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Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Wisdom
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“Both knowledge and wisdom extend man's reach. Knowledge led to computers, wisdom to chopsticks.”
Alan Perlis (1922–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He lacked the wisdom, and the only way for him to get it was to buy it with his youth; and when wisdom was his, youth would have been spent buying it.”
Jack London (1876–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Piece of Steak" in The Best Short Stories of Jack London (1962)
“Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.”
Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are two allied powers in man; knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is so much of the truth seen in a distorted medium as the mind arrives at by groping, wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the spirit.”
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.”
Zhuangzi (369–288 BC) said by 288 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 2 (tr. Lin Yutang, 1942)
“Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God. Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.”
John Calvin (1509–1564) said by 1564 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man needs to be Saved from his own Wisdom as much as from his own Righteousness, for they produce one and the same corruption. Nothing saves a man from his own righteousness, but that which delivers him from his own wisdom.”
William Law (1686–1761) said by 1761 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Power of the Spirit (1898), edited by Andrew Murray, further edited by Dave Hunt (1971) Ch. 6: The Church: A Habitation of the Spirit
“Even a false imitation of wisdom must be reckoned as wisdom.”
Yoshida Kenkō (1283–1350) said by 1350 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom made him old and wary Banishing the Lords of Faery. Wisdom made a breach and battered Babylon to bits: she scattered To the hedges and ditches All our nursery gnomes and witches.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here we are after a couple million years of natural selection has produced a race that overpopulates and makes war and dominates and rapes, and you want to know about wisdom! Natural selection doesn’t select for wisdom!”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Almost every culture in the Thousand Cultures had some wisdom literature, and much of it was the same between any two cultures. . . . Cultures tend to be alike in much of what they think are the basic virtues, but one of the ones they are most alike in, though it rarely appears in their book of wisdom, is: Distrust strangers, fear foreigners, dread novelty.”
John Barnes (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a wisdom of the Head, and … there is a wisdom of the Heart.”
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) said by 1870 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lucifer was in Eden as a nice guy, probably for quite a while. Ezekiel tells us that Satan got proud; he was lifted up. He said, "I am a god." He was lifted up because of his wisdom, because of his riches, because of his beauty, and because of his power. The four things that still corrupt people today: wisdom, riches, beauty, and power.”
Kent Hovind (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is all your studying worth, all your learning, all your knowledge, if it doesn’t lead to wisdom? And what’s wisdom but knowing what is right, and what is the right thing to do?”
Iain Banks (1954–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She said that all the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. She and the rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed.”
Philip Pullman (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[The sophist] is concerned with wisdom, not for its own sake, not because he hates the lie in the soul more than anything else, but for the sake of the honor or the prestige that attends wisdom.”
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors, I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1819 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Nathaniel Macon (12 January 1819)
“To doubt the exalted wisdom of the religion of... the Church of England, or again of our great modern scientists, is to sin against the Holy Ghost and Culture. Woe unto him who refuses to recognize the World's "Elect."...their "wisdom" is at best -- "terrestrial, psychic, devilish.”
Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not beholden to a Jewish tradition based on divine law and belief, but rather see Judaism as a golden heritage of rigorous inquiry, wisdom and discussion of the human condition which offers me profound wisdom and guidance in how I live my life.”
Edgar Bronfman Sr. (1929–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Formerly the Church with its prelates of old time, was golden in wisdom, silver in cleanness of life, brazen in eloquence, which are three things needful to a preacher; that is, brightness of wisdom, cleanness of life, and sonorousness of eloquence. But of the feet, the last, that is the modern prelates, part is iron through their hardness of heart, and part is clay by their carnal luxury.”
John Peckham (1227–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: De Oculo Morali quoted in Georg Herzfeld (ed.) An Old English Martyrology (1900)
“The common law, though not to be found in the written records of the realm, yet has been long well known. It is coeval with civilised society itself, and was formed from time to time by the wisdom of man. Good sense did not come with the Conquest, or at any other one time, but grew and increased from time to time with the wisdom of mankind.”
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) first seen 1800 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rex v. Rusby (1800), Peake's N. P. Cases, 193.
“O dawn, you washed them away in a woman who was clean. O form of woman, sister of Wisdom, how great is your glory! For in you there rose a life unquenchable that death shall never stifle. Wisdom exalted you to make all creatures fairer in your beauty than they were when the world was born.”
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) said by 1179 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom is like a bright light, shining through people’s delusion and ignorance; it is also like a varja, eradicating delusional worries. Within the various Dharma services and activities, I believe we are able to learn much wisdom of the Dharma. It is wished that the legacy can be sustained into the future for the benefit of the next generation.”
Hsing Yun (1927–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What, then, will this philosophy be? Thomas only employed it for the service it renders Christian wisdom. No doubt this is why he never thought of separating it from this wisdom and giving it a name. He probably did not foresee that the day would come when people would go through his works to extract the elements of a philosophy from his theology. He himself never attempted this synthesis.”
Étienne Gilson (1884–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No advance in human knowledge will ever exclude the leader's need for the counsel of elemental human wisdom, and especially of collective wisdom, in the making of all important decisions.”
James D. Mooney (1884–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Buddhism is much more than an ordinary moral teaching. Morality is only the preliminary stage on the Path of Purity, and is a means to an end, but not an end in itself. Conduct, though essential, is itself insufficient to gain one's emancipation. It should be coupled with wisdom or knowledge (pañña). The base of Buddhism is morality, and wisdom is its apex.”
Narada Maha Thera (1898–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is wisdom about God for those who believe that he is all things and in all, and wisdom about nature for the man who accepts the statement found in the Christian Bible that God cannot be measured or discovered, and that darkness is around his pavilion.”
William Quan Judge (1851–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mentorship of elders is what got me here. In Latinx + Indigenous communities, elder is an honorific that doesn’t come with age - it comes w/ univ acknowledgement of wisdom. But to delay large action on climate doesn’t include the wisdom of elders nor the urgency of youth.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born 1989) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter post, (23 December 2018)
“The seeker for wisdom must... be prepared to delve deeply, to discover, and to interpret according to the classical keys, the numberless treasures of spiritual and occult wisdom and law which lie beneath the surface of all allegorical writings, littered with debris though that surface may appear to be.”
Geoffrey Hodson (1886–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Theosophy is the modern name given by H. P. Blavatsky to what is described by her as the once universal but now hidden Wisdom-Religion, the parent source of all known religions. This original Wisdom-Religion had been preserved intact out of the reach of the many conflicting sects, who each thought that their piece of it was the only truth.”
David Reigle (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the Theosophical Society was founded by Blavatsky and others in 1875, she was asked about this Wisdom-Religion by William Q. Judge, one of the co-founders... Her reply indicates that while pre-Vedic Buddhism is a correct designation for the Wisdom-Religion, she considered that it might best be thought of as esoteric Buddhism.”
David Reigle (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no wisdom of man that can change men or change nations; it is the power and wisdom of God that can.”
Yemi Osinbajo (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If wisdom follows knowledge, so troubles attend on wisdom.”
Gregory Thaumaturgus (213–270) said by 270 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have overcome numerous challenges with inner strength. We have the wisdom to turn even crisis into opportunity. With such wisdom and strength, let us again overcome the challenge facing us today. Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers.”
Roh Moo-hyun (1946–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Genuine wisdom astounds. It astonishes. It amazes. It transmutes pious opinion into silent reverence. It penetrates dogmas to unveil their core. It reveals. It illumines. It deifies. The two-edged sword was never totally lost, like lost gospels in caves and sand. But when the ancient neglected texts are found again, wisdom knows her own.”
Silouan of Shropshire wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A divine philosopher is he who through ascetic purification and noetic contemplation has achieved a direct union with God, and is a true friend of God, in that he esteems and loves the supreme, creative and true wisdom above every other love, wisdom and knowledge.”
Gregory of Sinai (1255–1346) said by 1346 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pearls represent refinement and wisdom. We train young ladies to be leaders and to make sure they have the wisdom to lead…and that goes hand in hand with the true meaning of what Alpha Kappa Alpha is all about. The strand of pearls speaks to solidarity among the members.”
Glenda Glover first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Real Meaning Behind Kamala Harris' Pearl Necklaces (By Shelby Copeland Published: October 8, 2020)
“The Many Times Connie Has Left Us Inspired With Her Pearls of Wisdom, Choose serenity, courage, and wisdom in whatever you want to achieve.”
Connie Ferguson (born 1970) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: tswalebs, Masaru Emoto Nov 05, 2020, 03:17 PM https://tswalebs.com/top-of-the/the-many-times-connie-has-left-us-inspired-with-his-pearls-of-wisdom
“God, who is the Prince of Wisdom, Is of himself ever ready To communicate to all created minds The overflowing rays of his supernal Wisdom.”
Denis the Carthusian (1402–1471) said by 1471 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Denis the Carthusian, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, trans. Ide M. Ni Riain (Dublin: The Columba Press, 2013), 62,63.
“With age came wisdom. Sometimes wisdom came with an ass kicking, too. And nothing could kick ass like the whole world.”
Jay Lake (1964–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Listen, and listen well. This is the wisdom to end wisdom, the secret of all secrets.” They both leaned very close, and he told them. “Some people…will believe…anything!”
Darrell Schweitzer (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There will be more work than chanting if you keep the knowledge that God exists in all situations and do all the work with the wisdom of serving God. If you can hold this spiritual wisdom.”
Santadas Kathiababa (1859–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only true democracy is wisdom, for wisdom is knowledge activated by power through love. The result is freedom.”
George King (1919–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With the Eastern rising Sun has come all the wisdom – with the Western setting Sun must come the practical application of that wisdom.”
George King (1919–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The way of the Teacher is a practice in trust. Trust is the container out of which the qualities of wisdom grow: clarity, objectivity, discernment, and detachment. Wisdom is at work when we are open to all options. (p109)”
Angeles Arrien (1940–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“by the time you are 70, you should have gained some wisdom to share with someone else. That you’ve had some experiences that you carry within you, within your body, within your presence. Wisdom to share with other people. And that is what the book is doing”
Dorothy F. Bailey wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Work with wisdom and prudence, pray fervently for our country, for His peace and strength, and that He may grant us wisdom in dialogue and joy in a hope that does not fail.”
Eduardo Eliseo Martín (born 1953) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prayer and fasting to end fighting between government and farmers: “We will pray so as to remove the obstacles on the path to dialogue.” (18 June 2008) Fides News Agency
“Doubt about your wisdom can be the clearest sign of wisdom.”
John G. Hemry (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Historical knowledge does not need artificial protection. ... The truth about the past can only be established and strengthened by the clash of wisdom and absurdity. If absurdity is banned by the law, wisdom too is diminished.”
Norman Davies (born 1939) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Europe at War, 1939–1945: No Simple Victory (Macmillan, 2006), ch. 7 (p. 489)