Wisdom Quotes

The best minds across centuries have wrestled with what it means to be wise. These quotes capture their hard-won insights.

64329 quotes

A
"Ser sábio é conhecer a si mesmo."
Almeida Garrett
A
"Every word we speak echoes into eternity."
Alexandre Herculano
A
"Wisdom whispers to those patient enough to listen."
Alexandre Herculano
A
"The future belongs not to the strongest, but to the most thoughtful."
Alexandre Herculano
A
"The heart's wisdom often contradicts the mind's logic, and therein lies truth."
Alexandre Herculano
C
"Every scar upon the heart teaches a lesson the mind could never learn."
Camilo Castelo Branco
C
"The mind that cannot admit error is a prison unto itself."
Camilo Castelo Branco
C
"Wisdom is knowing which battles to abandon."
Camilo Castelo Branco
L
"The greatest folly is to mistake the shadow for the substance."
Ludovico Ariosto
L
"The heart knows secrets that reason cannot fathom."
Ludovico Ariosto
L
"A wise person questions their own wisdom."
Ludovico Ariosto
P
"To be everywhere is to be nowhere."
Petrarch
P
"If little knowledge is dangerous, where is the one who has so much as to be out of danger?"
Petrarch
P
"Better a little certainty than a great deal of conjecture."
Petrarch
P
"A man of wisdom makes his own decisions; an ignorant man follows public opinion."
Petrarch
P
"The man who is always ready to believe what is told him will never do well."
Petrarch
P
"The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt."
Petrarch
P
"The greatest good is the agreement of the mind with itself."
Petrarch
P
"The highest form of knowledge is empathy."
Petrarch
P
"The greatest revelation is silence."
Petrarch
P
"Virtue is not given by age, nor is age a sign of virtue."
Petrarch
P
"The path to enlightenment is paved with questions, not answers."
Petrarch
R
"The human soul is a mirror that reflects the world as it truly is, not as we wish it to be."
Ramalho Ortigão
R
"Wisdom whispers while foolishness shouts; most choose to listen to the louder voice."
Ramalho Ortigão
R
"The loudest voices often have the least to say; listen instead to the quiet ones."
Ramalho Ortigão
R
"Knowledge without wisdom is a dangerous accumulation; wisdom without action is sterile."
Ramalho Ortigão
"The mind without discipline is like a ship without a rudder in stormy seas."
Torquato Tasso
N
"The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous."
Niccolò Machiavelli
N
"The wise man does not give the right answer, he poses the right question."
Niccolò Machiavelli
N
"The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves."
Niccolò Machiavelli