Quotes About Wisdom

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history? —Cicero, Orator, 46 BC

The elderly live on air, and I am very old—almost a hundred, or so they tell me.

Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.

When One Teaches, Two Learn

Democracy can't work. Mathematicians, peasants, and animals, that's all there is-- so democracy, a theory based on the assumption that mathematicians and peasants are equal, can never work. Wisdom is not additive; its maximum is that of the wisest man in a given group.

A wise man could not be insulted, since truth could not insult and untruth was not worthy of notice.

Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin.

Pain and sickness and hunger and fighting—there's no need for any of it. It's as foolish as those little monkeys.

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.

All things are known, Tallis, but most things are forgotten.

Do not trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.

If your enemy offers you two targets, strike at a third.

Anyone who claimed that old age had brought them patience was either lying or senile.

If you don't know everything, you must go on with what you do know.

A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight

You read too much and understand too little.

If you watch the wolf too hard, a mouse will bite you on the ankle

At my age, if I make it up, it's still an old saying.

Knowing serves no real purpose, but then, neither does not knowing. Myself, I always prefer knowing to not.

You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway.

Listen sharp, think deep, and guard your tongue- Tam al'Thor

You'll use it, boy, and as long as you hate using it, you will use it more wisely than most men would. Wait. If ever you don't hate it any longer, then will be the time to throw it as far as you can and run the other way.

A wise ruler takes advice, but should never be seen to take it. Let them think you know more than you do. It will not harm them, and it will help you.

A young wolfhound must meet his first wolf someday, but if the wolf sees him as a puppy, if he acts the puppy, the wolf will surely kill him. The wolfhound must be a wolfhound in the wolf's eyes even more than in his own, if he is to survive.