Wise famous quotes
Last updated: Sep 5, 2024
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Therefore, since the world has still Much good, but much less good than ill, And while the sun and moon endure Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure, I'd face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good.
-- A. E. Housman -
When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, `Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free.' But I was one-and-twenty No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, `The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue.' And I am two-and-twenty And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
-- A. E. Housman -
It comes back to the old question: How can the Bible be so wise in some places and so barbaric in others? And why should we put any faith in a book that includes such brutality?
-- A. J. Jacobs -
I love it when the Bible gives Emily Post-like tips that are both wise and easy to follow.
-- A. J. Jacobs -
Walking is the favorite sport of the good and wise.
-- A. L. Rowse -
I am shy to admit that I have followed the advice given all those years ago by a wise archbishop to a bewildered young man: that moments of unbelief 'don't matter,' that if you return to a practice of the faith, faith will return.
-- A. N. Wilson -
The wise say that our failure is to form habits: for habit is the mark of a stereotyped world,
-- A.C. Grayling -
Collect as precious pearls the words of the wise and virtuous.
-- Abdelkader El Djezairi -
Our lives pass from us like the wind, and why Should wise men grieve to know that they must die? The Judas blossom fades, the lovely face Of light is dimmed, and darkness takes its place.
-- Abolqasem Ferdowsi -
Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise, He who defers this work from day to day, Does on a river's bank expecting stay, Till the whole stream, which stopped him, should be gone, That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on.
-- Abraham Cowley -
Ah, yet, e'er I descend to th' grave, May I a small House and a large Garden have. And a few Friends, and many Books both true, Both wise, and both delightful too. And since Love ne'er will from me flee, A mistress moderately fair, And good as Guardian angels are, Only belov'd and loving me.
-- Abraham Cowley -
Curs'd be that wretch (Death's factor sure) who brought Dire swords into the peaceful world, and taught Smiths (who before could only make The spade, the plough-share, and the rake) Arts, in most cruel wise Man's left to epitomize!
-- Abraham Cowley -
Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism.
-- Abraham Joshua Heschel -
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, "And this too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!
-- Abraham Lincoln -
I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.
-- Abraham Lincoln -
We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.
-- Abraham Maslow -
The Bible is proved to be a revelation from God, by the reasonableness and holiness of its precepts; all its commands, exhortations, and promises having the most direct tendency to make men wise, holy, and happy in themselves, and useful to one another.
-- Adam Clarke -
Where we are from... [s]tories are factual. If a farmer is declared a music virtuoso by the state, everyone had better start calling him maestro. And secretly, he'd be wise to start practicing the piano. For us, the story is more important than the person. If a man and his story are in conflict, it is the man who must change.
-- Adam Johnson -
To be free from bondage the wise person must practise discrimination between One-Self and the ego-self. By that alone you will become full of joy, recognising Self as Pure Being, Consciousness and Bliss.
-- Adi Shankara -
For there is one thing we must never forget... the majority can never replace the man. And no more than a hundred empty heads make one wise man will an heroic decision arise from a hundred cowards.
-- Adolf Hitler -
The Wise County Bookmobile is one of the most beautiful sights in the world to me. When I see it lumbering down the mountain road like a tank . . . I flag it down like an old friend. I've waited on this corner every Friday since I can remember. The Bookmobile is just a government truck, but to me it's a glittering royal coach delivering stories and knowledge and life itself. I even love the smell of books. People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count on the Bookmobile.
-- Adriana Trigiani -
It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.
-- Aeschylus -
Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
-- Aesop -
If you are wise you won't be deceived by the innocent airs of those whom you have once found to be dangerous.
-- Aesop -
Dogs are wise. They crawl away into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more.
-- Agatha Christie -
To be brave in misfortune is to be worthy of manhood; to be wise in misfortune is to conquer fate.
-- Agnes Repplier -
Wise leaders should have known that the human heart cannot exist in a vacuum. If Christians are forbidden to enjoy the wine of the Spirit they will turn to the wine of the flesh....Christ died for our hearts and the Holy Spirit wants to come and satisfy them.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
and I get refill number three or four and the wine is making my bones loose and it's giving my hair a red sheen and my breasts are blooming and my eyes feel sultry and wise and the dress is water.
-- Aimee Bender -
Everyone makes mistakes. The wise are not people who never make mistakes, but those who forgive themselves and learn from their mistakes.
-- Ajahn Brahm -
These days people don't search for the Truth. People study simply in order to find knowledge necessary to make a living, raise families and look after themselves, that's all. To them, being smart is more important than being wise!
-- Ajahn Chah -
Those who gave thee a body, furnished it with weakness; but He who gave thee Soul, armed thee with resolution. Employ it, and thou art wise; be wise and thou art happy.
-- Akhenaton -
True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.
-- Akhenaton -
The lips of the wise are as the doors of a cabinet; no sooner are they opened, but treasures are poured out before thee.
-- Akhenaton -
Give a drink of water as alms to the birds which go forth at morning, and deem that they have a better right than men [to thy charity]. For their race brings not harm upon thee in any wise, when thou fearest it from thine own race.
-- Al-Maʿarri -
Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.
-- Alan Alda -
The printing presses of the state treasuries cranked out reams of paper currency- showing wise kinds and blissful martyrs- while bankers wept and peasants starved.
-- Alan Furst -
Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we're all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.
-- Alan Kay -
Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die?... Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom.
-- Alan Paton -
The agnostic, the skeptic, is neurotic, but this does not imply a false philosophy; it implies the discovery of facts to which he does not know how to adapt himself. The intellectual who tries to escape from neurosis by escaping from the facts is merely acting on the principle that “where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.
-- Alan Watts -
Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
-- Albert Einstein -
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.
-- Albert Einstein -
I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking
-- Albert Einstein -
To get to know a country, you must have direct contact with the earth. It's futile to gaze at the world through a car window.
-- Albert Einstein -
Truth is what stands the test of experience.
-- Albert Einstein -
All our thoughts and concepts are called up by sense-experiences and have a meaning only in reference to these sense-experiences. On the other hand, however, they are products of the spontaneous activity of our minds; they are thus in no wise logical consequences of the contents of these sense-experiences. If, therefore, we wish to grasp the essence of a complex of abstract notions we must for the one part investigate the mutual relationships between the concepts and the assertions made about them; for the other, we must investigate how they are related to the experiences.
-- Albert Einstein -
The trouble with most therapy is that it helps you feel better. But you don't get better. You have to back it up with action, action, action.
-- Albert Ellis -
By not caring too much about what people think, I'm able to think for myself and propagate ideas which are very often unpopular. And I succeed.
-- Albert Ellis -
Neurosis is just a high-class word for whining.
-- Albert Ellis -
If you agree with me that a poem can be as bountiful as a rich Victorian narrative, and as wise... then you'll want to join me here in the Wow, I Like No Need of Sympathy Club. Your membership fee is the same as your membership privileges: this book.
-- Albert Goldbarth -
The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.
-- Albert Schweitzer -
An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight... the truly wise person is colorblind.
-- Albert Schweitzer -
He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.
-- Albert Schweitzer -
I'm doing great heart-wise. I get a complete stress test once a year, and those have gone well. I have stents in two arteries, and they are holding up. My other arteries haven't shown any additional clogging.
-- Alberto Salazar -
You want to run out in front, prepare to be tripped from behind.
-- Albie Sachs -
The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
-- Alden Nowlan -
Facts are ventriloquist’s dummies. Sitting on a wise man’s knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense, or indulge in sheer diabolism.
-- Aldous Huxley -
I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise.
-- Aldous Huxley -
To be excited and at the same time satisfied; to desire and possess -that has been described somewhere as the wise man's idea of heaven.
-- Alec Waugh -
The sot drinks, and is drunken: the coward drinks not, and shivers: the wise man, brave and free, drinks, and gives glory to the Most High God.
-- Aleister Crowley -
One becomes wise only in measures, as he goes through his own insanity.
-- Alejandro Jodorowsky -
We are all fools blessed with the knowledge that certain events will come to pass no matter what path we take to get there. The wise ones follow their angels while they may.
-- Alethea Kontis -
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and for thy possession, the ends of the earth. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces, like a potters vessel. Be wise now therefore, ye kings. Be admonished, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way, though his wrath be kindled but a little.
-- Alexander Anderson -
Good and wise men, in all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed that the deity, from the relations we stand in to himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature....Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
I will venture to assert that no combination of designing men under heaven will be capable of making a government unpopular which is in its principles a wise and good one, and vigorous in its operations.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the sole disposal of a magistrate, created and circumstanced, as would be a president of the United States.
-- Alexander Hamilton -
Whatever may be the immediate gains and losses, the dangers to our safety arising from political suppression are always greater than the dangers to that safety arising from political freedom. Suppression is always foolish. Freedom is always wise. That is the faith, the experimental faith, by which we Americans have undertaken to live.
-- Alexander Meiklejohn -
My editor and I remain very disciplined. It's just sometimes when you're making a film, you get into the cutting room and you see a scene that's slowing you down in a certain section, but if you remove that scene then, emotionally or story-wise, another scene a half-hour later won't have the same impact. You just get stuck with it.
-- Alexander Payne -
Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.
-- Alexander Pope -
Unthought-of Frailties cheat us in the Wise.
-- Alexander Pope -
Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.
-- Alexander Pope -
Who finds not Providence all good and wise, Alike in what it gives, and what denies.
-- Alexander Pope -
What is it to be wise? 'Tis but to know how little can be known, To see all others' faults, and feel our own.
-- Alexander Pope -
What so pure, which envious tongues will spare? Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair, With matchless impudence they style a wife, The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life; A bosom serpent, a domestic evil, A night invasion, and a mid-day devil; Let not the wise these sland'rous words regard, But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard.
-- Alexander Pope -
To swear is neither brave, polite, nor wise.
-- Alexander Pope -
Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn; A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn: A Judge is just, a Chanc'llor juster still; A Gownman learn'd; a Bishop what you will; Wise if a minister; but if a King, More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'rything.
-- Alexander Pope -
Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state, Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate.
-- Alexander Pope -
Coffee which makes the politician wise, and see through all things with his half-shut eyes.
-- Alexander Pope -
For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned.The berries crackle, and the mill turns round ... At once they gratify their scent and taste.And frequent cups prolong the rich repast... Coffee (which makes the politician wise And see through all things with his half-shut eyes).
-- Alexander Pope -
But if you'll prosper, mark what I advise, Whom age, and long experience render wise.
-- Alexander Pope -
A wise physician, skill'd our wounds to heal, is more than armies to the public weal.
-- Alexander Pope -
The dead keep their secrets, and in a while we shall be as wise as they - and as taciturn.
-- Alexander Smith -
You must be wise, but not too wise.
-- Alexander Turney Stewart -
You will deal with ignorant, opinionated and innocent people. You will often have an opportunity to cheat them. If they could, they would cheat you, or force you to sell at less than cost. You must be wise, but not too wise. You must never actually cheat the customer, even if you can. You must make her happy and satisfied, so she will come back.
-- Alexander Turney Stewart -
The wise expect nothing, hope for nothing, thus avoiding all disappointment and anxiety.
-- Alexandra David-Neel -
It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them. It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville -
The finest piece of mechanism in all the universe is the brain of man. The wise person develops his brain, and opens his mind to the genius and spirit of the world's great ideas. He will feel inspired with the purest and noblest thoughts that have ever animated the spirit of humanity.
-- Alfred Armand Montapert -
the shell must break before the bird can fly.
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson -
Who is wise in love, love most, say least.
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson -
The Wise are silent, the Foolish speak, and children are thus led astray.
-- Algernon Blackwood -
[A]ll popular and well-mixed governments [republics] . . . are ever established by wise and good men, and can never be upheld otherwise than by virtue: The worst men always conspiring against them, they must fall, if the best have not power to preserve them. . . . [and] unless they be preserved in a great measure free from vices . . . .
-- Algernon Sidney -
Machiavel, discoursing on these matters, finds virtue to be so essentially necessary to the establishment and preservation of liberty, that he thinks it impossible for a corrupted people to set up a good government, or for a tyranny to be introduced if they be virtuous; and makes this conclusion, 'That where the matter (that is, the body of the people) is not corrupted, tumults and disorders do not hurt; and where it is corrupted, good laws do no good:' which being confirmed by reason and experience, I think no wise man has ever contradicted him.
-- Algernon Sidney -
When proven wrong, the wise man will correct himself and the ignorant will keep arguing.
-- Ali ibn Abi Talib -
It is better to listen to a wise enemy than to seek counsel from a foolish friend.
-- Ali ibn Abi Talib
