Today, let’s take a look at words of wisdom quotes. What is wisdom? It is synonymous with sagacity, insight and discernment.
It is the opposite of foolishness or folly. In fact there are so many different and even conflicting definitions of this virtue. Some say it has to do with empathy, self-knowledge, reflection, judgment, decision making, courage, and the list goes on.
Anyway, here is my selection of words of wisdom quotes.
“Wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared with it.” – Bible
“The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the
question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.” – Pierre Abelard
“Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” – Martin H. Fischer
“The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.” – H. L. Mencken (Mencken Chrestomathy)
“One’s first step in wisdom is to question everything – and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.” – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (The Waste Books -New York Review Books Classics)
“Who am I? Just ask, ‘So who wants to know?’ And the mind will dissolve.” – Ramesh Balkesar
“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” – Immanuel Kant (The Critique of Pure Reason)
“Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.” – James Boswell (The Life of Samuel Johnson (Penguin Classics)
“Wisdom is knowing what to do next; Skill is knowing how to do it, and Virtue is doing it.” – David Starr Jordan (Life’s Enthusiasms)
“As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.” – Madame de Stael
“Humanity is too clever to survive without wisdom.” – E.F Schumacher (A Guide for the Perplexed)
“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” – William Butler Yeats
“Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.” – Baltasar Gracian (The Art of Worldly Wisdom)
“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” – George Bernard Shaw
“I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” – Antonio Gramsci (Selections from the Prison Notebooks)
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein
“Eyes of a man do not lie, they reflect exactly what is in his heart” – Unknown
“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.” – Naguib Mahfouz (Arabian Nights and Days: A Novel)
“It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.” – Walter Lippmann (A Preface to Morals)
“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” – Diane Ackerman (The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us)
“Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.” – Bible
“When temptation come your way, see the consequences, you will gain wisdom.” – Unknown
“Like is what you think and feel” – Unknown
“Power without principle is barren, but principle with power is futile.” – Tony Blair (A Journey: My Political Life)
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill (The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History)
“I touch the future, I teach.” – Christa McAuliffe
“The best and the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched. They must be felt within the heart.” – Helen Keller (The Story of My Life – Signet Classics)
“If you think education, try ignorance.” – Derek Bok (The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being)
“To arrive at the simple is difficult” – Rashid Elisha
“Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.” – Jack Buck (Jack Buck: That’s a Winner!)
“To teach is to learn.” – Japanese Proverb
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” – Darrell Royal
“We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open.” – Harry Edwards (A Guide to Spirit Healing)
Hope you find my collection of wisdom quotes and words of wisdom enlightening and inspiring.