Wisdom Quotes

"A few new thoughts to mankind has ever been granted by those that do not grow better and more intelligent."

"There is absolutely no ground for the assumption that wisdom and virtue are more available to the generality of mankind."

"The moment of passion is not the moment of true thought and clear judgment."

"Expenditure depends on events, and cannot be estimated with certainty."

"The man who is guided by principles and not by circumstances will not be caught unprepared."

"Whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible."

"Compromise is the essence of democratic government."

"We must distinguish between what is permanent and what is merely fashionable."

"Good intentions without good results are merely sentimentality."

"Experience is the best teacher of nations as well as men."

"In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the stream."

"The test of wisdom is to know when to fight and when to yield."

"A wise leader learns from the mistakes of others."

"Mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since looking at the matter more closely, it will always be found that the task itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution are already present."

"To know the forces that shape history is to become capable of shaping it."

"Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director, the regulator, and the standard of them all."

"The arrogance of age must submit to be instructed by youth."

"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact measure of their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites."

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."

"Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident security."

"A thing may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice."

"The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions."

"To know oneself is the beginning of all wisdom."

"To understand the world, one must first understand the contradictions within it."

"Knowledge without action is merely contemplation; action without knowledge is blind."

"To understand society, one must examine the relations of power within it."

"Prudence is a virtue, and imprudence a vice; but the imprudence of giving up pleasure seems not to be a vice at all."

"The human race is governed by two sovereign masters: pleasure and pain."

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."

"The greatest evil is that which causes the greatest suffering."