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Wisdom
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“Concern for the symbol has completely disappeared from our science. And yet, if one were to give oneself the trouble, one could easily find, in certain parts at least of contemporary mathematics... symbols as clear, as beautiful, and as full of spiritual meaning as that of the circle and mediation. From modern thought to ancient wisdom the path would be short and direct, if one cared to take it.”
Simone Weil (1909–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Need for Roots (1949), p. 292
“What potent spirit guides the raptur'd eye To pierce the shades of dim futurity? Can Wisdom lend, with all her heav'nly pow'r, The pledge of Joy's anticipated hour? Ah, no! she darkly sees the fate of man— Her dim horizon bounded to a span; Or, if she hold an image to the view, Tis nature pictur'd too severely true.”
Thomas Campbell (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Applied properly, it [logic] can overcome any lack of wisdom, which one only gains through age and experience.”
Christopher Paolini (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The civil state is humbly to be implored to provide in their high wisdom for the security of all the respective consciences, in their respective meetings, assemblings, worshipings, preachings, disputings, etc., and that civil peace and the beauty of civility and humanity be maintained among the chief opposers and dissenters.”
Roger Williams (theologian) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom,” growled the Agirul. “Painful, isn’t it? We assume so much and resist learning to the contrary.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When your people began to press upon us, long, long ago, we moved into remote enclaves. To us, numbers are not strength; wisdom is strength. What profiteth a race to be numerous and stupid, la? Behold how great we are, saith the lemming!” She laughed.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You asked for wisdom? Hear these words. Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Age is no more near than youth To the sceptre and the crown. Vain the wisdom, vain the truth; Do not lay thy rapture down.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aye, after victory, the crown; Yet through the fight no word of cheer; And what would win and what go down No word could help, no light make clear. A thousand ages onward led Their joys and sorrows to that hour; No wisdom weighed, no word was said, For only what we were had power.”
George William Russell (1867–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That there were 'weeds' in the Bible requiring to be kept out of sight was to me... a new revelation. I take little pleasure in dwelling upon the errors and blemishes of a book rendered venerable to me by intrinsic wisdom and imperishable associations. But...when its passages are invoked to justify the imposition of a yoke, irksome because unnatural, we are driven in self-defence to be critical.”
John Tyndall (1820–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All wisdom's armoury this man could wield”
George Meredith (1828–1909) first seen 1892 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sage Enamoured (1892)
“Not till the fire is dying in the grate, Look we for any kinship with the stars. Oh, wisdom never comes when it is gold, And the great price we pay for it full worth: We have it only when we are half earth.”
George Meredith (1828–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From perfect grief there need not be Wisdom or even memory; One thing then learned remains to me — The woodspurge has a cup of three.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Woodspurge, st. 4 (1870).
“If God in his wisdom have brought close The day when I must die, That day by water or fire or air My feet shall fall in the destined snare Wherever my road may lie.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The King's Tragedy, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“And now impatiently despairest, see How nought is changed: Joy's wisdom is attired Splended for others' eyes if not for thee: Not love or beauty or youth from earth is fled: If they delite thee not, 'tis thou art dead.”
Robert Bridges (1844–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beauty, the eternal Spouse of the Wisdom of God and Angel of his Presence thru' all creation.”
Robert Bridges (1844–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Justice is not to be taken by storm. She is to be wooed by slow advances. Substitute statute for decision, and you shift the center of authority, but add no quota of inspired wisdom.”
Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870–1938) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lecture at Yale University Law School (1923) as quoted in The American Journal of International Law Vol. 29 (1935), p. 32.
“I must conclude that my views on the subject are also the views of the large majority of the American people.” That was probably true. Because of it, Flora did not have a good opinion of the political wisdom of the large majority of the American people. Nationalism kept too many from voting their class interests.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with my own hand labour'd it to grow: And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd— "I came like Water, and like Wind I go.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: XXVIII (1859)
“With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow; And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd — "I came like Water, and like Wind I go.”
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) said by 1131 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: XXVIII (1889)
“The story of Joseph in Egypt and of the seven fat and the seven lean years has passed into the homely wisdom of the ages; but our economic thinking seems to have lost contact with so simple and basic approach to prudent management of a nations welfare.”
Benjamin Graham (1894–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then he grinned. “But it is said that hunger teaches many things. My friend, a wealth of wisdom awaits us on this journey.”
Stephen R. Donaldson (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Verily, wisdom is like hunger. Perhaps it is a very fine thing—but who would willingly partake of it?”
Stephen R. Donaldson (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars.”
Patañjali (active around 201 BC) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To history, until yesterday, Halifax was the arch-appeaser. This, it is now recognised, was a mistake. His rôle, however, was complicated. In these pages he is not the man who stopped the rot, but the embodiment of Conservative wisdom who decided that Hitler must be obstructed because Labour could not otherwise be resisted.”
Maurice Cowling (1926–2005) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Impact of Hitler. British Politics and British Policy, 1933–1940 (1975), p. 9
“I am in favour of courage—who is ever not in the abstract?—but not of treating it as a substitute for wisdom, as I fear we are currently in danger of doing.”
Roy Jenkins (1920–2003) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Lords (24 September 2002) shortly before the Iraq War
“It was part of her discernment to be aware that life is the only real counselor, that wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissues.”
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sanctuary, (1903) part II, ch. IV
“He who hopes to grow in spirit will have to transcend obedience and respect. He'll hold to some laws but he'll mostly violate both law and custom, and go beyond the established, inadequate norm. Sensual pleasures will have much to teach him. He won't be afraid of the destructive act: half the house will have to come down. This way he'll grow virtuously into wisdom.”
Constantine P. Cavafy (1863–1933) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Growing in Spirit (1903)
“They who out of wisdom Have seized the supreme Bodhimind Praise, glorify and rejoice in it, That it may grow to fulfilment.”
Shantideva (685–763) said by 763 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The genes harbor their own wisdom and their own inertia.”
Kevin Kelly (editor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I cannot offer a comprehensive theory of the Trump Administration's transformation because none is possible. Washington's conventional wisdom on Trump's trajectory, however, is wrong.”
John R. Bolton (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bear in mind, children, that they listen to you because you are kids—not because you are right. That's how our Father listens to us … We never understand what we're praying, and God, in His mercy, does not answer our prayers according to our understanding, but according to His wisdom.”
Rich Mullins (1955–1997) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lufkin, Texas (July 19, 1997)
“Our recent decisions make plain that we do not sit as a super-legislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation nor to decide whether the policy which it expresses offends the public welfare.”
William O. Douglas (1898–1980) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Writing for the court, Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. v. Missouri, 342 U.S. 421 (1952).
“I've often thought that if our zoning boards could be put in charge of botanists, of zoologists and geologists, and people who know about the earth, we would have much more wisdom in such planning than we have when we leave it to the engineers.”
William O. Douglas (1898–1980) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks at conference sponsored by the American Histadrut Cultural Exchange Institute, Harriman, New York (February 17–19, 1967); reported in Judd L. Teller, ed., Government and the Democratic Process; A Symposium by Am…
“Our republic endures because of the wisdom of our Constitution, enshrined in three co-equal branches of government, serving as checks and balances on each other. The actions taken to date by the President have seriously violated the Constitution — especially when the President says, "Article II says, I can do whatever I want.”
Nancy Pelosi (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A proverb is] one man's wit, and all men's wisdom.”
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878) first seen 1830 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark to James Mackintosh on October 6, 1830, reported in his posthumous memoir, Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh, Vol. 2 (1836), p. 472
“Albert Einstein quipped that “everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas; he must burst it open.” Although we may not have the complete knowledge or we may be bombarded with contradictory information, we can still make informed decisions based on wisdom and the knowledge of good and evil.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge in and of itself is devoid of good and evil. Knowledge, however, does not necessarily make human beings wiser. In fact, knowledge without wisdom can be outright dangerous.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not all the wisdom and skill of man can produce life in the smallest object in nature.”
Ellen G. White (1827–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God has set up a high standard of righteousness. He has made plain a distinction between human and divine wisdom. All who work on Christ's side must work to save, not to destroy.”
Ellen G. White (1827–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Medical Ministry (1932), p. 133
“Nature utters her voice in lessons of heavenly wisdom and eternal truth.”
Ellen G. White (1827–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“3031. It is Wit to pick a Lock, and steal a Horse ; but it is Wisdom to let it alone.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) first seen 1735 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1735) : The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone.
“4671. The most exquisite Folly is made of Wisdom too fine spun.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scepticism, like wisdom, springs out in full panoply only from the brain of a god, and it is little profit to see an idea in its growth, unless we track its seed to the power which sowed it.”
James Anthony Froude (1818–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All political decisions are taken under great pressure, and if a treaty serves its turn for ten or twenty years, the wisdom of its framers is sufficiently confirmed.”
H. A. L. Fisher (1865–1940) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Political Prophecies (1918).
“Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt: Give any man the power of a god, and you better hope he's got the wisdom and morals of a god to match. There's nothing feeble about my moral line. I value life. That is why I fight to protect it. I mourn every man I lose and every sacrifice I make. One life or a billion, they're all lives.”
Dan Abnett (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact is that the truth of harmony and human brotherhood derives not from an absorbed trance but from an awakened prajñâ or wisdom; and its validity depends not on any dramatic ecstatic visions but it belongs to man’s deeper vision and even to his natural reason unspoilt by theologies of exclusiveness.”
Ram Swarup (1920–1998) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ram Swarup: Ramakrishna Mission, p.13. (1986)
“The Gita tells us that there are four kinds of people who take to God-life. Of them ,the afflicted (arta) are the very first ones. The rest in their order are the seekers of knowledge, the seekerse of truth as it is, and the seekers of wisdom. (p.180)”
Ram Swarup (1920–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Apollonius believed that Egypt and Ethiopia derived their wisdom from India, and that the Naked Philosophers of Ethiopia were emigrants from India. He also believed that Pythagoras (about 500 BC) and his sect derived their philosophy from India.”
Ram Swarup (1920–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be a Christian - a follower of Jesus Christ - is to love wisdom, love justice, and love freedom. (p172)”
Cornel West (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source