Wisdom Quotes

"Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind."

"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slowly ripening fruit."

"Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship."

Epicurus

"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it."

Seneca

"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."

"When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves."

Confucius

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

"The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart."

Mencius

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit shall lure it back to cancel half a Line."

Omar Khayyam

"He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears."

Michel de Montaigne

"Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast."

"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice."

"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider."

Francis Bacon

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of."

Blaise Pascal

"I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them."

Baruch Spinoza

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."

"I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices."

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none."

Thomas Carlyle

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

"Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"

"Tell all the truth but tell it slant."

Emily Dickinson

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."

Leo Tolstoy