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

"To admit ignorance is the beginning of wisdom."
Thomas More
M
"Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security."
Michel de Montaigne
M
"The greatest and most important problems of life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown."
Michel de Montaigne
M
"Obstinacy and heat in argument is a sure sign of stupidity."
Michel de Montaigne
M
"A wise man never loses anything if he has himself."
Michel de Montaigne
M
"The most fruitful and natural exercise of the mind is conversation."
Michel de Montaigne
M
"The art of knowing is the art of seeing."
Michel de Montaigne
M
"A man who does not see clearly through others is easily deceived by them."
Michel de Montaigne
M
"The senses reveal to us what we need to survive; the mind reveals what we need to live."
Michel de Montaigne
G
"A wise man is he who learns from all, judges none harshly."
Giordano Bruno
R
"To understand perspective is to understand one's place in the universe."
Raphael Sanzio
R
"Perfection is not the absence of flaws, but the harmony of parts."
Raphael Sanzio
R
"The greatest artists are those who remain students until their last breath."
Raphael Sanzio
R
"The artist must see with the eyes of innocence and the mind of experience."
Raphael Sanzio
R
"In art, as in life, restraint often speaks louder than excess."
Raphael Sanzio
R
"To pursue beauty is to pursue truth by another path."
Raphael Sanzio
D
"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of."
Desiderius Erasmus
D
"Fools are everywhere, but a wise man is nowhere to be found."
Desiderius Erasmus
D
"I have always been fond of the quest for truth, wherever it may lead."
Desiderius Erasmus
D
"Young men think old men are fools, but old men know young men are fools."
Desiderius Erasmus
D
"A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens."
Desiderius Erasmus
D
"We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by drowning in our thoughts."
Desiderius Erasmus
D
"The finest minds are capable of the greatest follies."
Desiderius Erasmus
D
"The best armor is discretion."
Desiderius Erasmus
N
"To know oneself is to know the center around which all things revolve."
Niccolò Copernicus
N
"The path to wisdom is paved with abandoned certainties."
Niccolò Copernicus
N
"Wisdom whispers where knowledge shouts."
Niccolò Copernicus
J
"Type and paper are the tools; knowledge is the treasure."
Johannes Gutenberg
J
"My invention will outlive my name, and that is precisely as it should be."
Johannes Gutenberg
J
"The press multiplies not wealth, but understanding."
Johannes Gutenberg