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wise quotes

  • He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do; and so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him.

    - Roger Ascham
      Toxophilus,'To all Gentlemen andYeomen of England'.

  • It is not granted to man to love and to be wise.

    - Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
      The Advancement of Learning, bk.2.

  •    There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise.

    - Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
      Essays, no.12,'Of Boldness'.

  • In all superstition wise men follow fools.

    - Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
      Essays, no.17,'Of Superstition'.

  • Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

    - Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
      Essays, no.22,'Of Cunning'.

  • Historiesmakemenwise; poets, witty; themathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

    - Francis,Viscount St Albans Bacon
      Essays, no.50,'Of Studies'.

  • Some deemed him wondrous wise, and some believed him mad.

    -James Beattie
    The Minstrel, bk.1, stanza16.

  • Heureux, qui comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage, Ou comme cestuy la'   qui conquit la toison, Et puis est retourne  , plein d'usage et raison, Vivre entre ses parents le reste de son a"  ge! Happy is he who, like Ulysses, has taken a wondrous journey Or has won the Golden Fleece, And then returns home wise and useful To live in his homeland the rest of his days.

    -Joachim du Bellay
      Les Regrets, no.31.

  • Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Job 32:9.

  • Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Proverbs 6:6.

  • A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Proverbs 29:11.

  • Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Ecclesiastes 4:13.

  •    And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as thestarsforeverand ever.Butthou,ODaniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Daniel12:3^4.

  • Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying,Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 2:1^2.

  • Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built hishouseupona rock: And theraindescended, and thefloodscame, and thewindsblew, and beat uponthat house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew 7:24^7.

  • Behold,I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew10:16.

  • Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.Benot wise inyourown conceits.Recompenseto no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written,Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    Romans12:16^19.

  • Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

    - Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
      The Cynic's Word Book. Retitled  The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

  • To reform a world, to reform a nation no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

    -Thomas Carlyle
      Signs of the Times.

  • Some truth there was, but dashed and brewed with lies, To please the fools, and puzzle all the wise.

    -John Dryden
    Absalom and  Achitophel, pt.1, l.114^15.

  • Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work, for man to mend.

    -John Dryden
      Epistle,'To my honoured kinsman  John Driden', l.92^5.

  • Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.

    - Dwight D(avid) Eisenhower
      In Time, 6 Oct.

  • Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds; and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar combination of outward with inward facts, which constitute a man's critical actions, it will be better not to thinkourselves wise about his character.

    - George pseudonym of  MaryAnn Evans Eliot
      Adam Bede, ch.29.

  •    None wise dares hopeless venture.

    -Euripides
    Helena, l.811 (translated by A S  Way,1959).

  •    For thof ye had as wise a snout on As Shakespeare or Sir Isaac Newton, Your judgement fouk wou'd hae a doubt on, I'll tak myaith, Till they cou'd see ye wi'a suit on O'gude Braid Claith.

    - Robert Fergusson
      'Braid Claith', stanza 9.

  • And if youare wise you will never pity thepast for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did.

    -John Robert Fowles
      The Magus, ch.24.

  • The silver swan, who living had no note, When death approached, unlocked her silent throat; Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more: 'Farewell, all joys; Oh death, come close mine eyes; More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.'

    - Orlando Gibbons
      TheFirst Set of Madrigals and Motets of Five Parts,'The Silver Swan'.

  • Il n'est pas tre'  s prudent d'avoir des dieux et des le  gumes trop dore  s. It isnot wise to have either yourgods or your vegetables too gilded.

    - (Hippolyte) Jean Giraudoux
      La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu, act 2, sc.13.

  • To each his suff'rings, all are men, Condemned alike to groan; The tender for another's pain, Th'unfeeling for his own. Yet ah! why should they know their fate? Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies. Thought would destroy their paradise. No more; where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.

    -Thomas Gray
      Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (published1747), l.91^100.

  • Hay hombres que de su ciencia tienen la cabeza llena; hay sabios de todas menas, mas digo, sin ser muy ducho: es mejor que aprender mucho el aprender cosas buenas. There are some men who have their heads full up with the things they know. Wise men come in all sizes, but I don't need so much sense to say

    -Jose Herna n dez

  • 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.

    - A(lfred) E(dward) Housman
      A Shropshire Lad, no.13.

  • A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

    - David Hume
      An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section10, pt.1.

  • Factsareventriloquist'sdummies. Sittingonawiseman's knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere they say nothing, or talk nonsense.

    - Aldous Leonard Huxley
      Time Must Have a Stop.

  • Flertallet har aldrig retten pafi   sin side. Aldrig, siger jeg! Det er en af disse samfundslÖgnere, som en fri, t½nkende mand mafi   gÖre oprÖr imod. Hvem er det, som udgÖr flertallet af beboerne i et land? Er det de kloge folk, eller er det de'   dumme? Jeg t½nker, vi fafi  r vaere enige om, at dumme mennesker er tilstede i en ganske forskr½kkelig overv½ldende majoritet rundt omkring pafi   den hele vide jord. The majority never has right on its side.Never,I say! That is one of the social lies that a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against.Who makes up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men or the fools? I think we must agree that the fools are in a terrible overwhelming majority, all the wide world over.

    - HenrikJohan Ibsen
      En folkefiende (An Enemy of  the People), act 4.

  • As the art of reading (after a certain stage in one's education) isthe art of skipping, so the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

    -William James
      The Principles of Psychology, ch.22.

  • A wiseToryand a wise Whig, I believe, will agree. Their principles are the same, though their modes of thinking are different.

    - Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
      Written note given to Boswell, May. Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.4.

  • If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dreamand not make dreams your master; If you can thinkand not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet withTriumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same.

    - (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling
      Rewards and Fairies,'If'.

  • More childish valorous than manly wise.

    - Christopher Marlowe
      Tamburlaine the Great (published1590), pt.2, l.3690.

  • The days that make us happy make us wise.

    -John Edward Masefield
      'Biography'.

  • Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there; be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being. Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there Live, in what state, condition, or degree, Contented that thus far hath been revealed Not of earth only but of highest heav'n.

    -John Milton
      Raphael to  Adam. Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.8, l.172^8.

  • And wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.

    - Alexander Pope
      Odyssey, bk.14, l.520^1.

  • Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, With too much weakness for the stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest, In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer, Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little, or too much.

    - Alexander Pope
      An Essay on Man, epistle 2, l.1^12.

  • Un fol enseigne bien un sage. A fool has a lot to teach a wise man.

    - Fran c° ois Rabelais
      Tiers Livre, pt.37.

  • Great Negative, how vainly would the wise Enquire, define, distinguish, teach, devise, Didst thou not stand to point their blind Philosophies.

    -JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
    c.1673  'Upon Nothing', stanza10 (published1679).

  • God bless our good and gracious King Whose promise none relies on, Who never said a foolish thing Nor ever did a wise one.

    -JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
    Of Charles II (published1707).The verse was later changed to an epitaph ('Here lies a great and mighty king†').

  • No rules,however wise, area substituteforaffectionand tact.

    - Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
      In Praise of Idleness,'Education and Discipline'.

  • I don't consider myself dovish and I certainly don't consider myself hawkish. Maybe I would describe myself as owlishthat is wise enough to understand that you want to do everything possible to avoid war.

    - H Norman Schwarzkopf
      In the NewYorkTimes, 28 Jan.

  • He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: 'Follow thou me!' and setsustothetaskswhich Hehastofulfil forour time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple,He will reveal Himself inthetoils, 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
      Von Reimarus zuWrede (translated byW Montgomery as The Quest for the HistoricalJesus,1910).

  • An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the red stop- light. The truly wise person is colour-blind.

    - Albert Schweitzer
      Quoted in CBS News tribute,14 Jan. US film director.With films such asTaxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull   (1980),   he   established  himself   as   one   of   the   foremost directors of his generation.

  • The good want power, but to weep barren tears. The powerful goodness want: worse need for them. The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      Prometheus Unbound act1, l.625^7.

  •    I never was attached to that great sect, Whose doctrine is that each one should select Out of the crowd a mistress or a friend, And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend To cold oblivion.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
      'Epipsychidion', l.149^53.

  • The vanity of translation; it were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its colour and odour, as seek to transfuse from one language to another the creations of a poet. 786 The plant must spring again from its seed, or it will bear no flower.

    - Percy Bysshe Shelley
    A Defence of Poetry.

  • Y si evitas la s|filis, siguiendo la sabia profilaxia, al llegar los cuarenta ira  s sintiendo un principio de ataxia. And if you manage to avoid syphilis by following a wise course of prophylaxis, when you turn forty you will feel the beginnings of ataxia.

    - Alan Sillitoe
      Gotas amargas,'Filosof | as' ('Philosophies').

  • Immortal, invisible,God only wise, In light inaccessible hid from our eyes, Most blesse'  d, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty, victorious,Thy great name we praise.

    -Walter Chalmers Smith
      'Immortal, Invisible', hymn.

  • Wise men fish here.

    - Frances Steloff
    Sign for Gotham Book Mart. Quoted in the NewYorkTimes, 30 Dec1987.

  • Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green, Or where his beams may not dissolve the ice, In temperate heat, where he is felt and seen, With proud people, in presence sad and wise; Set me in base, or yet in high degree, In the long night, or in the shortest day, In clear weather, or where mists thickest be, In lusty youth, or when my hairs be grey† Yours will I be, and with that only thought Comfort myself when that my hap is nought.

    - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
    'Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green'.

  • Passionless bride, divineTranquillity, Yearned after by the wisest of the wise, Who fail to find thee, being as thou art Without one pleasure and without one pain.

    -Tennyson
      'Lucretius',1.265^8.

  • For nothing worthy proving can be proven, Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise, Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt. 848

    -Tennyson
      'TheAncient Sage',1.66^8.

  • Still glides the stream, and shall for ever glide; The Form remains, the function never dies; While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise, We Men, who in our morn of youth defied The elements, must vanish;be it so!

    -William Wordsworth
      The River Duddon, no.34,'After-Thought', l.5^9.

  • Type of the wise who soar, but never roam; True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!

    -William Wordsworth
      'To a Skylark', l.11^12 (published1827).

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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