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Wisdom
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“Every human being longs to be happy, to satisfy the wants of the body with food, with roof and raiment, and to feed the hunger of the mind, according to his capacity, with love, wisdom, philosophy, art and song.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How To Reform Mankind (1896), chapter I. Republished by Kessinger Publishing, Llc, 2005.
“One hundred years ago, our fathers retired the gods from politics.The Declaration of Independence is the grandest, the bravest, and the profoundest political document that was ever signed by the representatives of a people. It is the embodiment of physical and moral courage and of political wisdom.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair? My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?”
James Joyce (1882–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance.”
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) said by 1592 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Michael De Montaigne
“The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in A Tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and Wisdom Spanning Continents and Time about India and Her Culture (2008) by Sushama Londhe
“Within Siddhartha there slowly grew and ripened the knowledge of what wisdom really was and the goal of his long seeking. It was nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling, and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life.”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another.”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books were written and annotated, systems evolved, the writings of the ancients collected, missals illuminated, the people’s belief fostered, the people’s credulity smiled upon. Here there was all, and room for everything, belief and learning, depths and simplicity, the wisdom of the Greeks and the Evangelists, black magic and white - all had their uses.”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Goldmund smiled up into his eyes, with the new smile he had brought home from his travels, the smile which seemed so frail and old, uncertain, at times, and feeble-witted, and then again pure goodness and pure wisdom.”
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Morality comes with the sad wisdom of age, when the sense of curiosity has withered.”
Graham Greene (1904–1991) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Sort of Life, ch. 7, sct. 1 (1971)
“The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.”
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He tried to tell himself that no one is ever responsible for another person’s actions. He believed it, he tried to live by it. But he found that cold wisdom no comfort.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here is the wisdom of the ages: Men rule but women decide.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived; and as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet the common fate.”
John Adams (1735–1826) first seen 1793 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Vice-Presidency of the United States, in a letter to Abigail Adams (19 December 1793).
“The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity, and humanity, let the blackguard Paine say what he will; it is resignation to God, it is goodness itself to man.”
John Adams (1735–1826) first seen 1796 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary entry (26 July 1796)
“When we say God is a spirit, we know what we mean, as well as we do when we say that the pyramids of Egypt are matter. Let us be content, therefore, to believe him to be a spirit, that is, an essence that we know nothing of, in which originally and necessarily reside all energy, all power, all capacity, all activity, all wisdom, all goodness.”
John Adams (1735–1826) first seen 1820 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Thomas Jefferson (17 January 1820). Often misquoted as "God is an essence that we know nothing of" and attached to a part of his 22 January 1825 letter to Thomas Jefferson.
“How the hell do I know what I find incredible? Credibility is an expanding field... Sheer disbelief hardly registers on the face before the head is nodding with all the wisdom of instant hindsight.”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The increasing influence of the Bible is marvelously great, penetrating everywhere. It carries with it a tremendous power of freedom and justice guided by a combined force of wisdom and goodness.”
Thomas More (1478–1535) said by 1535 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 34.
“An important aspect of Nonconformity was its cult of the Bible as the fount of all wisdom. But the Bible takes much of its colour from whoever is reading it, and it provides a text to support almost every shade of opinion, however preposterous.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Melodrama: The Silver King (1993).
“Our age has robbed millions of the simplicity of ignorance, and has so far failed to lift them to the simplicity of wisdom.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bookes give no wisdom where none was before, But where some is, there reading makes it more.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Moderation, the Golden Mean, the Aristonmetron, is the secret of wisdom and of happiness. But it does not mean embracing an unadventurous mediocrity: rather it is an elaborate balancing-act, a feat of intellectual skill demanding constant vigilance. Its aim is a reconciliation of opposites.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now that I am sixty, I see why the idea of elder wisdom has passed from currency.”
John Updike (1932–2009) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New Yorker (November 1992)
“The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education. School is where you go between when your parents can’t take you and industry can’t take you.”
John Updike (1932–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom, if it were young, would cherish love, nursing it with devotion, deepening it with sacrifice, vitalizing with parentage, making all things subordinate to it till the end. Even though it consumes us in its service and overwhelms us with tragedy, even though it breaks us down with separations, let it be first. How can it matter what price we pay for love?”
Will Durant (1885–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life is that which can hold a purpose for three thousand years and never yield. The individual fails, but life succeeds. The individual is foolish, but life holds in its blood and seed the wisdom of generations. The individual dies, but life, tireless and undiscourageble, goes on, wondering, longing, planning, trying, mounting, longing.”
Will Durant (1885–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature has no automatically transferable wisdom to serve as the basis of human morality. Passive observation and unquestioned reverence for nature are no substitute for ethical philosophy.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The intricate and different life cycles of both male and female root-heads, and the great behavioral sophistication shown by the female in reconfiguring a host crab as a support system, all underscore the myopia of our conventional wisdom in regarding rhizocephalans as degenerate parasites because the adult anatomy of internal roots and external sac seem so simple.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rarely do we arrive at the summit of truth without running into extremes; we have frequently to exhaust the part of error, and even of folly, before we work our way up to the noble goal of tranquil wisdom.”
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) said by 1805 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take this as a bit of easy wisdom: people who try to rule over other people are going to be hated.”
Robert Silverberg (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We do not want our world to perish. But in our quest for knowledge, century by century, we have placed all our trust in a cold, impartial intellect which only brings us nearer to destruction. We have heeded no wisdom offering guidance. Only by learning to love one another can our world be saved. Only love can conquer all.”
Dora Russell (1894–1986) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Challenge to the Cold War (1985) Vol. 3, Ch. 14
“Religion is not 'doctrinal knowledge,' but wisdom born of personal experience.”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) said by 1546 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Holborn, Hajo; A HISTORY OF MODERN GERMANY: The Reformation; 1959/1982 Princeton university Press
“But now persecution is good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and caution.”
Sydney Smith (1771–1845) first seen 1808 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Peter Plymley's Letters (1808), Letter V
“Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Master insisted that what he taught was nothing, what he did was nothing. His disciples gradually discovered that Wisdom comes to those who learn nothing, unlearn everything. That transformation is the consequence not of something done, but of something dropped.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom can be learned. But it cannot be taught.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life cannot be administered by definite rules and regulations; that wisdom to deal with a man’s difficulties comes only through some knowledge of his life and habits as a whole ...”
Jane Addams (1860–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Experience comprises illusions lost, rather than wisdom gained.”
Joseph Roux (1834–1905) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Part 4, XXVIII (1886)
“May kingship benefit the land, And wisdom grow in scholars’ band; May Shiva see my faith on earth And make me free of all rebirth.”
Kalidasa (active around 400) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Act 7, last lines (tr. Arthur W. Ryder, 1912)
“The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.”
Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To all the unheard wisdom in the schoolyard, You think you're the right ones. You think you're the charmed ones, I'm sure. And how can you go on with such conviction? And who do you think you are? Why do you question me?”
Alanis Morissette (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom is the strength of the weak.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To seek wisdom rather than truth. It is more within our grasp.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To write his views or his observations, his ideas, but not his judgments. Our judgments limit our views of things. Some enclosures, but no walls. The man who always write his judgments places before his eyes the calpe and abyla. He goes no further and creates a nec plus ultra. Thus, in the study of wisdom, many views and few judgments.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would fain coin wisdom,—mould it, I mean, into maxims, proverbs, sentences, that can easily be retained and transmitted.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gravity is but the rind of wisdom; but it is a preservative rind.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is wisdom in madness and strong probability of truth in all accusations, for people are complete and everybody is capable of everything”
Joseph Heller (1923–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil not the strength to choose between the two.”
John Cheever (1912–1982) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Late Forties and the Fifties, 1956 entry.
“The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam.”
Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by: Philip Jenkins, God's Continent / Christianity, Islam And Europe's Religious Crisis, 2007, p.3