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

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"The thief believes everybody steals."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
F
"One can know a man from his laughter."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
F
"The doubtful mind is the mind truly seeking truth."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
F
"A colossal thought always looks simple in the end."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
F
"The degree of one's intelligence can always be measured by the degree of one's uncertainty."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
F
"Intelligence without heart makes one clever but not wise."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
F
"The heart has its own wisdom that the mind cannot fathom."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
F
"To understand is to forgive."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
L
"The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness."
Leo Tolstoy
L
"Mankind's main task is to become aware of the light that is within it."
Leo Tolstoy
L
"To find yourself, you must first lose your ego."
Leo Tolstoy
L
"Self-improvement begins with honest self-examination."
Leo Tolstoy
J
"He who makes no mistakes knows nothing. I have nothing to declare except my genius."
James Joyce
J
"Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home."
James Joyce
J
"Silence is the eloquence of the wise."
James Joyce
J
"Children understand truths that adults have forgotten."
James Joyce
J
"The heart knows what the mind cannot articulate."
James Joyce
J
"Wisdom is knowing what cannot be known."
James Joyce
"How did that happen? I don't know."
Samuel Beckett
"In this world there are no solutions."
Samuel Beckett
"Silence has always been the only way forward."
Samuel Beckett
"To say nothing is to say something."
Samuel Beckett
A
"To avoid being cheated, don't make assumptions about human nature."
Anton Chekhov
A
"A doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient."
Anton Chekhov
A
"When a man is in the company of a fool, even his words become foolish."
Anton Chekhov
A
"When one is young, one venerates and despises without that mixture of love and understanding that comes with age."
Anton Chekhov
A
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas and still function."
Anton Chekhov
A
"The saddest things are truths that come too late."
Anton Chekhov
G
"We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future."
George Bernard Shaw
G
"The only way to get a man to agree with you is to say something in a certain way that appeals to him."
George Bernard Shaw