Quotes for Wisdom

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.

Jane Smiley

They see me as being this Super Mom on TV who also can more than handle a difficult husband, and they assume I'm going to be just full of wisdom as a mother and wife myself.

Patricia Richardson

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

William James

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

Colin Powell

When you doubt, abstain.

Ambrose Bierce

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you.

John Wooden

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.

Jean Paul

Wisdom is a sacred communion.

Victor Hugo

The pine stays green in winter... wisdom in hardship.

Norman Douglas

Man is wise and constantly in quest of more wisdom; but the ultimate wisdom, which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. There it lies, the simplest fact of the universe and at the same time the one which calls forth faith rather than reason.

Hal Borland

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another.

Adlai Stevenson I

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

Jimmy Carter

You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom.

Herbie Hancock

The thing that we possess, that machines don't, is the ability to exhibit wisdom.

Herbie Hancock

Conventional wisdom on government's role in inequality often has it backwards. Tax reforms have resulted in a more progressive federal income tax; government transfer payments have become less progressive.

Paul Ryan

The wisdom of the wise is an uncommon degree of common sense.

William Inge

Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it.

Henry Ward Beecher

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

Benjamin Disraeli

Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.

Baltasar Gracian

Sometimes you surprise yourself with what you can handle, and if you come out the other end with some wisdom, then it's not such a bad thing.

Boy George