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

T
"In moments of true clarity, I understood my own complexity."
The Invisible Man (Narrator)
T
"I had confused visibility with value, presence with worth."
The Invisible Man (Narrator)
T
"Perhaps visibility is not the answer but understanding one's invisibility is."
The Invisible Man (Narrator)
T
"It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the right way to do"
Tom Sawyer
S
"I can't even say I made my own mistakes."
Stevens
S
"One must have some conviction about the course one's life should take."
Stevens
S
"The question of what one might have done differently is not particularly helpful."
Stevens
S
"One must not permit oneself to be governed by regret."
Stevens
N
"The more I wonder, the more I love."
Nettie
O
"I felt as if I was being tested. I'm still not sure for what."
Offred
J
"You can't help your thoughts, only your actions."
Janine
M
"It's not the husbands you have to worry about."
Moira
H
"I don't take no stock in dead people."
Huckleberry Finn
H
"I judged she had lived a long time in the world."
Huckleberry Finn
S
"I have always been drawn to those who know their place."
Stevens
S
"I have perhaps been over-cautious in my restraint."
Stevens
S
"Perhaps that is what makes the situation so impossible."
Stevens
S
"One must respect the decisions of one's employer."
Stevens
J
"Only that man can speak who has counseled with God."
Judge Holden
J
"That man who has not sat in darkness has not seen light."
Judge Holden
J
"The world is older than it is young."
Judge Holden
M
"Life has a way of working these things out."
Mariam
O
"We lived, as usual, by ignoring."
Offred
O
"I don't know how we should be."
Offred
C
"The more I wonder, the more I love."
Celie
S
"I'm a sinner and I know it. But I ain't no fool."
Shug Avery
C
"I got smart for once in my life."
Celie
T
"The mind that has no interest in anything permanent is the mind of a creature without purpose."
The Invisible Man (Narrator)
B
"Our task is not to struggle against all realities, but to see, to accept and to understand them."
Brother Jack
T
"You navigate by landmarks and signs which people misread."
The Invisible Man (Narrator)