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

S
"A meaningful life is built on small, consistent choices rather than grand gestures."
Seán Ó Faoláin
"Feeling unique, special, or chosen is a gift given to those who don't understand statistics."
Douglas Coupland
"When you stop looking for what you want, you usually find what you need."
Douglas Coupland
B
"There's no such thing as an ordinary human being."
Brendan Behan
B
"I define an interesting man as one who is interested in things."
Brendan Behan
B
"You are not a fool just because you have made a foolish mistake."
Brendan Behan
B
"Other men look at you. I look at your character."
Brendan Behan
B
"Some people are born on third base and think they hit a triple."
Brendan Behan
B
"The secret to living well is not in the having but in the becoming."
Brendan Behan
M
"Telling the truth is like walking on a razor blade."
Margaret Atwood
M
"When you can't escape, you negotiate."
Margaret Atwood
M
"In every life, there is darkness and light."
Margaret Atwood
M
"Wisdom comes with age and experience."
Margaret Atwood
"One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often."
Robertson Davies
"Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough."
Robertson Davies
"The most desperate thing you can do is to stop thinking."
Robertson Davies
S
"To understand a people, you must listen to their silences."
Seán Ó Faoláin
S
"Wisdom whispers; foolishness shouts."
Seán Ó Faoláin
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Frank O'Connor
"We are not born wise; we become wise through experience."
Frank O'Connor
"The heart knows truths the mind cannot comprehend."
Frank O'Connor
J
"We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by drowning in our thoughts."
Joyce Carol Oates
J
"The space between who I wish to be and who I am is where my life takes place."
Joyce Carol Oates
S
"The world's a comédy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel."
Sean O'Casey
S
"The human heart is the most mysterious country, harder to map than any continent."
Sean O'Casey
"Forget about being cool. Cool is a passing thing."
Douglas Coupland
"Wisdom is knowing what you don't know."
Douglas Coupland
M
"Women are not magical, nor are they stupid. They are human beings."
Margaret Atwood
M
"When they slept I could see they were human."
Margaret Atwood
M
"Wisdom comes from accepting what you cannot change."
Margaret Atwood