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All
discoveries in art and science result
from an
accumulation of errors.
Marshall McLuhan
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wisdom 2 |
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At
twenty-two, I thought I knew everything.
Now, at sixty-seven, I find I haven't tasted
a drop from the sea of knowledge. The more
I learn, the more I find out how little I know.
John
Copage
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.
One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders
through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
Hermann
Hesse |
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Old places and old
persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them,
have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable; precisely the
balance and wisdom that comes from long perspectives and broad
foundations.
George Santayana |
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A
teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good
action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than
he or she who fills our memory with rows on rows of natural
objects, classified with name and form.
Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
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A wise old owl sat on an oak,
The more he saw the less he spoke;
The less he spoke the more he heard;
Why aren't we like that wise old bird?
Edward Hersey Richards |
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We should never be ashamed to own
we have been in the
wrong,
which is but saying in other words, that we are
wiser today than
we were yesterday.
Jonathan
Swift |
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Dare to be wise: begin! Those who postpone the hour of living rightly
are like the rustic
who waits for the river to run out
before he crosses, yet
on it glides, and will glide forever.
Horace |
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| Mark
Twain
We
should be careful to get out of an experience only the
wisdom that is in it--
and stop there; lest we be like the
cat that sits down on the hot stove-lid.
She will never
sit down on a hot stove-lid again--and that is well;
but
also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore. |
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| Junius
I hold
myself indebted to any one from whose enlightened
understanding
another ray of knowledge communicates to
mine. Really to inform the mind
is to correct and
enlarge the heart. |
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There
is no greater mistake in the world than the looking upon
every sort of nonsense as the want of sense.
Leigh
Hunt |
Those
who have the largest hearts have the soundest
understandings; and they are the truest philosophers who can
forget themselves.
William
Hazlitt |
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Lin
Yutang |
Besides
the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble
art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists
in the elimination of nonessentials. |
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To be a
philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor
even
to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live,
according to its dictates,
a life of simplicity,
independence, magnanimity, and trust.
Henry David Thoreau |
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Helen Keller
Knowledge is happiness, because to have
knowledge--broad deep knowledge--
is to know true ends
from false, and lofty things from low. To know
the
thoughts and deeds that have marked humankind's progress is to
feel
the great heart-throbs of humanity through the
centuries; and if one does not feel
in these pulsations a
heavenward striving, one must indeed be deaf to the
harmonies of life. |
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person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who
is able to be objective even when deeply stirred
emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and
bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly
and deals charitably with the circumstances of life,
knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and
therefore all of us need both love and charity.
Eleanor Roosevelt |
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I
call that mind free which is not passively framed by
outward circumstances,
which is not swept away by the
torrent of events, which is not the creature
of
accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own
improvement,
and acts from an inward spring, from
immutable principles
which it has deliberately espoused.
William
Ellery Channing |
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Peter
Abelard |
The first key to wisdom is this--constant
and frequent questioning . . . for by doubting we are led
to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth. |
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The differences in
human life depend, for the most part,
not on what people do,
but upon the meaning and purpose
of their acts. All are
born, all die, all lose their loved ones,
nearly all
marry and nearly all work, but the significance
of these
acts may vary enormously. The same physical act
may be in
one situation vulgar and in another holy.
The same work
may be elevating or degrading. The major question
is not
"What act do I perform?" but "In what
frame do I put it?"
Wisdom about life consists in
taking the inevitable ventures
which are the very stuff
of common existence, and glorifying them.
Elton
Trueblood |
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Advice
is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells
upon,
and the deeper it sinks into the mind.
Samuel
Taylor Coleridge |
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It is far easier to be wise for
others than to be so for oneself.
Duc de la Rochefoucauld |
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The foolish reject what they see,
not what they think;
the wise reject what they think, not
what they see. . . .
Observe things as they are and don't
pay attention to other people.
Huang-Po |
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The highest wisdom is kindness.
The Gemara |
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Only the
wise person draws from life, and from every stage of it, its
true savour,
because only he or she feels the beauty, the
dignity, and the value of life.
The flowers of youth may
fade, but the summer, the autumn, and even the winter
of
human existence, have their majestic grandeur,
which the
wise person recognizes and glorifies.
Amiel |
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There is a wise being living
inside of you. It is your intuitive self.
Focus your
awareness into a deep place in your body,
a place where
your "gut feelings" reside. You can
communicate
with it by silently talking to it, making requests,
or
asking questions. Then relax, don't think too hard
with
your mind, and be open to receiving answers.
They are
usually very simple and relate to the present moment,
not
the past or the future, and they feel right.
Shakti Gawain |
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There are many ways to
seek wisdom. There is travel, there are masters, there is
service. There is staring into the eyes of children and elders
and lovers and strangers. There is sitting silently in one spot
and there is being swept along in life's turbulent current. Life
itself will grant you wisdom in ways you may neither understand nor
choose.
It is up to you to be open to all these sources of wisdom
and to embrace them with your whole heart.
Kent
Nerburn |
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If wisdom were
offered me with the proviso that I should keep it shut
and refrain
from declaring it, I should refuse. There's no delight
in owning
anything unshared.
Seneca |
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Wisdom
is knowing what to do next;
virtue is doing it.
David
Starr Jordan |
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Keep
me away from the wisdom which does not cry,
the philosophy which does not laugh,
and the greatness which does not bow before children.
Khalil
Gibran |
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The poor long
for riches and the rich for heaven,
but the wise long for a state of tranquillity.
Swami Rama |
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Until
we stop ourselves or, more often, have
been stopped, we hope to put certain
of life's events "behind us" and get on
with our
living. After we stop we see
that certain of life's issues will be with us
for as long as we
live. We will pass through
them again and again, each time with
a new story, each time with a
greater understanding, until they
become
indistinguishable from our
blessings and our wisdom. It's the way
life teaches us
to live.
Rachel
Naomi Remen |
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The clearest sign of wisdom is continued
cheerfulness.
Michel de Montaigne |
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The voice of
wisdom is inherent within us and willing to guide us
when we stop to listen. Of course, there are times when we feel
we've been still as stone, and the still, small voice is still too
quiet
to hear. When this happens, the challenge is to practice
quieting your
mind anyway. Stopping and asking, quieting and listening,
trusting
and waiting. Waiting is difficult but worth the effort because a
quiet,
uncluttered mind is a natural antenna for whispers of wisdom from
within.
Sue Patton
Thoele |
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When
people are on the point of drowning, all they care for
is their lives. But as
soon as they get ashore, they ask, "Where
is my umbrella?" Wisdom,
in life, consists in not asking for the umbrella.
John
Wu |
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