Wise quotes
5.1K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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"If the devil were wise enough and would stand by in silence and let the gospel be preached, he would suffer less harm. For when there is no battle for the gospel it rusts and it finds no cause and no occasion to show its vigor and power. Therefore, nothing better can befall the gospel than that the world should fight it with force and cunning."
"We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives."
"The only thing history teaches us, a wise man once said, is that history doesn’t teach us anything."
"When the world lacks muscular and wise American leadership, it devolves into total chaos, which, in turn, produces unspeakable evils."
"It is not sufficient merely to be a great master in painting and very wise, but I think that it is necessary for the painter to be very moral in his mode of life, or even, if such were possible, a saint, so that the Holy Spirit may inspire his intellect."
"In those days a boy on the classical side officially did almost nothing but classics. I think this was wise; the greatest service we can to education today is to teach few subjects. No one has time to do more than a very few things well before he is twenty, and when we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life."
"A wise prince must never take things easy in times of peace."
"Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand."
"When men succeed, even their neighbors think them wise."
"Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the gods; desired by those who have no part in him, and precious to those who have the better part in him."
"Mob rule and emasculation of the wise' and 'who will watch the guardians'?"
"It is necessary to have party organization if we are to have effective and efficient government. The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organization, and the only difference between a disorganized country and one that has the advantage of a wise and sound government is fundamentally a question of organization."
"In Paris, everything's for sale: wise virgins, foolish virgins, truth and lies, tears and smiles."
"It is the wise man's part to leave in darkness everything that is ugly."
"In my opinion, the unjust man whose tongue is full of glozing rhetoric, merits the heaviest punishment; vaunting that he can with his tongue gloze over injustice, he dares to act wickedly, yet he is not over-wise."
"No man is wise enough to be another man's master. Each man's as good as the next -- if not a damn sight better."
"As though God had turned away from the wise, and written his decrees, not in the mind of man but in the entrails of beasts, or left them to be proclaimed by the inspiration and instinct of fools, madmen, and birds. Such is the unreason to which terror can drive mankind!"
"A wise man who stands firm is a statesman, a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe."
"Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it; Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith."
"After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser."
