Famous quotes
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Wisdom
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“Teach him what has been said in the past; then he will set a good example to the children of the magistrates, and judgement and all exactitude shall enter into him. Speak to him, for there is none born wise.”
Ptahhotep (2451–2401 BC) said by 2401 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When Cornstalk arose, he was in no wise confused or daunted, but spoke in a distinct and audible voice, without stammering, or repetition, and with peculiar emphasis. His looks while addressing Dunmore were truly grand, yet graceful and attractive.”
Cornstalk (1710–1777) first seen 1777 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Colonel Benjamin Wilson (1777), on Cornstalk's speech after the battle of Point Pleasant, as quoted in "Cornstalk, the Shawanee Chief" by Rev. William Henry Foote, in The Southern Literary Messenger Vol. 16, Issue 9, (S…
“Incidentally, the next time some war-mongering wise-ass tries to tell you that one reason we're in the middle east is to enhance the civil rights and social equality of women, remind them that we very enthusiastically destroyed the most secular country over there, where women could dress as they liked, have good jobs, be literate, and vote.”
L. Neil Smith (1946–2021) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Enquiring Minds and the Oil War," 11 July 2010.
“Compared with many talk-radio hosts, John Ziegler is unusually polite to on-air callers. Which is to say that he doesn't yell at them, call them names, or hang up while they're speaking, although he does get frustrated with some calls. But there are good and bad kinds of frustration, stimulation-wise. Hence the delicate art of call screening.”
David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Host: Deep into the mercenary world of take-no-prisoners political talk radio." The Atlantic, April 2005.
“It was silly to suppose that trials only hardened men, automatically making them wise. He knew many who were stupid, arrogant, and mean, in spite of having suffered.”
David Brin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.”
Colette (1873–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We cannot change our character, we can only enlarge it. If we are wise, then we go on learning all through life, and go on fitting what is new to what we have learnt before, piece by piece.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In such green palaces the first kings reign'd, Slept in their shades, and angels entertain'd; With such old counsellors they did advise, And by frequenting sacred groves grew wise.”
Edmund Waller (1606–1687) said by 1687 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On St. James's Park; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“He that alone would wise and mighty be, Commands that others love as well as he. Love as he lov'd! — How can we soar so high?— He can add wings when he commands to fly. Nor should we be with this command dismay'd; He that examples gives will give his aid: For he took flesh, that where his precepts fall, His practice, as a pattern, may prevail.”
Edmund Waller (1606–1687) said by 1687 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps it was some magic in those extraordinary letters, first created at a time when any writing was by definition magical, a secret mark on silent metal that could communicate without speech to the eyes of a wise lore-master. Runes cannot help being magical, even if what they spell out is commonplace.”
“Wise is he who knows when to speak; wiser still, he who knows when to stay silent.”
“Cease, large example of wise thrift a while.”
Richard Lovelace (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why should I not love childhood still? Why, if I see a rock or shelf, Shall I from thence cast down myself? Or by complying with the world, From the same precipice be hurled? Those observations are but foul, Which make me wise to lose my soul. And yet the practice worldlings call Business, and weighty action all, Checking the poor child for his play, But gravely cast themselves away.”
Henry Vaughan (1621–1695) said by 1695 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Between "there is a God" and "there is no God" lies a whole vast tract, which the really wise man crosses with great effort. A Russian knows one or other of these two extremes, and the middle tract between them does not interest him; and therefore he usually knows nothing, or very little. (Diary, 1897)”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A wise man will keep his Suspicions muzzled, but he will keep them awake.”
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) said by 1695 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing would more contribute to make a Man wise, than to have always an Enemy in his view.”
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) said by 1695 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People look at me as this very, I don't know, Confucius-like wise person — which I'm not. They don't see all the shit that I've been through.”
“From ignorance our comfort flows. The only wretched are the wise.”
Matthew Prior (1664–1721) first seen 1692 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To the Honorable Charles Montague (1692).
“I think, and every wise and honest man in generations yet unborn will think, if the history of [thi]s administration descends to blacken our annals, that the greatest iniquity of the minister [Robert Walpole], on whom the whole iniquity ought to be charged, since he has been so long in possession of the whole power, is the constant endeavour he has employed to corrupt the morals of men.”
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) said by 1751 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You talk no more of that gay nation now, Where men adore their wives, and woman's power Draws reverence from a polished people's softness, Their husbands' equals, and their lovers' queens; Free without scandal; wise without restraint; Their virtue due to nature, not to fear.”
Aaron Hill (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Matilda is adorable, and beautifully observant and wise. Michelle and I love her so much. Becoming a father exceeds all my expectations. It's the most remarkable experience I've ever had — it's marvelous.”
Heath Ledger (1979–2008) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On becoming a father to his daughter Matilda, (June 2005), as quoted in "Obituary: Heath Ledger", ABC News, January 23, 2008.
“Ask a woman's advice, and, whate'er she advise, Do the very reverse and you're sure to be wise.”
Thomas Moore (1779–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not every light is a true light; To the wise the light of truth is light itself.”
Thiruvalluvar wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you're already so low on the parental totem pole, skill-wise, that you're letting your child scream "frickin'" in a public place...just let 'em say "fuck." He's already going to prison. Don't make him a bottom-bunk, too.”
Christopher Titus (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trust to HIM. There are days in which the sun is not seen—when a lurid darkness brings a second night over the earth. It matters not. The great luminary is always there. There may be clouds before his face, but the winds will blow them away. The man or the people that trust in God will find a lake for every See-wise.”
James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Lake Gun (1851)
“It is enough. Go, children of the Lenape, the anger of the Manitou is not done. Why should Tamenund stay? The pale faces are masters of the earth, and the time of the red men has not yet come again. My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of Unamis happy and strong; and yet, before the night has come, have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans.”
James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) said by 1851 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Experience is the only prophecy of wise men.”
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) first seen 1847 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Mâcon (1847)
“Something in their history has moved them to patience. Wise leaders do not go to war with enemies, not even evil enemies, unless they have thought it through to the end.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not, then, in the content or substance of folly that its difference from truth lies, but in where it comes from. It comes not from ‘the wise man’s mouth’ but from the mouth of the subject assumed not to know and speak the truth.”
J. M. Coetzee (born 1940) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Erasmus: Madness and Rivalry,” Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996), p. 94
“It was the wise all-seeing soul Who counselled neither war nor peace: 'Only be thou thyself that goal In which the wars of time shall cease.'”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I needed love no words could say; She drew me softly nigh her chair, My head upon her knees to lay, With cool hands that caressed my hair. She sat with hands as if to bless, And looked with grave, ethereal eyes; Ensouled by ancient quietness, A gentle priestess of the Wise.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have wept a million tears: Pure and proud one, where are thine, What the gain though all thy years In unbroken beauty shine? All your beauty cannot win Truth we learn in pain and sighs: You can never enter in To the circle of the wise.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Their children learned the lesson of compromise only too well, and it was the application of it to a question of fundamental morals that cost us our civil war. We learned once for all that compromise makes a good umbrella but a poor roof; that it is a temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Apocrypha... ought to be bound up with all your Bibles; it contains much that is beautiful and wise, and there is in history nothing finer than the description of Eleazar's end.”
John Tyndall (1820–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wise men don't judge: they seek to understand.”
Wei Wu Wei (1895–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I never can admit that it can be wise to give way to the unjust pretensions of France for the purpose of gaining for the French government...the support of the violent party, or even of the moderate encroachers. Depend upon it, no good is gained by such concessions; you only whet the appetite instead of satisfying it. We should betray our own weakness and encourage fresh demands.”
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) first seen 1831 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Viscount Granville (2 April 1831), quoted in Henry Lytton Bulwer, The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, with Selections from His Diaries and Correspondence, Volume II (1870), pp. 74-75
“Sir, a wise Government in its home policy considers the reasonable wants of the people; in its foreign policy, it is prepared to resist the unjust demands and the unreasonable views of foreign powers. The present Government inverts this method; it is all resistance at home, all concession abroad.”
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (28 July 1843)
“What shelter to grow ripe is ours? What leisure to grow wise?”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stanzas in Memory of the Author of 'Obermann'", st. 18 (1852)
“The will is free; Strong is the soul, and wise, and beautiful; The seeds of god-like power are in us still; Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!”
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Was it a friend or foe that spread these lies? Nay, who but infants question in such wise, 'T was one of my most intimate enemies.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fragment, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Eat thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die. Surely the earth, that's wise being very old, Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and hold Thy sultry hair up from my face; that I May pour for thee this golden wine, brim-high, Till round the glass thy fingers glow like gold. We'll drown all hours: thy song, while hours are toll'd, Shall leap, as fountains veil the changing sky.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I half wrote a discourse on modern democracy, how the rule of numbers is to be reconciled with the rule of sage judgment, and the passion for liberty and equality is to be reconciled with sovereign regard for law, authority, and order; and how our hopes for the future are to be linked to wise reverence for tradition and the past.”
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Aphorisms', an address delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institutions (11 November 1887), quoted in John Morley, Studies in Literature (1901), p. 54
“If mankind had always been logical and wise, history would not be a long chronicle of folly and crime.”
James Frazer (1854–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not especially wise, but I am especially stubborn.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chester almost said so—almost, but not quite. He and Rita had been married a while now. He’d learned a wise man didn't antagonize his wife over something inherently unprovable, especially when she’d just given him breakfast.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A wise husband didn’t quarrel even when he was right. Quarreling when you knew you were wrong was a recipe for disaster.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can beat the enemy,” he said to nobody in particular, “but God help us against our own side.” “Headquarters being stupid again?” Scullard asked sympathetically. “They’d have to wise up to get to stupid.” Warming to his theme, Pound added, “They’ve got their headquarters in the their hindquarters.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies; One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: XXVI (1859)
“But here are wine and beautiful young girls, Be wise and hide your Sorrows in their curls, Dive as you will in life's mysterious sea, You shall not bring us any better pearls.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 45 (1902)