Wisdom Quotes

Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment.

Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.

Whoever despises the high wisdom of mathematics nourishes himself on delusion and will never still the sophistic sciences whose only product is an eternal uproar.

Realize that everything connects to everything else.

Experience is a truer guide than the words of others.

A clever man without wisdom is like a beautiful flower without fragrance.

He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.

Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way increase your patience under great offenses, and they cannot hurt your feelings.

Supreme happiness will be the greatest cause of misery, and the perfection of wisdom the occassion of folly.

All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything.

When firmness is sufficient, rashness is unnecessary.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools. Wise people create opportunities for themselves and make everything possible.

There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind.

I start out by believing the worst.

The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense; he is always satisfied with himself.

Six hours sleep for a man, seven for a woman and eight for a fool.

The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present, and fools of the future.

It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity, that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds.

Never depend on the multitude, full of instability and whims; always take precautions against it.