Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Wisdom
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“Wisdom and good governance require more than the consistent application of abstract principles.”
Anthony Daniels (psychiatrist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the ingenious machinery contrived by the Gods for reducing human possibilities of amelioration to a minimum — which arranges that wisdom to do shall come pari passu with the departure of zest for doing — stood in the way of all that.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Con the dead page as ’twere live love: press on! Cold wisdom’s words will ease thy track for thee.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Her Reproach", st. 1 (1867)
“It is not Wisdom, but Ignorance, which teaches men presumption; Genius may be sometimes arrogant, but nothing is so diffident as Knowledge.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books are waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wits and swords are as straws against the wisdom of the Darkness...”
Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.”
Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Freeman (1948), p. 149
“Of practical wisdom these are the three fruits: to deliberate well, to speak to the point, to do what is right.”
Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.”
Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.”
Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.”
Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.”
Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness. Luck seldom measures swords with wisdom. Most things in life quick wit and sharp vision can set right.”
Democritus (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.”
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) first seen 1880 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to B. A. Hinsdale, (21 April 1880), in The Nation's Hero — In Memoriam : The Life of James Abram Garfield (1881) by J. M. Bundy, p. 216
Also quoted by: Thaddeus Stevens (misattributed)
“Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants.”
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is good to meet and drink at the fountains of wisdom inherited from the founding fathers of the Republic.”
Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1918 address to the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution.
“To account nothing of one’s self, and to think always kindly and highly of others, this is great and perfect wisdom.”
Thomas à Kempis (1379–1471) said by 1471 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Speaking as a devout atheist, thank God in his Almighty wisdom that he made us mortal.”
Norman Finkelstein (born 1953) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/movies/11radical.html
“Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself, in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 8, story 37. Tr. Francis Gladwin, The Gulistān: Rose-Garden (London: Parbury, Allen, and Co, 1834) p. 274
“He who learns the rules of wisdom without conforming to them in his life is like a man who ploughs in his field but does not sow.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cheerful with wisdom, with innocence gay, And calm with your joys gently glide thro' the day. The dews of the evening most carefully shun — Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) first seen 1763 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Advice to a Lady in Autumn", published in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. I. (1763), printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley
“One could surely argue that the Buddhist tradition, taken as a whole, represents the richest source of contemplative wisdom that any civilization has produced. In a world that has long been terrorized by fratricidal Sky-God religions, the ascendance of Buddhism would surely be a welcome development.”
Sam Harris (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On one level, wisdom is nothing more than the ability to take your own advice.”
Sam Harris (born 1967) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Tim Ferris, "Tools of Titans" (2016), p. 454
“Wit and wisdom are born with a man.”
John Selden (1584–1654) said by 1654 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.”
Norman Cousins (1915–1990) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 15 April 1978.
“Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in search thereof when he is grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more.”
Diogenes Laërtius first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 122, in Moral Exhortation (1986), p. 33
“I see at last that all the knowledgeI wrung from the darkness — that the darkness flung me — Is worthless as ignorance: nothing comes from nothing, The darkness from the darkness. Pain comes from the darkness And we call it wisdom. It is pain.”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.”
Herb Caen (1916–1997) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Editors of the Reader's Digest. Quotable Quotes, page 144. Penguin, 1997
“Watts published a luminous book entitled The Wisdom of Insecurity that ought to be required reading for every high school senior. Watts elaborates beautifully on what I've learned from observation and personal experience: namely, that security is an illusion.”
Tom Robbins (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality. The morality that stands against the ineradicable human habit of judging instantly, ceaselessly, and everyone; of judging before, and in the absence of, understanding. From the viewpoint of the novel’s wisdom, that fervid readiness to judge is the most detestable stupidity, the most pernicious evil.”
Milan Kundera (1929–2023) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Testaments Betrayed (1995), p. 7
“By this story [The Fox and the Raven] it is shown how much ingenuity avails, and how wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.”
Phaedrus (fabulist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Seneca
“But neither infinite power nor infinite wisdom could bestow godhood upon men. For that there would have to be infinite love as well.”
Walter M. Miller Jr. (1923–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At her station in life, wisdom dictated keeping a low profile. And yet...”
David Brin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom. No match for the troublemaker Curiosity.”
David Brin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is there an inverse relation between knowledge and wisdom? At times it seems the more we know, the less we understand. I am not the first to note this quandary. One scholar recently wrote, “Lysos and her followers chase the siren call of pastoralism, like countless romantics before them, idealizing a past Golden Age that never was, pursuing a serenity possible only in the imagination.”
David Brin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These past few days have been historic, and, you know, it’s in the days ahead that will determine the future of a — this country, and we intend to approach them with strength, wisdom, and resolve.”
“The disease having been caused by allowing cleverness to displace wisdom, no amount of clever research is likely to produce a cure.”
E. F. Schumacher (1911–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A world-picture that encompasses science but also the deep wisdom of theology may help us to explain how it is we can think, how we discover the extraordinary, but so too it may warn us of present dangers and future catastrophes . . .”
Simon Conway Morris (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the knowledge and experience of the Incarnation, the wisdom and warnings given by Jesus in the Gospels, and not least the Resurrection that in the final analysis are all that matters.”
Simon Conway Morris (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Solomon made a great mistake when he asked for wisdom.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are people whom even children’s literature would corrupt. They read with particular enjoyment the piquant passages in the Psalter and in the Wisdom of Solomon.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to M.V. Kiseleva (January 14, 1887)
“After listening to the debate on unemployment I can see a danger that Liberals lose to the Tories their claim to have new and sensible ideas and are left saying "Me too" to a Socialist conventional wisdom which is failing...The salient need of this country—to produce more and much more efficiently—hardly figured on the agenda.”
Jo Grimond (1913–1993) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sunday Times (19 September, 1976).
“[N]o human institution can arrive at perfection, and the most that human wisdom can do, is to procure the same or greater good, at the expence of less evil.”
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) said by 1751 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[S]ome went through the whole disrupting experience of national indignity as early as 1933, others after June 1934, still others in 1938 during the Jewish pogroms, many in the years since 1942, when defeat became probable, or since 1943 when it because certain, and some not until it actually happened in 1945.<!-- === Way to Wisdom ===”
Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness and Prosperity are now within our Reach; but to attain and preserve them must depend upon our own Wisdom and Virtue.”
George Mason (1725–1792) first seen 1783 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to William Cabell (6 May 1783)
“The discovery of truth by slow progressive meditation is wisdom. Intuition of truth, not preceded by perceptible meditation, is genius.”
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) said by 1801 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.”
James Allen (1864–1912) said by 1912 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People expect Byzantine, Machiavellian logic from politicians. But the truth is simple. Trial lawyers learn a good rule: 'Don't decide what you don't have to decide.' That's not evasion, it's wisdom.”
Mario Cuomo (1932–2015) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Quotable Politician (2003) by William B. Whitman, p. 25
“All religions are ultimately cargo cults. Adherents perform required rituals, follow specific rules, and expect to be supernaturally gifted with desired rewards—long life, honor, wisdom, children, good health, wealth, victory over opponents, immortality after death, any desired rewards.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source