Famous quotes
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Wisdom
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“In seeking wisdom thou art wise: in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.”
Simeon ben Azzai (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't you believe people when they tell you that people sought for a sign, and believed in miracles because they were ignorant. They did it because they were wise, filthily, vilely wise—too wise to eat or sleep or put on their boots with patience.”
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is very difficult to be wise (through the mind); it is not difficult to be wise occasionally and by chance, but it is difficult to be wise assiduously and by choice.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have heard it said that a man caught between his wife and a Wise One often wishes for a dozen old enemies to fight instead. A man caught between a wife and three Wise Ones, and the wife a Wise One herself, must consider trying to slay Sightblinder.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Okay,” she said, “I’ll listen to the wise. Are you wise?” “Wise enough,” he said, “and mighty experienced, which is the same thing if you’re not too stupid.”
Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you think maybe I want power for myself? That’s for fools who want to command other fools.”
Poul Anderson (1926–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it's compounding a felony.”
Robert Benchley (1889–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The New Speaker's Treasury of Wit and Wisdom (1958) by Herbert Victor Prochnow, p. 129
“Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.”
Edward Young (1683–1765) said by 1765 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fools rush where Angels fear to tread!" Angels and Fools have equal claim To do what Nature bids them do, sans hope of praise, sans fear of blame!”
Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lucky fools do not bear the slightest suspicion that they may be lucky fools - by definition, they do not know that they belong to such a category.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Wealth,' they said, 'is a false measure. Honour cannot be hoarded. Integrity cannot adorn a room. There is no courage in gold. Only fools build a fortress of wealth. Only fools would live in it and imagine themselves safe.'”
Steven Erikson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.”
Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Early in his life Mr. [Ezra] Pound met with strong, continued, and unintelligent opposition. If people keep opposing you when you are right, you think them fools; and after a time, right or wrong, you think them fools simply because they oppose you. Similarly, you write true things or good things, and end by thinking things true or good simply because you write them”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And only God who makes the tree Also makes the fools like me. But only fools like me, you see, Can make a God, who makes a tree.”
Yip Harburg (1896–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love and devotion, deep as any ocean don't play by anybody's rulesWith your carousel of horses and your unforeseen forces,you're running with the caravan of foolsCaravan of fools, caravan of foolsYou're running with the caravan of fools”
John Prine (1946–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“May be we are not such fools as we look. But though we be, we are well content, so long as we may be two fools together.”
R. D. Blackmore (1825–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out. We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.”
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom did not belong to mortals, and those whom others called wise were only those who, through grim experience, had touched the very edges of unwelcome truths. For the wise, even joy was tinged with sorrow. No, the world made its demands upon mortals and they were immediate ones, pressingly, ferociously so, and even knowing a reasonable course was not enough to alter a mad plunge into disaster.'”
Steven Erikson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“. . . now and again it is wise to cease from being wise, lest Heaven should grow jealous of our wisdom and want to share it.”
H. Rider Haggard (1856–1925) said by 1925 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are confronted with the incompatible claims of Jerusalem and Athens to our allegiance. We are open to both and willing to listen to each. We ourselves are not wise but we wish to become wise. We are seekers for wisdom, philo-sophoi.”
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Athens and Jerusalem : Some Preliminary Reflections in Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy (1985), p. 149
“O world, thou choosest not the better part! It is not wisdom to be only wise, And on the inward vision close the eyes, But it is wisdom to believe the heart. Columbus found a world, and had no chart, Save one that faith deciphered in the skies; To trust the soul's invincible surmise Was all his science and his only art.”
George Santayana (1863–1952) first seen 1894 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: O World, Thou Choosest Not (1894)
“There is oftentimes a great deal of knowledge where there is but little wisdom to improve that knowledge. It is not the most knowing Christian but the most wise Christian that sees, avoids, and escapes Satan's snares. Knowledge without wisdom is like mettle in a blind horse, which is often an occasion of the rider's fall.”
Thomas Brooks (Puritan) (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For man seeketh in society comfort, use, and protection: and they be three wisdoms of divers natures, which do often sever: wisdom of the behaviour, wisdom of business, and wisdom of state.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be prepared for either wisdom through joy, or wisdom through grief. Enough that, looking only through the mechanism by which this mortal world is impelled and improved, you know that cruelty is impossible to wisdom.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is true that the successful quest for wisdom might lead to the result that wisdom is not the one thing needful. But this result would owe its relevance to the fact that it is the result of the quest for wisdom: the very disavowal of reason must be reasonable disavowal.”
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These ten commandments come to us as a Divine Revelation, as a document signed by God Himself [-] But these books contain a higher wisdom besides. Not the wisdom of the street corners, nor the wisdom of the learned schools, but the conduct which God requires of us”
Michael von Faulhaber (1869–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I fear that wisdom is disappearing from modern experience where everything becomes just information. Information is not wisdom. Wisdom is when things are integrated into a historical continuum and one’s personal life experience.”
Juhani Pallasmaa (born 1936) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Aura of the Sacred lecture Juhani Pallasmaa's Agora lecture "Christianity as Secularisation" (15 August 2012).
“You may have your own wisdom but that wisdom is nothing compared to the wisdom of God who appointed you as the King over his people therefore you need to call on him before you take any decision that affect the people.”
Joseph Edra Ukpo (1937–2023) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Corruption impeding fight against Boko Haram – Arch Bishop (May 19, 2014)
“Can the wisdom of the ages serve as the wisdom of the new age, the new millennium? Conventional wisdom is often not subject to or confirmed by independent research. The triumphal road for some can be a Trail of Tears for others.”
Richard Hunt first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2021 (COMPILED FROM NOTES WRITTEN 2001–21)(2022). Richard Hunt. GREGORY R. MILLER & CO. ISBN 9781941366448.
“It seems to be a conceded point now among those who are leading the way in our church that the Church of Rome has all the wisdom, and it must follow that, while some are striving to gain that wisdom, some will, as a matter of course, remain unquiet until they can gain the religious graces which she alone bestows with that wisdom.”
Edgar Philip Prindle Wadhams (1817–1891) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to McVickar (1845) Reminiscences of Edgar P. Wadhams: First Bishop of Ogdensburg
“The brain is more valuable than the skull. But everybody has a brain. Inside the brain are wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge are the most valuable things in the body. I want to be number one in the business of supplying wisdom and knowledge all over Japan. But the knowledge industry is too big, too wide.”
Masayoshi Son (born 1957) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Japanese-Style Entrepreneurship: An Interview with Softbank’S CEO, Masayoshi Son" in Harvard Business Review (1992)
“If all things are in common among friends, the most precious is Wisdom. What can Juno give which thou canst not receive from Wisdom? What mayest thou admire in Venus which thou mayest not also contemplate in Wisdom? Her beauty is not small, for the lord of all things taketh delight in her. Her I have loved and diligently sought from my youth up.”
Giordano Bruno (attributed) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Dorothea Waley Singer, Giordano Bruno: His Life and Thought (1950)
“If there is a witness to my little life, To my tiny throes and struggles, He sees a fool; And it is not fine for gods to menace fools.”
Stephen Crane (1871–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't hate fools, I pity them! (I pity the fool)”
“Teachin' fools some basic rules! (I pity the fool)”
“Get up in one of our industrial centres today and say that two and two make four, and if there is any financial interest concerned in maintaining that two and two make five, the police will bash your head in. Then what choice have you, save to degenerate either into a fool or into a hypocrite? And who wants to live in a land of fools and hypocrites?”
Albert Jay Nock (1870–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any fool can see the limits of seeing, but not even the wisest know the limits of knowing. Thus is ignorance rendered invisible, and are all Men made fools.”
R. Scott Bakker (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tell me then, does love make one a fool or do only fools fall in love?”
Orhan Pamuk (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We’re fools!” said Harrison. “Morons! Idiots!” “If you speak of my altruism,” said Pepe cheerfully, “I agree. But if you speak of your interest in a very pretty girl, then I point out that nobody is ever as happy as while he is making a fool of himself over a woman.”
Murray Leinster (1896–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The concept of deception is layered like an onion. We can peel off one level and write programs like ELIZA that fool some of the people some of the time, and then peel off another layer and write a program like A.L.I.C.E. that (apparently) fools more of the people more of the time. The evidence suggests that we should take a serious look at the role of deception in AI.”
Richard Wallace (scientist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain — and most fools do.”
Benjamin Franklin (misattributed) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed in various post-2000 works, but actually Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People p.14, published in 1936. (N.B. Carnegie is quoting Franklin immediately prior to writing this, so attribution …
“Pocket: Do you know that there's no fool piece on the chessboard, Kent? Kent: Methinks the fool is the player, the mind above the moves. Pocket: Well, that's a scratchy spot of cat wank. But bloody well said.”
Christopher Moore (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was never a genius who was not thought a fool until he disclosed himself; whereas he is a fool then only.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any fool can make a rule And every fool will mind it.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: February 3, 1860