Wisdom

"Be wise; Soar not too high to fall; but stoop to rise."

"Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

"Wisdom is justified of her children."

"A little too wise they say do ne'er live long."

"Il est bon de frotter et limer notre cervelle centre celle d'autrui."

"The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness: her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene."

"Le sage vit tant qu'il doibt, non pas tent qu'il peut."

"Qui aura esté une fois bien fol ne sera nulle aultre fois bien sage."

"Seven wise men on an old black settle, Seven wise men of the Mermaid Inn, Ringing blades of the one right metal, What is the best that a blade can win?"

"Some men never spake a wise word, yet doe wisely; some on the other side doe never a wise deed, and yet speake wisely."

"When swelling buds their od'rous foliage shed, And gently harden into fruit, the wise Spare not the little offsprings, if they grow Redundant."

"Feliciter sapit qui alieno periculo sapit."

"Nemo solus satis sapit."

"Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit."

"Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the street."

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding."

"Wisdom is better than rubies."

"Get wisdom, because it is better than gold: and purchase prudence, for it is more precious than silver."

"Those who seek me diligently find me."

"Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise."

"Ce n'est pas être sage D'être plus sage qu'il ne le faut."

"The power is yours, but not the sight; You see not upon what you tread; You have the ages for your guide, But not the wisdom to be led."

"Wouldst thou wisely, and with pleasure, Pass the days of life's short measure, From the slow one counsel take, But a tool of him ne'er make; Ne'er as friend the swift one know, Nor the constant one as foe."

"The Italian seemes wise, and is wise; the Spaniard seemes wise, and is a foole; the French seemes a foole, and is wise; and the English seemes a foole and is a foole."

"Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life—in a firmness of mind and mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do, as well as to talk; and to make our actions and words all of a color."

"Nulli sapere casu obtigit."

"Melius in malis sapimus, secunda rectum auferunt."

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."

"Prima sapientiae clavis definitur, assidua scilicet seu frequens interrogatio … Dubitando enim ad inquisitionem venimus; inquirendo veritatem percipimus."

"Happy those Who in the after-days shall live, when Time Hath spoken, and the multitude of years Taught wisdom to mankind!"

"The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance."

"By Wisdom wealth is won; But riches purchased wisdom yet for none."

"The Prophet's words were true; The mouth of Ali is the golden door Of Wisdom." When his friends to Ali bore These words, he smiled and said: "And should they ask The same until my dying day, the task Were easy; for the stream from Wisdom's well, Which God supplies, is inexhaustible."

"Isthuc est sapere non quod ante pedes modo est Videre sed etiam illa, quæ futura sunt Prospicere."

"The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light."

"Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim Wisdom the source of virtue, and of fame, Obtained with labour, for mankind employed, And then, when most you share it, best enjoyed."

"Wisdom sits alone, Topmost in heaven:—she is its light—its God; And in the heart of man she sits as high— Though grovelling eyes forget her oftentimes, Seeing but this world's idols. The pure mind Sees her forever: and in youth we come Fill'd with her sainted ravishment, and kneel, Worshipping God through her sweet altar fires, And then is knowledge "good.""

"Wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age."

"And he is oft the wisest man Who is not wise at all."

"The wise man is but a clever infant, spelling letters from a hieroglyphical prophetic book, the lexicon of which lies in eternity."

"What in me is dark, Illumine, what is low, raise and support."

"For knowledge to become wisdom, and for the soul to grow, the soul must be rooted in God: and it is through prayer that there comes to us that which is the strength of our strength, and the virtue of our virtue, the Holy Spirit."

"The question is, whether, like the Divine Child in the Temple, we are turning knowledge into wisdom, and whether, understanding more of the mysteries of life, we are feeling more of its sacred law; and whether, having left behind the priests and the scribes and the doctors and the fathers, we are about our Father's business, and becoming wise to God."

"Drop, drop—in our sleep, upon the heart sorrow falls, memory's pain, and to us, though against our very will, even in our own despite, comes wisdom by the awful grace of God."

"[The argument of Alcidamas:] Everyone honours the wise. Thus the Parians have honoured Archilochus, in spite of his bitter tongue; the Chians Homer, though he was not their countryman; the Mytilenaeans Sappho, though she was a woman; the Lacedaemonians actually made Chilon a member of their senate, though they are the least literary of men; the inhabitants of Lampsacus gave public burial to Anaxagoras, though he was an alien, and honour him even to this day."

"Ask counsel of both times—of the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest."

"Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late."

"Standing in this presence, mindful of the solemnity of this occasion, feeling the emotions which no one may know until he senses the great weight of responsibility for himself, I must utter my belief in the divine inspiration of the founding fathers."

"The poet's aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory."

"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next."