Quotes About Wisdom

Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left.

His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being taught, grew up to be the older self and was, therefore, capable of teaching.

The 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with those three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.

A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty percent of all human 'wisdom'...and the other twenty percent isn't very important.

Were you born stupid, Heinrich, or did you have to study?

It would take centuries and he must grow and grow and grow, but he was in no hurry--he grokked that Eternity and the ever-beautifully-changing Now were identical.

I refuse to grow younger. I came by my decrepitude the hard way and I propose to enjoy it.

Many older physicians had gone to their graves calling Pasteur a liar, a fool, or worse---and without examining evidence which their "common sense" told them was impossible.

There are things which cannot be taught in ten easy lessons, nor popularized for the masses; they take years of skull sweat.

The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it — once you can honestly say, 'I don't know', then it becomes possible to get at the truth.

Children seldom are able to realize that death will come to them personally. One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns that he must die ... and accepts his sentence undismayed.

one of the few things I've learned is that humans hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn—when they do, which isn't often—on their own, the hard way.

Marriage is a young man's disaster and an old man's comfort.

When railroading time comes you can railroad—but not before.

Harshaw had the arrogant humility of the man who has learned so much that he is aware of his own ignorance and he saw no point in 'measurements' when he did not know what he was measuring.

Age does not bring wisdom, Ben, but it does give perspective . . . and the saddest sight of all is to see, far behind you, temptations you've resisted.

But I have no beliefs. Belief gets in the way of learning.

I want to spit back at a camel and ask him what he's so sour about. Maybe camels are the real 'Old Ones' on this planet ... and that what is wrong with the place.

Time was when I was immune to emotional shocks. But as I get older, I don't get tougher; I get softer.

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.

One can lead a child to knowledge but one cannot make him think.

Study it yourself. If I told you, you would not know; you simply would have been told.

A generation which ignores history has no past—and no future.

Do you know your Bible?' 'Uh, not very well.' 'It merits study, it contains very practical advice for most emergencies.