Quotes About Wisdom

Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.

It is wise to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions.

He is a fool who leaves things close at hand to follow what is out of reach.

An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.

For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.

The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need of glory, except so far as it disposes and eases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him.

The process may seem strange and yet it is very true. I did not so much gain the knowledge of things by the words, as words by the experience I had of things.

To the Dolphin alone, beyond all other, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage

When someone blamed Hecataeus the sophist because that, being invited to the public table, he had not spoken one word all supper-time, Archidamidas answered in his vindication 'He who knows how to speak, knows also when'.

A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.

For though all persons are equally subject to the caprice of fortune, yet all good men have one advantage she cannot deny, which is this, to act reasonably under misfortunes.

take care, in reading the writings of philosophers or hearing their speeches, that you do not attend to words more than things, nor get attracted more by what is difficult and curious than by what is serviceable and solid and useful.

And, to say truly, the greatest benefit that learning bringeth unto men is this: that it teacheth men that be rough and rude of nature, by compass and rule of reason, to be civil and courteous, and to like better the mean state than the higher.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. "For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.

if the "Know thyself" of the oracle were an easy thing for every man, it would not be held to be a divine injunction.

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent than the extent of my power or possessions.

Being consulted again whether it were requisite to enclose the city with a wall, [Lycurgus] sent them word, 'The city is well fortified which hath a wall of men instead of brick'.

Demaratus, being asked in a troublesome manner by an importunate fellow, Who was the best man in Lacedaemon? answered at last, 'He, Sir, that is the least like you'.

Whereas stories are fit for every place, reach to all persons, serve for all times, teach the living, revive the dead, so far excelling all other books, as it is better to see learning in Noblemen's lives, than to read it in Philosophers' writings.

Lycurgus, who ordered that a great piece of money should be but of an inconsiderable value, on the contrary would allow no discourse to be current which did not contain in few words a great deal of useful and curious sense.

The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need of glory, except so far as it…eases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him.

It is the hither accomplishment to use money well than to use arms; but not to need it is more noble than to use it.

The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs kindling.