quotations and passages on wisdom

Wisdom is not to be obtained from
textbooks, but must be coined out of
human experience in the flame of life.

Morris Raphael Cohen

Who is wise?
Those who learn from everyone.

Benjamin Franklin

Youth is the time to study wisdom;
old age is the time to practice it.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Francis Bacon

We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable
than the monuments of power, or of the hands. For have not the verses of Homer
continued twenty-five hundred years, or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter;
during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities have been decayed and demolished?

The lessons of great men and
women are lost unless they
reinforce upon our minds
the highest demands which
we make upon ourselves;
they are lost unless they
drive our sluggish wills
forward in the direction
of their highest ideas.

Jane Addams

You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon.
The more things you love, the more you are interested in,
the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about--
the more you have left when anything happens.

Ethel Barrymore

Mark Van Doren

Any piece of knowledge I acquire today has a value at this moment
exactly proportioned to my skill to deal with it. Tomorrow,
when I know more, I recall that piece of knowledge and use it better.

It is noble to seek truth, and it is beautiful to find it.
It is the ancient feeling of the human heart--
that knowledge is better than riches; and it is deeply and sacredly true.

Sydney Smith

Some have narrowed their minds, and so fettered them with the chains of antiquity
that not only do they refuse to speak save as the ancients spake,
but they refuse to think save as the ancients thought.
God speaks to us, too, and the best thoughts
are those now being vouchsafed to us.
We will excel the ancients!

Savonarola

Edward P. Morgan

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought
without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear
it will go off in your face. . . It is one of the few havens remaining
where a person's mind can get both provocation and privacy.

Wisdom is not finally tested by the schools,
Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it,
Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.

Walt Whitman

Abundance of knowledge does not teach a person to be wise.

Heraclitus

A wise person will make more
opportunities than he or she finds.

Sir Francis Bacon

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

William James

The seat of knowledge is in the head; of wisdom, in the heart.
We are sure to judge wrong if we do not feel right.

William Hazlitt

Give me wisdom over book knowledge any day. I've spent many years in college--twelve years as a student and twelve teaching, and I can say without hesitation that I would prefer the company of an unschooled wise man or woman to that of a person who knows much, but feels little. The two aren't mutually exclusive, of course--many educated people are also wise, and many unschooled people are also unfeeling. But it seems that the more knowledge we have, the more we tend to look at ourselves as knowing what we need to know, and that couldn't be any further from the truth.

What I need when I talk to people is feedback about my life, about me. If I'm to advance as a human being and become better (which to me means becoming more useful to my fellow human beings), then I need feedback that helps me to see what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. I need a wise person to tell me that this person's course of action is ineffective because he or she isn't taking something important into consideration, to tell me that my words were too harsh or too soft for a situation, to tell me that what somebody did to me wasn't at all as I perceived it, but something different entirely.

Most of all, though, I appreciate the examples of the wise--the lives they live and the way they tend to be content with just what they have. They tend to be much more accepting and understanding, for they see where people are coming from inside--they're able to see past the facades and the attention-getting and know what a person is about.

Wisdom is a quality that I strive after, and I would rather have a pound of wisdom than a ton of knowledge. It's too late, though--I already have a ton of knowledge, and I'm trying my best to purify it, to take what I need to live a useful life from it and leave the rest behind, so that I may grow in wisdom and thus grow in usefulness to my fellow human beings. it takes a great deal of maple sap to make maple syrup, and what's not necessary or vital is evaporated as the sap is boiled down. It's a mistake to think that all of our knowledge is necessary--we need to let some of it evaporate as we search for the wisdom that will most help ourselves and others.

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There is no happiness where there is no wisdom.

Sophocles

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

Wisdom sends us back to our childhood.

Pascal

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean
you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.

Edward R. Murrow

There is a great difference between knowing a thing and understanding it;
you can know a lot and not really understand anything.

Charles F. Kettering

Fear is the main source of superstition,
and one of the main sources of cruelty.
To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Bertrand Russell

We can be knowledgeable with other people's knowledge,
but we cannot be wise with other people's wisdom.

Michel de Montaigne

Pure wisdom always directs itself towards God;
the purest wisdom is knowledge of God.

Lew Wallace

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening
when you'd have preferred to talk.

Doug Larson

The wisdom in the story of the most educated and powerful person
is often not greater than the wisdom in the story of a child,
and the life of a child can teach us as much as the life of a sage.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Seven characteristics distinguish the wise: they do not speak in the presence of those wiser than themselves, do not interrupt, are not hasty to answer, ask and answer the point, talk about first things first and last things last, admit when they do not know, and acknowledge the truth.

the Talmud

To have lived long does not
necessarily imply the gathering
of much wisdom and experience.
One who has pedaled twenty-five
thousand miles on a stationary
bicycle has not circled the globe.
He or she has only
garnered weariness.

Paul Eldridge

Preconceived notions are the locks
on the door to wisdom.

Merry Browne

Time ripens all things.
No one is born wise.

Cervantes

The poor long for riches and the rich for heaven,
but the wise long for a state of tranquility.

Swami Rama

Keep the gold and keep the silver, but give us wisdom.

Arabian proverb

If I'm wise, I won't worry about growing old, for I know that
there's a time for everything. I won't worry about whether
someone likes me or not, for I know that all things can't be.
I won't worry about the things that I don't have, for not
having them diminishes me not one bit. I won't worry about
the future and regret the past, for I know that only the present
moment truly matters, for it's all that we can live. If I'm wise,
I will keep my eyes open and notice things that other people
pass by or dismiss as trivial. I will stop and smell the flowers
and marvel at the snow and ice. I will give of myself as much
as I can, knowing that in giving comes our true growth. I will
be grateful for each new day of life that I receive, for I know
that each day is a gift, and it's up to me
to make something of that gift.

tom walsh

Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.

William Wordsworth

When we are relaxed and reasonable content, we are naturally wise. We accept
that life is unpredictable, unreliable. We say jokingly or philosophically, "Nothing is
sure except death and taxes," or God willing and the creek don't rise," reminding
each other that, notwithstanding the level of planning, we are continually dealing
with being surprised. We get startled. We recover. We are disappointed.
We adjust. Mostly--with Wisdom intact--we manage.

Sylvia Boorstein

We do not receive wisdom--
we must discover it
for ourselves, after
a journey through the
wilderness which no one
else can make for us,
which no one can spare
us, for our wisdom is
the point of view from
which we come at last
to regard the world.

Marcel Proust

Wisdom is not book learning but, rather, a quality or state of knowing
what is true or right coupled with the judgment to discern
constructive action. Wisdom is the insight and intuition contained in the
proverbial still, small voice that only a quiet mind can hear and know.

Sue Patton Thoele

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.

Colette