Sage Quotes
More Sage Quotes
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.
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).
And wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
Alexander Pope— 1726 Odyssey, bk.14, l.520-1.
Un fol enseigne bien un sage. A fool has a lot to teach a wise man.
— 1546 Tiers Livre, pt.37.
Alas! I have nor hope nor health, Nor peace within nor calm around, Nor that content surpassing wealth The sage in meditation found.
Percy Bysshe Shelley— 1818 'StanzasWritten in Dejection, near Naples'.
Whose lines are mottoes of the heart,Whose truths electrify the sage.
thomas campbell— Ode to the Memory of Burns.
Il y a plus de fous que de sages, et dans le sage même, il y a plus de folie que de sagesse.
nicolas chamfort— Maximes et Pensées, #149There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.Maxims and Considerations, E. P. Mathers, trans. (1926)
Il était passionné et se croyait sage; j'étais folle, mais je m'en doutais, et, sous ce point de vue, j'étais plus près que lui de la Sagesse.
nicolas chamfort— Maximes et Pensées, #562He was passionate and thought he was wise; I was a fool and suspected it; I was nearer to wisdom.Maxims and Considerations
Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.
— He who lives without committing any folly is not so wise as he thinks.
— François de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 209.
Trust me, I’ve read your German sage To far more purpose e’er than you did; You find it in his wisest page, Whom God deludes is well deluded.
arthur hugh clough— Dipsychus, Pt. II, sc. ii.
The master made it his task to systematically destroy every doctrine, every belief, every concept of the divine, for these things, which were originally intended as pointers, were now taken as descriptions. He loved to quote the Eastern saying: "When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger."
anthony de mello— p. 132 (One Minute Nonsense (1992))
Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.
françois de la rochefoucauld— Who lives without folly is not as wise as he thinks.Maxim 209.
En vieillissant on devient plus fou et plus sage.
françois de la rochefoucauld— As we age, we become more foolish and wiser.Maxim 210.
Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.
jean de la fontaine— Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 1.
All too willingly man sees himself as the centre of the universe, as something not belonging to the rest of nature but standing apart as a different and higher being. Many people cling to this error and remain deaf to the wisest command ever given by a sage, the famous "Know thyself" inscribed in the temple of Delphi.
Konrad Lorenz— Ch. XII : On the Virtue of Scientific Humility
Usez, n’abusez point; le sage ainsi l’ordonne. Je fuis également Épictète et Pétrone. L’abstinence ou l’excès ne fit jamais d’heureux.
voltaire— Use, do not abuse; as the wise man commands. I flee Epictetus and Petronius alike. Neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy."Cinquième discours: sur la nature de plaisir," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738).
La superstition est à la religion ce que l’astrologie est à l’astronomie, la fille très folle d’une mère très sage. Ces deux filles ont longtemps subjugué toute la terre.
voltaire— Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth."Whether it is useful to maintain the people in superstition," Treatise on Toleration (1763).
Qui se croit sage, ô ciel! est un grand fou.
— He who thinks himself wise, O heavens! is a great fool.
— Voltaire, Le Droit du Seigneur, IV. 1.
The man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan!
Lytton— Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Night and Morning, Book I, Chapter VI.
He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man.
james beattie— James Beattie, The Hermit, line 8.
"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."
— "The Story of the Poet Lao Ping, Chun Shin's Daughter Fa, and the Fighting Crickets"
Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage, Whereon many play their parts; the lookers-on, the sage Philosophers are, saith he, whose part is to learn The manners of all nations, and the good from the bad to discern.
— Damon and Pythias (written in 1564, published in 1571), lines 348-351.
The laurell, meed of mightie conquerours And poets sage; the firre that weepeth still; The willow, worne of forlorne paramours; The eugh, obedient to the bender's will; The birch, for shafts; the sallow for the mill; The mirrhe sweete-bleeding in the bitter wound; The warlike beech; the ash for nothing ill; The fruitfull olive; and the platane round; The carver holme; the maple seldom inward sound.
Edmund Spenser— Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1589-96), Book I, Canto I, Stanza 8.
He is a despicable sage whose wisdom does not profit himself.
— Maxim 629. (Sentences)
Le sage quelquefois évite le monde de peur d'être ennuyè.
jean de la bruyère— The wise man sometimes flees from society from fear of being bored.Les Caractères, V.
"Let your occupations be few," says the sage, "if you would lead a tranquil life."
— ?, ?, ?
— IV, 24.
Let time that makes you homely, make you sage.
thomas parnell— Thomas Parnell, An Elegy to an Old Beauty, line 35.
