Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Wise

""A Farewell To Arms"; that is the great fallacy; the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful." - Ernest Hemingway, fully Ernest Miller Hemingway

"Forgiveness is the most necessary and proper work of every man; for, though, when I do not a just thing, or a charitable, or a wise, another man may do it for me, yet no man can forgive my enemy but myself." -

"The truly generous is the truly wise." - John Home

"As a wise man in time of peace prepares for war." - Horace, full name Quintus Horatius Flaccus NULL

"He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin!" - Horace, full name Quintus Horatius Flaccus NULL

"Who then is free? The wise man who can govern himself." - Horace, full name Quintus Horatius Flaccus NULL

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." - William James

"The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself." - Anna Jameson

"A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain." -

"He that never thinks never can be wise." -

"He that resigns his peace to little casualties, and suffers the course of his life to be interrupted for fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and loses all the constancy and equanimity which constitutes the chief praise of a wise man." -

"Wealth is nothing in itself, it is not useful but when it departs from us; its value is found only in that which it can purchase, which, if we suppose it put to its best use by those that posses it, seems not much to deserve the desire or envy of a wise man. It is certain that, with regard to corporal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues to pleasure, nor block up the passages to anguish. Disease and infirmity still continue to torture and enfeeble, perhaps exasperated by luxury, or promoted by softness. With respect to the mind, it has rarely been observed, that wealth contributes much to quicken the discernment, enlarge the capacity, or elevate the imagination; but may, by hiring flattery, or laying diligence asleep, confirm error, and harden stupidity." -

"No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right." - Garrison Keillor, fully Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor

"Experience, it is said, makes a man wise. that is very silly talk. If there were nothing beyond experience it would simply drive him mad." - Søren Kierkegaard, fully Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

"Meekness of spirit is the halo of the wise." -

"Death is merely moving from one home to another. The wise man will spend his main efforts in trying to make his future home the more beautiful one." -

"It is as wise to moderate our belief as our desires." - Walter Savage Landor

"He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." -

"He who understands others is learned. He who knows himself is wise. He who conquers others has muscular strength. He who subdues himself is strong. He who is content is wealthy. He who does not lose his soul will endure." -

"Call him wise whose actions, words, and steps are all a clear because to a clear why." - Johann Kaspar Lavater

"There is no mortal truly wise and restless at once; wisdom is the repose of minds." - Johann Kaspar Lavater

"When hungry, eat your rice; when tired, close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean." - Lin-chi, also Lin-chi Yi-sen, Lin-chi I-hsuan, Rinzai, Rinzai Gigen, Linji, Línjì Yìxuán NULL

"Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise." - Samuel Lover

"Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is a temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship." - James Russell Lowell

"A wise system of education will at least teach us how little man yet knows, how much he has still to learn." - John Lubbock, fully Sir John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury

"To remember much is not necessarily to be wise." - Samuel David Luzzatto, aka by acronym of SHaDaL or SHeDaL

"It is a common sense and self-interest to refrain from lashing out immediately to avenge an injury. A higher level of humanity is entirely overcoming feelings of vengeance in one’s heart. This is the glory of the morally wise man." - Leibush Malbim, aka Malbim, Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michal "the Malbim", Meïr Leibush ben Jehiel Michel Weiser

"Seven characteristics distinguish the wise: he does not speak before his superior, does not interrupt, is only hasty to answer, asks and answers to the point, talks about first things first and about last things last, admits when he does not know, and acknowledges the truth." - Mishnah or The Mishnah NULL

"A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation." - Molière, pen name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin NULL

"A man must become wise at this own expense." - Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

"A strong imagination begetteth opportunity, say the wise men." - Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

"A wise man loses nothing, if he but save himself." - Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

"Anyone who has once been very foolish will never at any other time be very wise." - Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

"In truth, knowledge is a great and very useful quality; those who despise it give evidence enough of their stupidity. But yet I do not set its value at that extreme measure that some attribute to it, like Herillus the philosopher, who placed in it the sovereign good, and held that it was in its power to make us wise and content. That I do not believe, nor what others have said, that knowledge is the mother of all virtue, and all vice is produced by ignorance. If that is true, it is subject to a long interpretation." - Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

"Life is given for wisdom, and yet we are not wise; for goodness, and we are not good; for overcoming evil, and evil remains; for patience and sympathy and love, and yet we are fretful and hard and weak and selfish. We are keyed not to attainment, but to struggle toward it." - Theodore T. Munger

"The wise man does not expect consistency or harmony... for he sees that man is a mosaic of characteristics and qualities that only rarely achieve an internal and intrinsic harmony." - Abraham M Myerson

"In extremity, they are wise too late." - Gnaeus Naevius

"What is good” I asked in a musing mood. Order, said the law court; Knowledge said the school; Truth, said the wise man; Pleasure, said the fool; Love, said the maiden; Beauty, said the sage. Fame, said the soldier; Equity, said the seer. Spoke my heart sadly: “The answer is not here.” then within my bosom softly this I heard: “Each heart holds the secret: Kindness is the word.”" -

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet." - José Joaquín de Olmedo, fully José Joaquín de Olmedo y Maruri

"Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of a wise man." - William Penn

"Temperate anger well becomes the wise." - Philemon NULL

"Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life." - Plautus, full name Titus Maccius Plautus NULL

"What is it to be wise? 'Tis but to know how little can be known - to see all other's faults and feel our own." - Alexander Pope

"A wise man dreads an enemy, however insignificant." - Publius Syrus

"Many receive advice, only the wise profit by it." - Publius Syrus