Sage Quotes
More Sage Quotes
Ich sage euch: man muss noch Chaos in sich haben, um einem tanzenden Stern geb a« ren zu k o« nnen. I tell you: one must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star.
— 1883-92 Also sprach Zarathustra ( Thus Spake Zarathustra), prologue, section 5 (translated by R J Hollingdale).
Il est sage de ne mettre ni crainte, ni espérance dans l’avenir incertain.
anatole france— That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.L’Étui de nacre: Le Procurateur de Judée [Mother of Pearl: The Procurator of Judea] (1892)
Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, Remember me to one who lives there, He (she) once was a true love of mine.
— Scarborough Fair, a traditional English ballad of unknown origin, recorded by various artists in the 20th century.
Ah! gentle dames! it gars me greet, To think how mony counsels sweet, How mony lengthen'd sage advices, The husband frae the wife despises!
Robert Burns— 1790 'Tam o' Shanter. A Tale'.
As no one can adventure nearer the throne of God by virtue of his rank, his wealth, or his talent, so no one is kept farther from that throne by his low condition, or by his poverty of wealth, of learning, or of intellect. The prince and the sage are not more welcome to heaven than the poor and ignorant.
albert barnes— P. 455. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Once a sage asked why scholars always flock to the doors of the rich, whilst the rich are not inclined to call at the doors of scholars. "The scholars" he answered , "are well aware of the use of money, but the rich are ignorant of the nobility of science".
abū-rayhān bīrūnī— Quoted in: A.L. Mackay Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (London 1994)
Le plus sage est celui qui ne pense point l'être.
nicholas boileau-despréaux— The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
— Satire 4.
"When an alluring woman comes in at the door," warningly traced the austere Kien-fi on the margin of his well-known essay, "discretion may be found up the chimney". It is incredible that beneath this ever-timely reminder an obscure disciple should have added the words: "The wiser the sage, the more profound the folly."
ernest bramah— "The Story of the Poet Lao Ping, Chun Shin's Daughter Fa, and the Fighting Crickets"
I have on my office wall a wise and useful reminder by Anne Morrow Lindbergh concerning one of the realities of life. She wrote, "My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds." That's good counsel for us all, not as an excuse to forgo duty, but as a sage point about pace and the need for quality in relationships.
neal a. maxwell— Deposition of a Disciple, 1976, Deseret Book Co. (Salt Lake City), p. 5
How shall we rank thee upon glory's page,Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage?
thomas moore— To Thomas Hume.
The stoic husband was the glorious thing.The man had courage, was a sage, 'tis true,And lov'd his country.
Alexander Pope— Epilogue to Rowe's Jane Shore (1714).
Their strength's eternal in their sight,They overtake the deer in flight,And in their arrogance they smite;But I am sage, if they are strong:Man's love is transient as his death is long.
vita sackville-west— "The Greater Cats"
Remote from cities liv'd a swain, Unvex'd with all the cares of gain; His head was silver'd o'er with age, And long experience made him sage.
john gay— Introduction, "The Shepherd and the Philosopher".
Ich sage ihnen vor Gott, als ein ehrlicher Mann, ihr Sohn ist der größte Componist, den ich von Person und den Nahmen nach kenne: er hat geschmack, und über das die größte Compositionswissenschaft.
joseph haydn— Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name: He has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition.Quoted in a letter from Leopold Mozart to Maria Anna Mozart (1785-02-16)
"[The career a young man should choose should be] one that is most consonant with our dignity, one that is based on ideas of whose truth we are wholly convinced, one that offers us largest scope in working for humanity and approaching that general goal towards which each profession offers only one of the means: the goal of perfection … If he works only for himself he can become a famous scholar, a great sage, an excellent imaginative writer [ Dichter ], but never a perfected, a truly great man."
karl marx— "A Young Man's Reflections on the Choice of a Career", in Karl Marx and World Literature (1976) by S. S. Prawer, p.2
The sage says that all that is under heaven incurs the same law and the same fate.
Michel de Montaigne— Book II, ch. 12
Experience has repeatedly confirmed that well-known maxim of Bacon 's that "a little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism , but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion ." At the same time, when Bacon penned that sage epigram... he forgot to add that the God to whom depth in philosophy brings back men's minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them.
george santayana— Ch. I (Vol. III, Reason in Religion)
The Poet's License! 't is the right, Within the rule of duty, To look on all delightful things Throughout the world of beauty. To gaze with rapture at the stars That in the skies are glowing; To see the gems of perfect dye That in the woods are growing, And more than sage astronomer, And more than learned florist, To read the glorious homilies Of Firmament and Forest.
john godfrey saxe— "The Poet's License".
It becomes a momentous occasion, therefore, when someone emerges showing the restraint and spirituality of approach required to retain the essential quality of an art that took its birth with a sage.
— By K. Chandrasekharan on Rukmini Devi Arundale quoted in "History of Bharatanatyam".
Generally Shiva is associated with Tandava dance...found in the Natyashastra of sage Bharata.
— In "Devad?s?: Dancing Damsel" p.45 (Tandava)
If the Purana written by Vyasa were still existing, then it would be honoured as a “Sruti”. In the absence of this Purana and the one written by Lomaharshana, the eighteen Puranas that still exist cannot all be given the same place of honour; among them, the Vishnu and the Bhagwata Purana composed by accomplished yogis are definitely more precious and we must recognise that the Markandeya Purana written by a sage devoted to spiritual pursuits is more profound in Knowledge than either the Shiva or the Agni Purana.
— Sri Aurobindo, in "Sri Aurobindo Writings in Bengali Translated into English".
Where all are selfish, the sage is no better than the fool, and only rather more dangerous.
james anthony froude— James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects, Party Politics.
As rivers flow into the ocean but cannot make the vast ocean overflow, so flow the streams of the sense-world into the sea of peace that is the sage.
— Bhagavad Gita 2.70
Il est sage de ne mettre ni crainte, ni espérance dans l'avenir incertain.
anatole france— That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
— Anatole France, L'Étui de nacre: Le Procurateur de Judée [Mother of Pearl: The Procurator of Judea] (1892).
Whatever poet, orator, or sage may say of it, old age is still old age.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Morituri Solutamus, line 264.
'To every Form of being is assigned,' Thus calmly spake the venerable sage, 'An active Principle:howe'er removed From sense and observation, it subsists In all things, in all natures.'
william wordsworth— 1814 'The Excursion', bk.9, l.1-5.
To him [the sage], what seemeth the bright things of day to the mass, are known to be the things of darkness and ignorance and what seemeth dark as night to the many, he seeth suffused with the light of noonday.
— Krishna; Chapter 2, verse 69; Yogi Ramacharaka edition
The Wise (Minstrel or sage,) out of their books are clay; But in their books, as from their graves they rise. Angels that, side by side, upon our way, Walk with and warn us!
Lytton— Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Souls of Books, Stanza 3, line 9.
