Wisdom Quotes

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

The wise does at once what the fool does at last.

Always desire to learn something useful.

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood. Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton , and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.

The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happiness.

He alone is the happy man who has learned to extract happiness not from ideal conditions but from actual ones about him.

He who has not learned to share his blessings with others has not found the true path to enduring happiness. HAPPINESS comes from sharing one's self and one's blessings. All riches are multiplied by the simple process of sharing them where they may serve others.

We begin from the recognition that all beings cherish happiness and do not want suffering. It then becomes both morally wrong and pragmatically unwise to pursue only one's own happiness oblivious to the feelings and aspirations of all others who surround us as members of the same human family. The wiser course is to think of others when pursuing our own happiness.

How would you know what happy is if you've never been otherwise.

He is happy that knoweth not himself to be otherwise

Each has his own happiness in his hands, as the artist handles the rude clay he seeks to reshape it into a figure; yet it is the same with this art as with all others: only the capacity for it is innate; the art itself must be learned and painstakingly practiced.

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.

If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I will never know happiness. For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge, experience, and creation.

The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it.

You will never be a leader unless you first learn to follow and be led.

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.

. . . power is the basic energy needed to initiate and sustain action or, to put it another way, the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it. Leadership is the wise use of this power: Transformative leadership.

Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.

Learn to obey before you command.

Habits - the only reason they persist is that they are offering some satisfaction. You allow them to persist by not seeking any other, better form of satisfying the same needs. Every habit, good or bad, is acquired and learned in the same way - by finding that it is a means of satisfaction.

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.

We are what we think; as we desire so do we become! By our thoughts, desires, and habits, we either ascend to the full divine dignity of our nature, or we descend to suffer and learn.

In one sense the whole process of development consists of the formation of habits; for knowledge itself, and the powers of thought, as well as the higher elements in the will, all depend upon the establishment of fixed ways of reacting to given stimuli. Consequently, the general laws of habituation underlie the whole of education. But the term habit is more commonly restricted to those established reactions that act with little or no participation of consciousness, or, in other words, mechanically or automatically. Such habits as these begin to form very early, and constitute a kind of supporting framework for the higher elements of character.

Courage is a special kind of knowledge; the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.

You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do.

Knowledge is power and enthusiasm pulls the switch.

Zeal without knowledge is fire without light.

The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.

Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.

Knowledge is of two kinds: We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information about it.

The hunger and thirst for knowledge, the keen delight in the chase, the good humored willingness to admit that the scent was false, the eager desire to get on with the work, the cheerful resolution to go back and begin again, the broad good sense, the unaffected modesty, the imperturbable temper, the gratitude for any little help that was given - all these will remain in my memory though I cannot paint them for others.

To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

I realized that far beyond the possibilities of bodily thought there were in myself forces, powers and knowledge far transcending all that the body can ever perceive or imagine in its loftiest flights.

'How do you know so much about everything?' was asked of a very wise and intelligent man; and the answer was 'By never being afraid or ashamed to ask questions as to anything of which I was ignorant.

The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country.

Knowledge become power only when we put it into use.

Knowledge is boundless but the capacity of one man is limited.

Knowledge is not what you can remember, but what you cannot forget.

Once you've accumulated sufficient knowledge to get by, you're too old to remember it.

We are drowning in information and starved for knowledge.

Whoever acquires knowledge but does not practice it, is like one who ploughs a field but does not sow it.

If . . . happiness is the absence of fever then I will never know happiness. For I am posessed by a fever for knowledge, experience and creation.

To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of things eternal; to knowledge, the rational apprehension of things temporal.

For knowledge, too, is itself power.

Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since the ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect.

Knowledge is a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.

The images of men's wits and knowledge remain in books. . . . They generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages.

Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.

Can anything be beyond the knowledge of a man like you?

First come I; my name is Jowett. There's no knowledge but I know it. I am Master of this college: What I don't know isn't knowledge.

Of all that writ, he was the wisest bard, who spoke this mighty truth? He that knew all that ever learning writ, Knew only this, that he knew nothing yet.

More appealing than knowledge itself is the feeling of knowledge.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.

The one self-knowledge worth having is to know one's own mind.

The self-explorer, whether he wants to or not, becomes the explorer of everything else. He learns to see himself, but suddenly, provided he was honest, all the rest appears, and it is as rich as he was, and, as a final crowning, richer.

That there should one man die ignorant who had capacity for knowledge, this I call a tragedy.

To learn to get along without, to realize that what the world is going to demand of us may be a good deal more important than what we are entitled to demand of it, this is a hard lesson.

In every case, the remedy is to take action. Get clear about exactly what it is that you need to learn and exactly what you need to do to learn it. BEING CLEAR KILLS FEAR. Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.

The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, but the least practiced, is to study and learn how to know ourselves. This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good. . . . God, Nature, the wise, the world, preach man, exhort him both by word and deed to the study of himself.

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it this is knowledge.

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

The dawn of knowledge is usually the false dawn.

Best efforts will not substitute for knowledge.

Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul.

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown.

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? - Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Knowledge is an antidote to fear.

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.

To be proud of knowledge is to be blind with light.

Knowledge is the intellectual manipulation of carefully verified observations.

We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open.

And what is word knowledge but a shadow of wordless knowledge?

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

Knowledge begets knowledge. The more I see, the more impressed I am not with what we know but with how tremendous the areas are as yet unexplored.

Belief is not the beginning of knowledge, it is the end.

It is not enough to have knowledge, one must also apply it. It is not enough to have wishes, one must also accomplish.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.

This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

The best part of our knowledge is that which teaches us where knowledge leaves off and ignorance begins.

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?

Perfect knowledge comes only when you see the world in yourself, just as he who awakes from the dream then knows he saw his dream-world with its suns and stars in himself.

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.

I see at last that all the knowledge I wrung from the darkness that darkness flung me Is worthless as ignorance : nothing comes from nothing The darkness from the darkness. Pain comes from the darkness And we call it wisdom. It is pain.

Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.

Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius.

To grow wiser means to learn to know better and better the faults to which this instrument with which we feel and judge can be subject.

No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.

Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.

The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.

All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing.

We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine.

We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

As knowledge increases, wonder deepens.

Knowledge is power if you know about the right person.

As knowledge increases, the verdict of yesterday must be reversed today, and in the long run the most positive authority is the least to be trusted.

No matter where we begin, if we pursue knowledge diligently and honestly our quest will inevitably lead us from the things of earth to the things of heaven.

True knowledge never shuts the door on more knowledge, but zeal often does.

Where there is the tree of knowledge, there is always Paradise : so say the most ancient and most modern serpents.

Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge.

If what Proust says is true, that happiness is the absence of fever, then I will never know happiness. For I am possessed by a fever for knowledge, experience, and creation.

No matter how much we learn, there is always more knowledge to be gained. In this connection I am reminded of a short poem that has been in my mind over the years. It reads as follow: I used to think I knew I knew. But now I must confess. The more I know I know I know I know I know the less.

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment the treasurer, of a wise man.

Learn what you are and be such.

The knowledge of which geometry aims is the knowledge of the eternal.

In completing one discovery we never fail to get an imperfect knowledge of others of which we could have no idea before, so that we cannot solve one doubt without creating several new ones.

Don't rely on our knowledge of what's best for your future. We do know, but it can't be best until you know it.

No matter how vast your knowledge or how modest, it is your own mind that has to acquire it. It is only with your own knowledge that you can deal. It is only your own knowledge that you can claim to possess or ask others to consider. Your mind is your only judge of truth and if others dissent from your verdict, reality is the court of final appeal. Nothing but a man's mind can perform that complex, delicate, crucial process of identification which is thinking. Nothing can direct the process but his own judgment. Nothing can direct his judgment but his moral integrity.

You'll come back, because yours is an error of knowledge, not a moral failure, not an act of surrender to evil, but only the last act of being victim to your own virtue. We'll wait for you and when you come back, you will have discovered that there need never be any conflict among your desires, nor so tragic a clash of values as the one you've borne so well.

A man speaks of what he knows, a woman of what pleases her: the one requires knowledge, the other taste.

A true knowledge of ourselves is knowledge of our power.

Nature has given to us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.

Each excellent thing, once learned, serves for a measure of all other knowledge.

Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.

When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion.

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.

The peak efficiency of knowledge and strategy is to make conflict unnecessary.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

Knowledge is the frontier of tomorrow.

The young man requires wisdom as well as knowledge.

It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step in knowledge.

To discipline ourselves through fasting brings us in tune with God, and fast day provides an occasion to set aside the temporal so that we might enjoy the higher qualities of the spiritual. As we fast on that day we learn and better understand the needs of those who are less fortunate.

Man can learn self-discipline without becoming ascetic; he can be wise without waiting to be old; he can be influential without waiting for status. Man can sharpen his ability to distinguish between matters of principle and matters of preference, but only if we have a wise interplay between time and truth, between minutes and morality.

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.

If we can implant in our people the Christian virtues which we sum up in the word character, and, at the same time, give them a knowledge of the line which should be drawn between voluntary action and governmental compulsion in a democracy, and of what can be accomplished within the stern laws of economics, we will enable them to retain their freedom, and at the same time, make them worthy to be free.

The moment a question comes to your mind, see yourself mentally taking hold of it and disposing of it. In that moment is your choice made. Thus you learn to take the path to the right. Thus you learn to become the decider and not the vacillator. Thus you build character.

We do not need more national development, we need more spiritual development. We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.

Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations. No duty is at the same time more difficult to fulfill. The knowledge of character possessed by a single individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the best through the whole Union , we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Hell is the knowledge of opportunity lost; the place where the man I am comes face to face with the man I might have been.

Learn to listen. Opportunity could be knocking at your door very softly.

Learning is not compulsory. . . neither is survival.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

All warfare is based on deception.

Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.

The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.

Move swift as the Wind, Camouflaged as the Forest, Attack Fire as the Mountain, Unmovable as the Mountain.

The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him.

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.