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Wisdom

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“Wisdom is the key to your destination … Wisdom does not come on a silver platter but through hard lessons, receiving corrections, and because God means well even as he disciplines**1”
Rose Okeno wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lack of education leads to lack of wisdom; lack of wisdom leads to lack of morals.”
Savitribai Phule (1831–1897) said by 1897 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We were made to think that wisdom resides in one political party. I want you all to understand that wisdom resides in all of us as Akwa Ibom people, not in any political party.”
Umo Eno (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The history of law is the history of our race, and the embodiment of its experience. It is the most unerring monument of its wisdom and of its frequent want of wisdom.”
Martin Ferdinand Morris (1834–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Due to having faith one relies on the practices, Due to having wisdom one truly knows. Of these two wisdom is the chief, Faith is its prerequisite.”
Nagarjuna (attributed) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: trans. by Jeffrey Hopkins, "Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation: Nagarjuna's Precious Garland" (1998),
“And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems.”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding.”
The Bible (active around 812) bartlett, Public domain source
“Why did my parents send me to the schools That I with knowledge might enrich my mind? Since the desire to know first made men fools, And did corrupt the root of all mankind.”
John Davies (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sweet were change, If but a change of tortures! But to grow A motionless rock, fast as my strong prison, Age after age, till circling suns outnumber The sands upon the tide-worn beach! No hope, Or that sad mockery of hope that fools With dull despair, spanning the infinite! Torment unmeasurable!”
Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dull and heavy hate of fools.”
Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fashion—a word which knaves and fools may use, Their knavery and folly to excuse. To copy beauties, forfeits all pretence To fame—to copy faults, is want of sense.”
Charles Churchill (satirist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knaves starve not in the land of fools.”
Charles Churchill (satirist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Make peace, you fools!”
Gerd von Rundstedt (1875–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message given to a staff officer after calling Hitler's headquarters. Quoted in "SS Steel Rain: Waffen-SS Panzer" - by Tim Ripley - History - 2002
“Only fools offend me, woman, and they but once.”
C. L. Moore (1911–1987) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jirel Meets Magic (1935); p. 94
“While their very race is exterminated, the Libertarians are angry because they do not want to use driver's licenses. These are the fools who do not realize that tyrants have always banded together to pick off individuals one at a time.”
David Lane (white nationalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only fools get to join.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact that many people overindulge, and lose themselves in excess, and make fools of themselves and act like idiots, is no reason for me to do these things. The reason for me to do these things is that I, too, am an idiot.”
John S. Hall (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not, as I consider, to decide cases in favour of fools or idiots, but in favour of ordinary English people, who understand English when they see it, and are not deceived by any difference in type, but who have before them a very plain statement.”
George Jessel (jurist) first seen 1876 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Singer Manufacturing Co. v. Wilson (1876) L.R. 2 C.D. 447.
“If solid happiness we prize, Within our breast this jewel lies, And they are fools who roam. The world has nothing to bestow; From our own selves our joys must flow, And that dear hut, our home.”
Nathaniel Cotton (1705–1788) said by 1788 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Fireside, stanza 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“So what do you think will happen?” Sawyer asked the barman who was drawing his mid-morning pint. “Dunno,” the man grunted. “Except one thing. I know we’ve been led by fools and rogues, but this is the first time we’ve ever been led by a criminal!”
John Brunner (1934–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's time for our government to make clear to the Israeli government that its conduct and policies are unacceptable and to impose a total arms ban on Israel. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest, which is the Israelis' real goal, but which is impossible for them to achieve. They're not simply war criminals; they're fools.”
Gerald Kaufman (1930–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He Corot was always surrounded by a crowd of fools and I didn't want to get caught up in it. I admired him from a distance.”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then leave Complaints: Fools only strive To make a Great an Honest Hive. T'enjoy the World's Conveniences, Be fam'd in War, yet live in Ease, Without great Vices, is a vain Eutopia seated in the Brain.”
Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) said by 1733 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world is made up, for the most part, of fools and knaves, both irreconcileable foes to truth.”
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1627–1687) said by 1687 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Mr. Clifford, on his Human Reason"; cited from The Works of His Grace, George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham (London: T. Evans, 1770) vol. 2, p. 105.
“Profits and prices are the street signs of the economy. Only fools flout them. The much–maligned price system works not only to secure supply but to conserve.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Goods on Gas," WorldNetDaily.com, July 13, 2008.
“Men who have sacrificed their well-being, and even their lives, for the cause of truth or the public good, are, from an empirical point of view (which scorns virtue and altruism) regarded as insane or as fools; but, from a moral standpoint, they are heroes who honour humanity.”
Afrikan Spir (1837–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What relationship could exist between the lives of the fools and healthy rabble who were well, who slept well, who performed the sexual act well, who had never felt the wings of death on their face every moment—what relationship could exist between them and one like me who has arrived at the end of his rope and who knows that he will pass away gradually and tragically?”
Sadegh Hedayat (1902–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fools follow rules when the set commands you.”
Zack de la Rocha (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the world’s run by fools it’s the duty of intelligence to disobey.”
Martin Firrell (born 1963) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Guardian (25 February 2006).
“We must learn to give ourselves permission to blunder, to fail, and to make fools of ourselves every day for the rest of our lives. We do so in any case.”
Sheldon B. Kopp (1929–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike — and I don't think there really is a distinction between the two — are always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats.”
Harold Bloom (1930–2019) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Criticism in Society (1987), edited by Imre Salusinski.
“Ambition is ever tempered by experience. Otherwise, fortune makes fools of us all.”
Mark Kingwell (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I probably took more than anybody could survive. … I was bangin' seven-gram rocks and finishing them because that's how I roll. I have one speed, I have one gear, GO!. … I'm different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. … Dying's for fools, dying's for amateurs.”
Charlie Sheen (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Feminism should be a fight for fairness. Instead the fight is only to control outcome. And when feminists don’t like outcome, they assume something’s unfair. Like fools. Most of the left is the same way.”
Vincent Gallo (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To take those fools in clerical garb seriously is to show them too much honor.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must all learn to live together as brothers — or we will all perish together as fools. This is the great issue facing us today. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone. We are tied together.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Strive not for singularity in dress; Fools have the more and men of sense the less. To look original is not worth while, But be in mind a little out of style.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You see, lots of the real people can't do it at all: they're such fools that they think style comes by nature to people in their position; and so they never learn. There's always something professional about doing a thing superlatively well.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They are such fools that they seem to expect that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe.”
Cicero (107–43 BC) said by 43 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Services in war time are fit only for desperadoes but, in peace, are fit only for fools.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Despair is the conclusion of fools.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“H'aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.”
Voltaire (1694–1778) said by 1778 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.”
Voltaire (1694–1778) said by 1778 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Several people have told me that my inability to suffer fools gladly is one of my main weaknesses.”
Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dijkstra (1978) The pragmatic engineer versus the scientific designer (EWD 690).
“Oh, the fools, like a lot of good little schoolboys, scared to death of anything they’ve been taught is wrong!”
Émile Zola (1840–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 12 (tr. Thomas Walton and Roger Pearson, 1993)
“When the pious fools come up against the godless pagans who own Judea, the result is what might be called diplomatic incidents.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The purpose of aphorisms is to keep fools who have memorised them from having nothing to say.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 188
“He is a dreamer of ancient times, or rather, of the myths of what ancient times used to be. Such men are harmless in themselves, but their queer lack of realism makes them fools for others.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 4 “The Emperor; in part I, “The General” originally published as “Dead Hand” in Astounding (April 1945)