Wise Quotes

"The skilful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man"

Sun Tzu, Philosopher

"Our greatest stupidities may be very wise"

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosopher

"It's bad taste to be wise all the time, like being at a perpetual funeral"

David Herbert Lawrence, Writer

"Now the reason the enlightened prince and the wise general conquer the enemy whenever they move and their achievements surpass those of ordinary men is foreknowledge"

Sun Tzu, Philosopher

"There are some persons in this world, who, unable to give better proof of being wise, take a strange delight in showing what they think they have sagaciously read in mankind by uncharitable suspicions of them"

Herman Melville, Novelist

"There is no man, however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived in a way the consciousness of which is so unpleasant to him in later life that he would gladly, if he could, expunge it from his memory"

Marcel Proust, Author

"A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future"

Oliver Goldsmith, Poet

"Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves"

Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher

"A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him"

Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher

"It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results"

Sun Tzu, Philosopher

"In their work, then, as in their play, men and women are more and more coming to share with each other as comrades, and really the fun of life seems in no wise diminished as a consequence"

Richard Le Gallienne, Poet

"Since, therefore, no man is born without faults, and he is esteemed the best whose errors are the least, let the wise man consider everything human as connected with himself; for in worldly affairs there is no perfect happiness under heaven"

Giraldus Cambrensis, Clergyman

"I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago"

Edgar Allan Poe, Poet

"The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget"

Thomas Szasz, Psychologist

"Zeal is fit for wise men, but flourishes chiefly among fools"

John Tillotson, Theologian

"Perfect reason flees all extremity, and leads one to be wise with sobriety"

Moliere, Playwright

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought"

Matsuo Basho, Poet

"Wise to resolve, and patient to perform"

Homer, Poet

"Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds"

John Dryden, Poet

"A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her"

Helen Rowland, Journalist

"I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution"

Andrew Carnegie, Businessman

"Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket"

Andrew Carnegie, Businessman

"Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks"

Heinrich Heine, Poet

"When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for"

John Milton, Poet

"A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation"

Moliere, Playwright

"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual"

Frank Herbert, Writer

"For humble individuals like myself, there is one poor comfort, which is this, viz. that gout, unlike any other disease, kills more rich men than poor, more wise men than simple"

Thomas Sydenham, Scientist

"What could be more beautiful than a dear old lady growing wise with age? Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it"

Brigitte Bardot, Actress

"Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others"

Edward Abbey, Author

"Living Life Tomorrow's fate, though thou be wise, Thou canst not tell nor yet surmise; Pass, therefore, not today in vain, For it will never come again"

Omar Khayyam, Poet

"The wisdom of the wise is an uncommon degree of common sense"

Dean Inge, Philosopher

"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions"

Naguib Mahfouz, Novelist

"The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things"

Dean Inge, Philosopher

"When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society, we will put teachers at the center of the community, where they belong. We don't honor them enough, we don't pay them enough"

Charles Kuralt, Journalist

"It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals"

Felix Frankfurter, Judge

"A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses"

Hippocrates, Scientist

"O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet"

Chanakya, Politician

"Do not reveal what you have thought upon doing, but by wise council keep it secret being determined to carry it into execution"

Chanakya, Politician

"No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance"

Henry Miller, Writer

"Your dear baby has died innocent and blameless, and has been called away by an all wise and merciful Creator, most probably from a life to misery and misfortune, and most certainly to one of happiness and bliss"

George Mason, Statesman

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