Wisdom quotes
The largest part of the library: maxims, aphorisms and reflections from Marcus Aurelius to Benjamin Franklin, the kind of line people copy into notebooks.
The library has 8,610 quotes on this topic. Here are 60 of the most quoted, no more than four from any one writer.
60 wisdom quotes
-
We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
William Shakespeare The Tempest, Act IV Scene 1 -
Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.
Confucius Analects, II.15 · translated by James Legge -
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
Confucius Analects, XIV.29 · translated by James Legge -
Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book VII.59 · translated by George Long -
The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book VI.6 · translated by George Long -
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unused.
William Shakespeare Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 4 -
This above all: to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
William Shakespeare Hamlet, Act I Scene 3 -
Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard’s Almanack -
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina · translated by Constance Garnett -
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
Jane Austen Emma -
Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven, And though no science, fairly worth the seven.
Alexander Pope Moral Essays. Epistle iv, Line 43 -
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Alexander Pope Essay on Criticism, Part iii. Line 66 -
For my means, I’ll husband them so well, They shall go far with little.
William Shakespeare Hamlet, Act iv., Sc. 5 -
Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait.
Leo Tolstoy War and Peace, 1869 ; said by Kutuzov · translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude -
’Tis with our judgments as our watches,—none Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
Alexander Pope Essay on Criticism, Part i. Line 9 -
He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty.
Laozi Tao Te Ching, ch. 33 · translated by James Legge -
Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.
Epictetus Enchiridion, V · translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson -
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau Walden -
We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.
François de La Rochefoucauld Maxims, Maxim 25 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Three removes are as bad as a fire.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard’s Almanack -
The universe is transformation: life is opinion.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book IV.3 · translated by George Long -
Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.
Robert Louis Stevenson El Dorado, Virginibus Puerisque -
Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it, If folly grow romantic, I must paint it.
Alexander Pope Moral Essays. Epistle ii, Line 15 -
The intellectual power, through words and things, Went sounding on a dim and perilous way!
William Wordsworth The Excursion, Book iii -
How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo’s lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets Where no crude surfeit reigns.
John Milton Comus, Line 476 -
A little neglect may breed great mischief; for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard’s Almanack -
All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream.
Edgar Allan Poe A Dream Within a Dream -
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography -
When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy? What art can wash her guilt away?
Oliver Goldsmith The Hermit. On Woman, Chap. xxiv -
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book V.16 · translated by George Long -
Opportunity makes us known to others, but more to ourselves.
François de La Rochefoucauld Maxims, Maxim 345 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
However brilliant an action it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive.
François de La Rochefoucauld Maxims, Maxim 160 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
François de La Rochefoucauld Maxims, Maxim 496 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
He knew what’s what, and that’s as high As metaphysic wit can fly.
Samuel Butler Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 149 -
On every thorn delightful wisdom grows; In every rill a sweet instruction flows.
Edward Young Love of Fame: Satire I. DR -
To know that which before us lies in daily life Is the prime wisdom.
John Milton Paradise Lost, Bk. VIII -
There are more fools than wise men, and even in the wise man himself there is more folly than wisdom.
Nicolas Chamfort Maxims and Thoughts, No. 4 · translated by William G. Hutchison -
Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar.
William Wordsworth The Excursion, Book iii -
When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.
Walter Scott -
When Bishop Berkeley said “there was no matter,” And proved it,—’t was no matter what he said.
Lord Byron Don Juan, Canto xi. Stanza 1 -
Wisdom married to immortal verse.
William Wordsworth The Excursion, Book vii -
Wise people, after they have listened to the laws, become serene, like a deep, smooth, and still lake.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 82 · translated by F. Max Müller -
Pleasures destroy the foolish, if they look not for the other shore; the foolish by his thirst for pleasures destroys himself, as if he were his own enemy.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 355 · translated by F. Max Müller -
Those whose courses are different cannot lay plans for one another.
Confucius Analects, XV.39 · translated by James Legge -
It is virtuous manners which constitute the excellence of a neighborhood. If a man in selecting a residence, do not fix on one where such prevail, how can he be wise?
Confucius Analects, IV.1 · translated by James Legge -
He who drinks in the law lives happily with a serene mind: the sage rejoices always in the law, as preached by the elect.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 79 · translated by F. Max Müller -
Let a fool month after month eat his food with the tip of a blade of Kusa grass, yet he is not worth the sixteenth particle of those who have well weighed the law.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 70 · translated by F. Max Müller -
Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.
Lord Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, Line 6 -
It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is fatal.
Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous Aphorisms -
Of all thieves, fools are the worst; they rob you of time and temper.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
Others have been made fools of by the girls, but this can never be said of me; I made a fool of myself.
Abraham Lincoln June 19 -
The world has been made by fools that wise men may live in it.
Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous Aphorisms -
Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong, but no one is able to carry it out in practice.
Laozi Tao Te Ching, ch. 78.2 · translated by James Legge -
In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to those who take offence, “Of what do you complain?”
Blaise Pascal Pensées, No. 188 · translated by W. F. Trotter -
Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least.
Blaise Pascal Pensées, No. 233 · translated by W. F. Trotter -
The three lusts have made three sects; and the philosophers have done no other thing than follow one of the three lusts.
Blaise Pascal Pensées, No. 461 · translated by W. F. Trotter -
Hence the sage is able in the same way to accomplish his great achievements. It is through his not making himself great that he can accomplish them.
Laozi Tao Te Ching, ch. 34.3 · translated by James Legge -
The sure way of losing a just cause has been to get it recommended to these men by their near relatives.
Blaise Pascal Pensées, No. 82 · translated by W. F. Trotter -
The perception of what is small is the secret of clear-sightedness; the guarding of what is soft and tender is the secret of strength.
Laozi Tao Te Ching, ch. 52.4 · translated by James Legge -
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.
George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists
Who wrote most about wisdom
- François de La Rochefoucauld 222
- Blaise Pascal 188
- Epictetus 132
- Marcus Aurelius 99
- Confucius 57
- Laozi 39
- William Shakespeare 32
- Benjamin Franklin 30
- The Buddha 21
- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield 21
- Alexander Pope 11
- John Milton 10