We’ve all heard plenty of great words of wisdom, but what about great words about wisdom?
Well, here’s a list of the very BEST quotes we could find about WISDOM from an array of folks who are pretty wise themselves.
One’s first step in wisdom is to question everything—and one’s last is to come to terms with everything. Georg C. Lichtenberg
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk. Doug Larson
To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them. Paulo Coelho
I believe that all wisdom consists in caring immensely for a few right things, and not caring a straw about the rest. John Buchan
The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise. Maya Angelou
Memory is the mother of all wisdom. Aeschylus
As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Aristotle
Like water in the desert is wisdom to the soul. Edward Counsel
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. Socrates
To admit you were wrong is to declare you are wiser now than you were before. Unknown
Wisdom is the daughter of experience. Leonardo da Vinci
There is a wisdom of the head, and… there is a wisdom of the heart. Charles Dickens
Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom. Thomas Jefferson
It is strange how often a heart must be broken
Before the years can make it wise. Sara Teasdale
Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it. Robbie Gass
Every wise man lives in an observatory. Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare
The wisest mind has something yet to learn. George Santayana
Dare to be wise. Horace
We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us. Marcel Proust
Where wisdom reigns, there is no conflict between thinking and feeling. C.G. Jung
Humility and wonder equals wisdom. Unknown
Years teach us more than books. Berthold Auerbach
Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable. John Patrick
Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men. Confucius
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience. James Boswell
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. Rumi
He that can compose himself is wiser than he that composes books. Benjamin Franklin
Wisdom is what’s left after we’ve run out of personal opinions. Cullen Hightower
The wise talk to themselves. Unknown
No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful. Ernest Hemingway
Wisdom is the reward for surviving our own stupidity. Brian Rathbone
Common-sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth. Pierre Abelard
Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another. Juvenal
That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next. John Stuart Mill
He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom. James Huneker
A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise. Buddha
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. William James
Turn your wounds into wisdom. Oprah
A wise person knows that there is something to be learned from everyone. Unknown
Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good. Gabriel García Márquez
No man was ever wise by chance. Seneca
Each of us knows all. We need only open our minds to hear our own wisdom. Dan Brown
The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. H.L. Mencken
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification. Martin H. Fischer
The key to wisdom is knowing all the right questions. John A. Simone
Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two my life moves. Nisargadatta Maharaj
Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day. Zen Proverb
We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery. Samuel Smiles
Wisdom is easy to carry but difficult to gather. Czech Proverb
It is wiser to forgive than to hate. Unknown
Wisdom outweighs any wealth. Sophocles
Wisdom is a good purchase, though we pay dearly for it. Dutch Proverb
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf. Walter Lippmann
Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone. Horace
A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top. Unknown
The wise understand by themselves; fools follow the reports of others. Tibetan Proverb
No one is wise at all times. Piny the Elder
Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness. Sophocles
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. William Shakespeare
There are many gates to the house of wisdom. Edward Counsel
All knowledge is not taught in one school. Hawaiian Proverb
The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others. Solomon Ibn Gabirol
To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid. Unknown
Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom. William Jordan
The wise do as much as they should, not as much as they can. French Proverb
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it. Hermann Hesse
Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar. William Wordsworth
We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men’s wisdom. Michel de Montaigne
To realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom. Bertrand Russell
In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it—thou art a fool. Lord Chesterfield
Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field. Isaac Asimov
It may serve as a comfort to us, in all our calamities and afflictions, that he that loses anything and gets wisdom by it is a gainer by the loss. L. Estrange
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Reinhold Niebuhr
Ripe in wisdom was he, but patient, and simple, and childlike. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Edna St. Vincent Millay
Wise men are not always silent, but they know when to be. Unknown
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. Bertran Russell
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Unknown
Some folks are wise and some are otherwise. Tobias Smollett
Wise men know each other. Edward Counsel
