The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion, and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this; nor is it in the nature of human intellect to become wise in any other manner. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
But these are foolish things to all the wise,
And I love wisdom more than she loves me;
My tendency is to philosophise
On most things, from a tyrant to a tree;
But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies,
What are we? and whence come we? what shall be
Our ultimate existence? What’s our present?
Are questions answerless, and yet incessant. Lord Byron
Nothing can confound a wise man more than laughter from a dunce. Lord Byron
Don’t follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise. Joan Rivers
Wise Man presents gift: We are three wise men.
Mary: What?
Wise Man: We are three wise men.
Mary: Well what are you doing creeping around in this house at two o’clock in the morning? That doesn’t sound very wise to me. Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979 ***** starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Kenneth Colley & Neil Innes & Gwen Taylor & Terence barler & Carol Cleveland & Spike Milligan et al, director Terry Jones
To wisdom belongs the intellectual apprehension of things eternal; to knowledge, the rational apprehension of things temporal. Saint Augustine
Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise. Horace
Where there is no perception, appellation, conception, or conventional expression, there one speaks of ‘perfect wisdom’. Mahayana Buddhist texts, Perfect Wisdom in 8,000 lines
Foolish common people do not understand that what is seen is merely their own mind. ibid.
Universally Good is present in all lands
Sitting on a jewelled lotus throne, beheld by all;
He manifests all psychic powers
And is able to enter infinite mediations. ibid.
Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Wisdom consists in the anticipation of consequences. Norman Cousins
The truest wisdom is a resolute determination. Napoleon Bonaparte
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others? Voltaire
Our experience is composed rather of illusions lost than of wisdom acquired. Joseph Roux
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity. Calvin Coolidge
The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are. C S Lewis
A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. Bruce Lee
’Tis better to be fortunate than wise. John Webster, The White Devil
But what is strength without a double share
Of wisdom, vast, unwieldy, burdensome,
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall
By weakest subtleties, not made to rule,
But to sub serve where wisdom bears command. John Milton, Samson Agonistes 53-58
A wise man’s life is based around ‘fuck-you’. The United States of America is based on ‘fuck-you’. The Gambler 2014 starring Mark Wahlberg & John Goodman & Brie Larson & Michael K Williams & Jessica Kange & Anthony Kelly & Alvin Ing & Domenick Lombardozzi & Emory Cohen & Steve Park & Leland Orser & George Kennedy et al, director Rupert Wyatt, gangsta
A wise man should avoid wrath, pride, deceit, greed, love, hate, delusion, conception, birth, death, hell, animal existence, and pain. Jaina Sutras bk1
This is the quintessence of wisdom: not to kill anything. Now this to be the legitimate conclusion from the principle of the reciprocity with regard to non-killing. ibid.
Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity. Robert Louis Stevenson
The secret to a happiness is a small ego. And a big wallet. Good wine helps, too. But that’s not really a secret, is it? Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results. Bhagavad Gita
The end result of wisdom is ... good deeds. The Talmud
The idea that ancient equals years of accumulated wisdom is a fallacy. Richard Dawkins: Enemies of Reason: The Irrational Health Service, Channel 4 2007
It is never too late to be wise. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
There is a wisdom of the head, and ... there is a wisdom of the heart. Charles Dickens, Hard Times
The conventional wisdom is often wrong. Crime didn’t keep soaring in the 1990s, money alone doesn’t win elections, and – surprise – drinking eight glasses of water a day has never actually been shown to do a thing for your health. Conventional wisdom is often shoddily formed and devilishly difficult to see through, but it can be done. Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics
Journalists need experts as badly as experts need journalists. Every day there are newspaper pages and television newscasts to be filled, and an expert who can deliver a jarring piece of wisdom is always welcome. Working together, journalists and experts are the architects of much conventional wisdom. ibid.
But let the wise be warned against too great readiness at explanation: it multiplies the sources of mistake, lengthening the sum for reckoners sure to go wrong. George Eliot, Middlemarch
Kindness is the greatest wisdom. Author unknown
And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;
Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. I Kings 3:11&12
Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.
And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.
And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.
And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.
And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.
And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.
Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.