Quotes about wisdom
Prepared by: Dmitry Sirotkin
I present to you a selection of quotes about wisdom .
Of course, I want to be wise , but it is not entirely clear what this means in practice. I hope that the collected quotations will help clarify, and not further confuse, this issue.
Quotes are grouped by topic: people and wisdom, foolishness and wisdom, life and wisdom, sage, knowledge and wisdom, management and wisdom, education and wisdom, good advice, God and wisdom, reason and wisdom, time and wisdom, death and wisdom, age and wisdom, business and wisdom, money and wisdom, faith and wisdom, generations and wisdom, war and wisdom, woman and wisdom, science and wisdom, etc.
People and wisdom
You cannot call a person a sage just by what he says, but if you see that he lives in peace, love and absence of fear, then he is actually wise. (Buddha)
Human wisdom is worth little or nothing. (Socrates)
To be below oneself is ignorance, and to be above oneself is nothing but wisdom. (Socrates)
He who has learned the secrets of the spirit in his heart reads the hearts of no matter who stands before him. He himself is the sea, a diver and priceless pearls! Delve into the wisdom of what I just said! (O. Khayyam)
All truly wise thoughts have occurred to different people thousands of times before: but to make them truly our own, we must think about them again honestly and sincerely so that they take root in our individual consciousness. (I. Goethe)
And it turned out to be clear what kind of creature man is: he is wise, intelligent and intelligent in everything that concerns others, and not himself. (N. Gogol)
An individual does not have to be wiser than an entire nation. (O. Balzac)
The wisdom of life is always deeper and broader than the wisdom of people. (M. Gorky)
All wisdom is good if someone understands it. Misunderstood wisdom can gather dust. (D. Kharms)
It is much more difficult to judge yourself than others. If you can judge yourself correctly, then you are truly wise. (A. Saint-Exupery)
When we begin to despair of all faith, what a consolation it can be for us to be able to follow the sage in his ways and see that at times he too was only a man, weak and imperfect. (G. Hesse)
Man will never reach such dizzying heights of wisdom that he cannot be fooled by the nose. (M. Twain)
Man has gathered together the wisdom of all his ancestors, and look what a fool he is! (E. Canetti)
Wisdom lies not in being smarter than others, but in not letting others know about it. (V. Georgiev)
There should be plenty of wisdom, because few people use it. (S. Jerzy Lec)
Wisdom, like turtle soup, is not accessible to everyone. (K. Prutkov)
By the way, quotes about people
Folly and wisdom
Wisdom is more useful than stupidity, just as light is more useful than darkness. But the same fate befalls both the wise and the foolish. (Solomon)
And a fool, when silent, may seem wise. (Solomon)
It is better to hear reproof from a wise man than for a man to listen to the song of a fool. (Solomon)
Go, look at this world, like a colorful royal chariot! Where fools flounder, the wise have no attachment. (Buddha)
Most people prefer stupidity to wisdom, because stupidity makes you laugh, but wisdom makes you sad. (W. Shakespeare)
A wise man can change his mind; fool - never. (I. Kant)
Blessed is not the one who is smarter than everyone else, but the one who, being a fool, considers himself a wise man. (N. Karamzin)
The disasters that befall them elevate the wise, but the fools are completely broken. (Napoleon Bonaparte)
We live in a world where one fool creates many fools, and one wise man creates very few wise ones. (G. Lichtenberg)
You shouldn’t take your shortcomings too seriously, because those who don’t have them still suffer from one thing - the absence of shortcomings; the one who believes that he has achieved perfect wisdom will do well if he grows stupid again. (V. Van Gogh)
What one person considers his treasure and wisdom sounds like stupidity to another. (G. Hesse)
Mistrust is the wisdom of a fool. (B. Shaw)
Don’t look for a stupid person - he will find you; look for a wise one - you won’t find him anywhere. (D. Kharms)
A fool seeks a wise man among fools, and a wise man finds him. (D. Kharms)
You have to beware of two things: your own stupidity and the wisdom of others. (V. Georgiev)
Foolish people argue with other people, wise people argue with themselves. (O. Wilde)
A fool guesses; On the contrary, a sage goes through life like a vegetable garden, knowing in advance that here and there a turnip will be pulled out for him, and here and there a radish. (K. Prutkov)
Life and wisdom
Life is ruled not by wisdom, but by luck. (M. Cicero)
A person cannot find the essence of the matter, what is happening under the sun - no matter how hard a person tries to search, he will not find it; and even if the sage says that he can, he will not find it. (Solomon)
What is the longest lifespan? To live until you achieve wisdom, not the farthest, but the greatest goal. (L. Seneca)
Wisdom is always satisfied with what is and is never annoyed with itself. (M. Cicero)
No one should exceed the limits: the wisdom of life is to know the measure in everything. (Hippocrates)
Never lose the essence of wisdom in life, Do not lose it in order to cling to good or evil! You are both a traveler, and a path, and a halt on the road, - Don’t lose the way to return to yourself! (O. Khayyam)
Wisdom is a set of truths obtained by the mind, observation and experience and applied to life; it is the harmony of ideas with life. (I. Goncharov)
I learned to live simply, wisely, Look at the sky and pray to God, And wander for a long time before the evening, To tire out unnecessary anxiety. (A. Akhmatova)
Light minds think that everything is easy, wise ones know the danger of any change and live quietly. (N. Karamzin)
For a wise person, a new life begins every day. (D. Carnegie)
The madness of the brave is the wisdom of life! (M. Gorky)
Precious things make a person commit crimes. Therefore, the sage strives to make life full, and not to have beautiful things. He refuses the latter and confines himself to the former. (Lao Tzu)
By the way, quotes about life
Sage
I thought: “I will become wise,” but wisdom is far from me. (Solomon)
Without leaving the yard, you can explore the world. Without looking out of the window, you can see the natural Tao. The further you go, the less you know. Therefore, the perfectly wise man does not walk, but knows [everything]. Without seeing [things], he penetrates into their [essence]. Without acting, he achieves success. (Lao Tzu)
Canal builders release water, archers subjugate an arrow, carpenters subjugate wood, wise men humble themselves. (Buddha)
Let the sage, through effort, seriousness, self-restraint and self-restraint, create an island that cannot be crushed by the flood. (Buddha)
The sage creates his own destiny. (Plautus)
Wisdom is of no use to a wise man if he cannot help himself. (M. Cicero)
The sage belongs to the race of those who, by long and earnest exercise, have achieved a mighty fortress that is capable of withstanding the onslaught of any hostile force and exhausting it. (L. Seneca)
How sad it is to see petty envy in the great sages and mentors of this world. I already have difficulty understanding what guides people—and myself—in their actions. (C. Dickens)
He is a wise man who is satisfied with little. (A. Solzhenitsyn)
The winners are wise people, and each of them has a state of accomplishment, and it is sad. A wise person - he pays with everything he has, with himself, so that others can feel good. This is a necessary sacrifice. (E. Letov)
Knowledge and wisdom
In much wisdom there is much sorrow; and whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow. (Solomon)
The ignorant is surprised that things are as they are, and such surprise is the beginning of knowledge; a wise man, on the contrary, would be surprised if things were different and not as he knows them. (Aristotle)
Wise is the one who knows not much, but what is necessary. (Aeschylus)
The highest wisdom is to know yourself. (G. Galileo)
Knowledge can be transferred, but wisdom can never be transferred. You can find it, you can live with it, you can make it your sail, you can work miracles with it, but it is impossible to put it into words, to teach it to anyone. (G. Hesse)
Human wisdom needs experience, and life is short-lived. One must know how from time immemorial rebellious passions agitated civil society and in what ways the beneficial power of the mind curbed their stormy desire to establish order, harmonize the benefits of people and give them the happiness possible on earth. (N. Karamzin)
Live and learn! and you will finally reach the point where, like a sage, you will have the right to say that you know nothing. (K. Prutkov)
Management and wisdom
Where great sages have power, their subjects do not notice their existence. Where small sages rule, the people are attached to them and praise them. Where even lesser wise men rule, the people fear them, and where there are even lesser wise men, the people despise them. (Lao Tzu)
They love sovereigns at their own discretion, and fear them at the discretion of sovereigns, so it is better for a wise ruler to count on what depends on him and not on someone else. (Confucius)
Rulers need wise men much more than wise men need rulers. (Abu-l-Faraj)
A wise legislator begins not by issuing laws, but by examining their suitability for a given society. (J.-J. Rousseau)
In order for the people to gain true freedom, it is necessary for the governed to be wise men, and for the rulers to be gods. (Napoleon Bonaparte)
Education and wisdom
Only the wisest and the stupidest are not teachable. (Confucius)
If parents teach their children to eat, drink, walk, talk, and adorn themselves with clothes, then all the more should they take care to impart wisdom to their children. (Ya.A. Komensky)
You will never be able to create wise men if you kill naughty children. (J.-J. Rousseau)
It is no coincidence that teachers are called by the high name of the people. His wisdom creates that complex thing that is commonly called the continuity of generations. (V. Sukhomlinsky)
Although man, like every creature, acquires his own image, nevertheless, without first grafting cuttings of wisdom, morality and piety, he cannot become a rational, wise, moral and pious being. (Ya.A. Komensky)
Just as a lotus, sweet-smelling and pleasing to the mind, can grow on a heap of garbage thrown onto a highway, so a disciple of a truly enlightened one stands out for his wisdom among blind mediocrities, among creatures like garbage. (Buddha)
Good advice
Be not very righteous and not too wise - why should you be horrified? (Solomon)
It is more useful to know a few wise rules that could always serve you than to learn many things that are useless to you. (L. Seneca)
Do not consider yourself wise: otherwise your soul will rise up in pride, and you will fall into the hands of your enemies. (Antony the Great)
Folly and wisdom are caught as easily as contagious diseases. Therefore, choose your comrades. (W. Shakespeare)
It is not very wise to be confident in your own wisdom. It must be remembered that the strongest can show weakness, and the wisest can make a mistake. (M. Gandhi)
Do not feel sorry for yourself - this is the proudest, most beautiful wisdom on earth. (M. Gorky)
On the path of attaining wisdom, there is no need to be afraid that you will take a wrong turn. (P. Coelho)
God and wisdom
Only one deity can possess comprehensive wisdom, and man can only strive for it. (Pythagoras)
There would be no point in living to be seventy years old if all the wisdom of this world were only madness before God. (I. Goethe)
The wisdom of the world is foolishness in the eyes of God. (P. Coelho)
Before God, we are all equally wise - or equally foolish. (A. Einstein)
Between “there is a God” and “there is no God” there lies a whole vast field, which a true sage traverses with great difficulty. A Russian person knows one of these two extremes, but the middle between them is not interesting to him. (A. Chekhov)
One wise man came to the conclusion that there is no God. They called him Buddha. Then he died. From his sayings they made a religion, and from him - a God. (E. Letov)
Reason and wisdom
The main thing is wisdom: acquire wisdom and with all your possessions acquire understanding. (Solomon)
Oh, wise ones, do not regret the powers of reason given to you, penetrating into the essence. (Dante Alighieri)
Wisdom: what comes in old age to replace reason. (Voltaire)
The danger of the wise is that he is most susceptible to the temptation of falling in love with the foolish. (F. Nietzsche)
A smart person knows how to get out of a difficult situation, but a wise person will never get into one. (F. Ranevskaya)
The difference between smart and wise: a smart person has great difficulty getting out of a situation that a wise person does not get into. (M. Zhvanetsky)
By the way, quotes about the mind
Time and wisdom
Nothing is more painful to a wise man and nothing gives him more anxiety than the necessity of spending more time on trifles and useless things than they deserve. (Plato)
I started a bed of Wisdom in the garden. I cherished it, watered it - and I’m waiting... The harvest is approaching, and from the garden bed a voice: “I came with the rain and I’ll leave with the wind.” (O. Khayyam)
The wisest person is the one who is most annoyed by the loss of time. (Dante Alighieri)
There is no greater wisdom than timing. (F. Bacon)
Wise allocation of time is the basis for activity. (Ya.A. Komensky)
Every person is a fool for at least five minutes a day. The real wisdom is not to exceed this time limit. (D. Carnegie)
By the way, quotes about time
Death and Wisdom
I was wise, if you like, because at any moment I was ready to die, but not because I fulfilled everything assigned to me, but because I did nothing of all this and could not even hope to ever do even a part. (F. Kafka)
Wisdom is awareness of the unconditional meaning of life itself in the face of death itself. (E. Erickson)
The only truly wise adviser we have is death. Every time you feel, as often happens to you, that everything is going very badly and you are on the verge of complete collapse, turn to the left and ask your death if this is so. And your death will answer that you are mistaken, and that apart from its touch there is nothing that really matters. Your death will say: “But I haven’t touched you yet!” (K. Castaneda)
Age and wisdom
Buy in your youth something that over the years will compensate you for the damage caused by old age. And, realizing that wisdom is the food of old age, act in your youth so that old age is not left without food. (L. da Vinci)
Youth is the time to acquire wisdom, old age is the time to apply it. (J.-J. Rousseau)
The older and wiser a person is, the less he wants to sort things out. I just want to get up, wish you all the best and leave. (B. Shaw)
Wisdom does not always come with age. It happens that age comes alone. (M. Zhvanetsky)
Business and wisdom
No matter how many wise words you read, no matter how many you say, what good are they to you if you don’t put them into practice? (Buddha)
A wise man is ashamed of his shortcomings, but is not ashamed to correct them. (Confucius)
The first duty of a wise man and the first sign of wisdom is not to allow any discrepancy between word and deed and to always be oneself. (L. Seneca)
There are no situations and no matters so insignificant in which wisdom cannot be manifested. (L. Tolstoy)
It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly. (A. France)
Money and wisdom
Wisdom protects in the same way as money, but its superiority is that it preserves the life of its owner. (Solomon)
For me, the word of wisdom is more valuable than gold. (Democritus)
Wisdom is the substitute of wealth: it gives you everything that makes it unnecessary for you. (L. Seneca)
Poor wisdom is often the slave of rich stupidity. (W. Shakespeare)
Do not seek profit from the world and do not lose your soul. Wisdom is better than silver and gold. (B. Marley)
By the way, quotes about money
Faith and Wisdom
Faith is not the beginning, but the end of all wisdom. (I. Goethe)
I came to Christ the Protestant way rather than the Catholic way. Analysis of the human soul in a way that other people do not perform was the reason that I met Christ, first marveling at his human wisdom and hitherto unheard-of knowledge of the soul, and then worshiping his deity. I don’t have any exaltation, rather an arithmetic calculation; I simply add up the numbers, without getting excited or in a hurry, and the sums come out by themselves. (N. Gogol)
Generations and wisdom
Each generation considers itself smarter than the previous one and wiser than the next. (D. Orwell)
The philosophical wisdom of the present century becomes the general common sense of the next century. (G.W. Beecher)
The stupidity of a given era is as valuable a lesson for the next as wisdom. (S. Jerzy Lec)
War and Wisdom
Even a victorious war is an evil that must be prevented by the wisdom of nations. (O. Bismarck)
It is enough to chase a person under gunfire, and he turns into a wise wolf; In place of a very weak and, in really difficult cases, unnecessary mind, a wise animal instinct grows. (M. Bulgakov)
By the way, quotes about war
Woman and wisdom
A woman's wisdom is not philosophizing, but feeling. (I. Kant)
A wise girl knows her limits. A smart girl knows that she doesn't have them. (M. Monroe)
Women rule us; Let us try to bring them to perfection: the more they know, the more perfect we will be. Male wisdom also depends on the development of the female mind. (R. Sheridan)
By the way, quotes about women
Science and Wisdom
Wisdom is the most exact of sciences. (Aristotle)
Try to be wise first, and learn when you have free time. (Pythagoras)
Wisdom is the source of science. (M. Cicero)
Science is organized knowledge, wisdom is organized life. (I. Kant)
By the way, quotes about science
Experience and wisdom
Wisdom is the daughter of experience. (L. da Vinci)
The wisdom of people is measured not by their experience, but by their capacity for experience. (B. Shaw)
Experience increases our wisdom, but does not decrease our stupidity. (G.W. Shaw)
The source of our wisdom is our experience. The source of our experience is our stupidity. (S. Guitry)
Love and wisdom
Love is the beginning and the end of our existence. Without love there is no life. Love is something that a wise man bows to. (Confucius)
Time does not change a person, wisdom does not change a person, and the only thing that can rebuild the structure of his thoughts and feelings is love. (P. Coelho)
By the way, quotes about love
Loneliness and wisdom
To live your life wisely, you need to know a lot. Remember two important rules to begin with: You’d better starve than eat anything, And it’s better to be alone than with just anyone. (O. Khayyam)
An ordinary person tries to avoid loneliness, while a wise person becomes increasingly immersed in his solitude. (Osho)
By the way, quotes about loneliness
Happiness and Wisdom
Wisdom is nothing other than the science of happiness. (D. Diderot)
Without studying wisdom, it is impossible to live not only happily, but even tolerably, for perfect wisdom makes life happy, and its beginnings make life tolerable. (L. Seneca)
Happiness should be asked from God, wisdom should be acquired by yourself. (M. Cicero)
By the way, quotes about happiness
Beauty and wisdom
Learning wisdom is as impossible as learning to be beautiful. (G.W. Shaw)
Beauty and wisdom are in simplicity. (M. Gorky)
In our age, people read too much, which prevents them from being wise, and they think too much, and this prevents them from being beautiful. (O. Wilde)
By the way, quotes about beauty
Philosophers and wisdom
A philosopher is one who, without boasting, possesses that wisdom which, while boasting, others do not possess. (L. Seneca)
All philosophers are wise in their maxims and fools in their behavior. (B. Franklin)
When you do not have wisdom, all that remains is to love wisdom, i.e. be a philosopher. (N. Berdyaev)
Justice and Wisdom
Knowledge separated from justice and other virtues appears to be trickery and not wisdom. (Socrates)
Justice without wisdom means a lot, wisdom without justice means nothing. (M. Cicero)
Pessimism and wisdom
The best proof of wisdom is a continuous good mood. (M. Montaigne)
Pessimism is just a word that the faint of heart uses to describe wisdom. (M. Twain)
Wisdom: Think pessimistically, act optimistically. (G. Hesse)
Truth and Wisdom
Seeing the significant in the small is called wisdom. (Lao Tzu)
There is wisdom in truth alone. (I. Goethe)
You all served the people and popular superstition, you illustrious sages! - and not the truth! (F. Nietzsche)
By the way, quotes about truth and quotes about lies
Patience and wisdom
The basis of all wisdom is patience. (Plato)
Pride will come, and shame will come; but with the humble is wisdom. (Solomon)
The real sign by which you can recognize a true sage is patience. (G. Ibsen)
Suffering and Wisdom
Through suffering and grief it is destined for us to obtain grains of wisdom that cannot be acquired in books. (N. Gogol)
Know, reader, that wisdom reduces complaints, not suffering! (K. Prutkov)
Nature and wisdom
In nature, everything is wisely thought out and arranged, everyone should mind their own business, and in this wisdom lies the highest justice of life. (L. da Vinci)
Mother nature is wise, but her son is brainless. (W. Shakespeare)
Wonder and Wisdom
Wonder is the beginning of all wisdom. (Socrates)
Doubt is halfway to wisdom. (P. Sir)
Friendship and wisdom
It is wise to water the wheel of friendship with the oil of polite politeness. (G. Colette)
It is easy to call a person wise, but it is much more difficult to convince his friends of this. (M. Twain)
By the way, quotes about friendship
Morality and wisdom
The highest wisdom is to distinguish between good and evil. (Socrates)
Wisdom is intelligence infused with conscience. (F. Iskander)
Folly and Wisdom
He who has never committed folly is not as wise as he thinks. (F. La Rochefoucauld)
The soul needs your recklessness, not your wisdom. (A. Einstein)
Marriage and wisdom
A wise wife builds her house, but a foolish woman destroys it with her own hands. (Solomon)
The one who gets married does well. He who does not marry acts wisely. (I. Kant)
By the way, quotes about weddings
Books and wisdom
Books are a tool for imparting wisdom. (Ya.A. Komensky)
The study of wisdom elevates and makes us strong and generous. (Ya.A. Komensky)
By the way, quotes about books
About miscellaneous
He who is wise is also good. (Socrates)
And I thought: wisdom is better than courage, but the wisdom of the poor is despised and they do not listen to his speeches. (Solomon)
Any fool can carve out some work for himself: on the contrary, only a wise person can do without it. (C. Bukowski)
Proverbs contradict one another. This, in fact, is the folk wisdom. (S. Jerzy Lec)
As you can see, the greatest attention in quotes about wisdom is given to its relationships with people, stupidity, life, knowledge, and management.
Then you can move on to other collections:
- quotes about the meaning of life
- quotes about thought
- quotes about creativity
- quotes about speech
- quotes about freedom
- Socrates quotes
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Philosophers of Ancient Greece
Usually great sayings do not relate to either religion or science. This is the life experience of the wisest people, conveyed in concise statements.
For example, the philosopher Thales of Milensky, who lived in the 7th-6th centuries. BC, was sure that everything arose and arises from water, and then returns back to it. Ultimately everything is water? Excellent advice for relaxing and not worrying about trifles.
“What's easy? “Giving advice to others” is another quote from this great sage. It would be nice if people at least sometimes followed such ancient wisdom.
Known to everyone since school, Pythagoras was not only a mathematician and inventor. He owns many sayings that are relevant in all centuries.
“Don’t chase happiness: it is always within you” - this advice will help a lot in finding the meaning of life.
“A joke, like salt, should be consumed in moderation” - another ancient wisdom from Pythagoras that has not lost its significance.
Here are some wise pieces of advice from the ancient Greeks that it’s never too late to follow:
- “Don’t laugh at someone else’s misfortune” - Chilo of Sparta (VI century BC).
- “Once you have a business in mind, don’t talk about it. If it doesn’t work out, they will laugh” - Pittacus of Mytilene (VII-VI centuries BC).
- “It is impossible to correct an evil person; he can only change his appearance, but not his character” - Aesop (about 600 BC).
Aphorisms of the Arab East
The multifaceted Arab culture gave us not only a convenient number system and aerial architecture. The aphorisms of Arab philosophers may well become parting words for various occasions in life. Here are just a few of the wisdoms of the ancient knowledge of the East:
- “The smart one is not the one who knows how to distinguish good from evil, but the one who can choose the lesser of two evils” - Al-Harizi, Arab scientist.
- “What you want to hide from the enemy, do not tell your friend, because it is not guaranteed that friendship will last forever” - Abu-L-Faraj, Syrian scientist and writer.
- “Appetite comes with the first bite, and quarrel with the first word” - Eastern folk wisdom.
- “Make friends with a smart person, because a fool friend is sometimes more dangerous than a smart enemy” - Jalaluddin Rumi, Sufi sheikh, poet.
Sayings of the great Romans
The Roman Empire was famous not only for its conquests and gladiator battles. Many great citizens of Rome left the wisdom of ancient knowledge for the edification of their descendants:
- “When you run away from fate, you rush towards it” - Titus Livius, historian. Probably, you shouldn’t resist in vain what life is pushing you towards.
- “It is inhuman not to extend a helping hand to someone who is falling” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman historian. After all, the concepts of morality and helping those in need have never been alien to people.
- “Life is short, but misfortune makes it longer” - Publilius Syrus, a former slave who became a popular mimetic poet of the era of Julius Caesar. Who else, if not a slave, knows about the sorrows of life.
- “If there is love in the world (and there is!), then it is not far from madness” - Marcus Cicero, the great commander and philosopher. Throughout the ages, lovers have done many strange things in the name of their feelings. And, fortunately, they will never stop doing this.
Thoughts of religious figures of the East
For a long time, ministers of religion have tried to instruct people on the right path and not commit illegal acts. Many ancient wisdom about life, love and humility belong to outstanding servants of the faith:
- “Hatred can be ended not by hatred, but only by love” - Buddha.
- “If you have a problem, try to solve it. If you can’t solve it, then don’t make a problem out of it.” - Buddha.
- “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single one, and its life will not be shortened. Happiness will not decrease if it is shared” - Buddha.
- “A good deed is something that brings a smile of joy to another person’s face” - Prophet Muhammad.
- “There is no happiness equal to peace” - Prophet Muhammad.
Ancient wisdom says that any knowledge is priceless, the main thing is to be able to use it correctly. Even after centuries, the aphorisms of philosophers and prophets can help find a way out of a difficult situation or stop committing unworthy acts.
