Quotes About Wisdom

Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.

In wit a man, simplicity a child.

The learned is happy, nature to explore The fool is happy, that he knows no more.

A man of business may talk of philosophy; a man who has none may practise it.

Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools,And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools.

A patriot is a fool in ev'ry age.

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been wrong, which is but saying, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore, Are what ten thousand envy and adore: All, all look up, with reverential Awe, At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the Law: While Truth, Worth, Wisdom, daily they decry-` 'Nothing is sacred now but Villainy' - Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue I

Whatever is, is right.

Know thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, Make use of ev'ry friend—and ev'ry foe.

For forms of Government let fools contest. Whate'er is best administered is best.

No place so scared from such frops is barred Nor is Paul's Church more safe than Paul's Churchyard Na fly to alter there they'll talk you dead For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Some who grow dull religious straight commence And gain in morals what they lose in sense.

For he lives twice who can at once employ, The present well, and e'en the past enjoy.

The fool is happy that he knows no more

A little learning is a dang'rous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again.

There is no study that is not capable of delighting us, after a little application to it.

The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, is the cause of Man's error and misery.

Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.

Be silent always when you doubt your sense; And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence: Some positive, persisting fops we know, Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so; But you, with pleasure own your errors past, And make each day a critic on the last.

Be sure yourself and your own reach to know How far your genius taste and learning go.

Some praise at morning what they blame at night, But always think the last opinion right. A Muse by these is like a mistress used, This hour she's idolized, the next abused; While their weak heads, like towns unfortified, 'Twixt sense and nonsense daily change their side. Ask them the cause; they're wiser still they say; And still to-morrow's wiser than to-day.