quotations about wisdom
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
WILLIAM JAMES
Principles of Psychology
The disadvantage of becoming wise is that you realize how foolish you've been.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
The wise may find in trifles light as atoms in the air, some useful lesson to enrich the mind.
JOHN GODFREY SAXE
"King Solomon and the Bees"
Wisdom is the first and mother of all stocks for the market maker.
JIMANZE EGO-ALOWES
"Is the leadership question Nigeria's gold card?", The Sun, February 4, 2016
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, wisdom is the "Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct" and "sound judgement". My goodness, think if wisdom were a modern concept, regularly practiced, how much less shocking news we would have every day! If only celebrities didn't make such silly displays of themselves on late-night television shows; if tourists didn't insist on taking naked selfies on sacred mountains; if Justin Bieber could only behave like a sensible young man; if politicians were once again filled with serious integrity. Then our lives would not be spinning out of control with nonsense. What if Donald Trump had the wisdom to keep his mouth shut? What if scientists realize that just because they can create robot soldiers doesn't mean they should?
DOROTHY TURCOTTE
"The world in 2016 could use a little more wisdom", Niagara This Week, January 12, 2016
Like gold in the hands of a savage are the sayings of wisdom in the mouth of a fool.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
None of us was born knowing or wise; but men become wise by consideration, observation, experience.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Wisdom is a palace, of which only the vestibule has yet been entered.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Wisdom is a safe ship; and we may trust ourselves to it in all weathers.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Emblems: Divine and Moral
Knowing how to make a banana pudding is knowledge, but wisdom is knowing if others appreciate your efforts.
LARRY EFIRD
"Wisdom, knowledge and banana pudding", Salisbury Post, January 9, 2016
Line upon line, a little here and there,
We scrape together wisdom with slow care.
Wherefore? To blossom in a churchyard rose,
Or to go with the spirit--if it goes?
KARLE WILSON BAKER
"Wisdom", Blue Smoke
Who knows whence he comes, where he is, and whither he tends, he, and he alone, is wise.
JOHANN CASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
The beginning of wisdom is the knowledge of folly.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Wisdom consists, not in seeing what is directly before us, but in discerning those things which may come to pass.
TERENCE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Crime is the entertainment of the fool; so is wisdom for the man of sense.
BIBLE
Proverbs 10:23
Full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
All's Well That Ends Well
In youth men are apt to write more wisely than they really know or feel; and the remainder of life may be not idly spent in realizing and convincing themselves of the wisdom which they uttered long ago.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
preface, The Snow-Image
As we get older, we should get wiser automatically, as the result of our experiences and learning throughout life. That doesn't always happen. Even when we try hard, we sometimes make errors in judgement. Learning from those errors is part of becoming wiser.
DOROTHY TURCOTTE
"The world in 2016 could use a little more wisdom", Niagara This Week, January 12, 2016
Now, if wisdom is God, who made all things, as is attested by the divine authority and truth, then the philosopher is a lover of God.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God