Wise quotes
5.1K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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"There is a city in which you find everything you desire-handsome people, pleasures, ornaments of every kind-all that the natural person craves. However, you cannot find a single wise person there."
"I've no idea where ideas come from and I hope I never find out; it would spoil the excitement for me if it turned out I just have a funny little wrinkle on the surface of my brain which makes me think about invisible train platforms."
"I'm serious, Harry, don't go." But Harry only had one thought in his head, which was to get back in front of the mirror, and Ron wasn't going to stop him. That third night he found his way more quickly than before. He was walking so fast he knew he was making more noise than was wise, but he didn't meet anyone. And there were his mother and father smiling at him again, and one of his grandfathers nodding happily. Harry sank down to sit on the floor in front of the mirror. There was nothing to stop him from staying here all night with his family. Nothing at all."
"Your voice takes you to your heart."
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
"Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different."
"The fool generalizes the particular; the nerd particularizes the general; some do both; and the wise does neither"
"Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched."
"As a mountain is unshaken by the wind, so the heart of a wise person is unmoved by all the changes on this earth."
"If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a great pleasure, let a wise man leave the small pleasure, and look to the great."
"Realizing the doctrine of dependent-arising, the wise do not at all partake of extreme views"
"By three things the wise person may be known. What three? He sees a shortcoming as it is. When he sees it, he tries to correct it. And when another acknowledges a shortcoming, the wise one forgives it as he should."
"In truth, there never was any remarkable lawgiver amongst any people who did not resort to divine authority, as otherwise his laws would not have been accepted by the people; for there are many good laws, the importance of which is known to be the sagacious lawgiver, but the reasons for which are not sufficiently evident to enable him to persuade others to submit to them; and therefore do wise men, for the purpose of removing this difficulty, resort to divine authority."
"The constancy of the wise is only the talent of concealing the agitation of their hearts."
"An ingenious web of probabilities is the surest screen a wise man can place between himself and the truth."
"This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery."
"Happiness is impossible, and even inconceivable, to a mind without scope and without pause, a mind driven by craving, pleasure, or fear. To be happy, you must be reasonable, or you must be tamed. You must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world and what things in it can really serve you. To be happy, you must be wise."
"Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it."
"...the wise man knows that every experience is to be viewed as a blessing."
"We find nothing easier than being wise, patient, superior. We drip with the oil of forbearance and sympathy, we are absurdly just, we forgive everything. For that very reason we ought to discipline ourselves a little; for that very reason we ought to cultivate a little emotion, a little emotional vice, from time to time. It may be hard for us; and among ourselves we may perhaps laugh at the appearance we thus present. But what of that! We no longer have any other mode of self-overcoming available to us: this is our asceticism, our penance."
