are not an education but the means of education.

Death is a graduation. When we're taught all the things we came to teach, learned all the things we came to learn, then we're allowed to graduate.

Be wise, because the world needs more wisdom. And if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.

... I could have said something profound, but you would have forgotten it in 15 minutes - which is the afterlife of a graduation speech.

Read. Read all the time. Read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life." (Wellesly High School commencement speech, "You Are Not Special", 6-12)

Even if you think you are thinking and acting globally, there is always more to learn and know!

Anything created by human beings is already in the great book of nature.

Emptiness is everywhere and it can be calculated, which gives us a great opportunity. I know how to control the universe. So tell me, why should I run for a million?

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women.