Wise quotes
5.1K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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"He came to a decision and looked at Dagon before climbing into the car. "Find the Disir." Dagon stiffened, showing a rare sign of emotion. "Is that wise?" he asked. "It is neccessary."
"A wise man loses nothing, if he but save himself."
"Fortune, to show us her power in all things, and to abate our presumption, seeing she could not make fools wise, has made them fortunate."
"The wise man should withdraw his soul within, out of the crowd, and keep it in freedom and power to judge things freely; but as for externals, he should wholly follow the accepted fashions and forms."
"A wise man does not trust all his eggs to one basket."
"For if he like a madman lived; At least he like a wise one died."
"Nor has his death the world deceiv'd than his wondrous life surprise d; if he like a madman liv'd least he like a wise one dy'd."
"Good wits jump; a word to the wise is enough."
"It is a wise provision that youth cannot see what it owes the previous generation. This is a chicken that comes back to roost in heavier years."
"If you sat down and you wrote a script, you may write something that's way beyond what you've ever seen me do, but if you thought of me to do it, I would be flattered to be asked to do something other than be wise."
"Money will never make you happy and happy will never make you money. That may be a wise crack, but I doubt it."
"The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth. The great philosophers have always been able to clear away the complexities and see simple distinctions - simple once they are stated, vastly difficult before. If we are to follow them we too must be childishly simple in our questions - and maturely wise in our replies."
"You have to be able to separate business from the love of the game. There were a lot of decisions made business-wise that I wasn't happy with, and I took a lot of blame over the years. But you have to be able to separate that from the love you have for the game."
"It's catastrophies which turn wise and strong people into philosophers."
"An ignorant man is always able to say yes or no immediately to any proposition. To a wise man, comparatively few things can be propounded which do not require a response with qualifications, with discriminations, with proportion."
"It is well, when the wise and the learned discover new truths; but how much better to diffuse the truths already discovered, amongst the multitude! Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power; and while a philosopher is discovering one new truth, millions may be propagated amongst the people. Diffusion, then, rather than discovery, is the duty of our government."
"As an innovation... the establishment of Free Schools was the boldest ever promulgated, since the commencement of the Christian era... Time has ratified its soundness. Two centuries proclaim it to be as wise as it was courageous, as beneficient as it was disinterested. It was one of those grand mental and moral experiments... The sincerity of our gratitude must be tested by our efforts to perpetuate and improve what they established. The gratitude of the lips only is an unholy offering."
"Grief should be the instructor of the wise; Sorrow is Knowledge."
"Do proper homage to thine idol's eyes; But no too humbly, or she will despise Thee and thy suit, though told in moving tropes: Disguise even tenderness if thou art wise."
"You have never seen greatness in a Presidency; I have. It was a rich kid who you would think had every reason to be a horse's ass - Franklin Roosevelt. He was humane and wise and resourceful. He was called a traitor to his class."
