Wisdom Quotes

When you have got a thing where you want, it is a good thing to leave it where it is.

We owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization.

Persevere towards those objectives which are lighted for us by all the wisdom and inspiration of the past.

When you have to hold a hot coffee-pot, it is better not to break the handle off.

The king cannot fall unworthily if he falls to the sword of the ace.

Usually youth is for freedom and reform, maturity for judicious compromise, and old age for stability and repose.

It is sometimes wise to allow natural processes to work, and crimes and follies to be paid in coin from their own mint.

But on the whole it is wise in human affairs, and in the government of men, to separate pomp from power.

When American military men approach some serious situation they are wont to write at the head of their directive the words "over-all strategic concept". There iswisdom in this, as it leads to clarity of thought....our American military colleagues, after having proclaimed their "over-all strategic concept" and computed availableresources, always proceed to the next step-namely, the method.

I do not admire people who are wise after the event. I would rather be impaled on the other horn of the dilemma and be called one of the "I told you so's."

The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either.

Because the record companies, in their ultimate wisdom, seeing what a great thing digital was, they sold all the places where they made records. Now people want records and they haven't got a facility to make them in, so it takes months and months and months to get vinyl. Vinyl is ultimately much better.

Even the hard times are part of your life story. If you acknowledge them and move past them, they eventually add up to the experience that makes you wise.

I've thought about every single word on this album for two years; I'd think about a tweet for 20 seconds. My album's gonna go out to, what, 10 million people, but a tweet could go out to a billion. The maths doesn't work out. I'll die on the hill of my records, but I won't die on the hill of my tweets. It's better to say good things less than to say average things more.

Any attempts at autobiography before the age of eighty seem pretty self-involved to me. There are a lot of smart middle aged people but not many wise ones.

Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold.

The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?

The beauty of love. The love of beauty. The greener you are, the wiser you will be.

A foolish dog barks at a flying bird.

There is a trade off - as you grow older you gain wisdom but you lose spontaneity.