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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"Only through society can we develop our moral capacities."Émile Durkheim
"We are social beings before we are individuals."Émile Durkheim
"Institutions outlive their creators; they become vehicles of collective intention."Émile Durkheim
"Society creates us even as we create society through our actions."Émile Durkheim
"Every moral rule originates in society, even those we experience as most personal."Émile Durkheim
"To be civilized is to recognize our dependence upon others and upon society."Émile Durkheim
"We are shaped by society even as we imagine ourselves to be free."Émile Durkheim
"Morality represents the crystallization of collective experience."Émile Durkheim
"Each person carries within themselves the weight of collective expectations."Émile Durkheim
"Society awakens our higher nature while it constrains our base instincts."Émile Durkheim
"The more we rationalize life, the more we lose touch with its deeper meanings."Max Weber
"We mistake efficiency for meaning, productivity for purpose."Max Weber
"Wisdom lies in knowing which traditions to preserve and which to abandon."Max Weber
"The strongest hold tradition has over us is in areas we fail to examine."Max Weber
"We should be careful to make such choice as we would not wish to change."Harriet Martineau
"We must learn to distinguish between what we want and what we need."Harriet Martineau
"The mind that is open to learning never grows old."Harriet Martineau
"Every experience, whether joyful or painful, contributes to our growth."Harriet Martineau
"The true measure of intelligence is the ability to see things from another's perspective."Harriet Martineau
"When we are completely absorbed in something, we enter a state of flow where action and awareness are one."Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Unless we have cultivated our sensitivity and our ability to enjoy life, we cannot be happy."Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Boredom and fear are the stumbling blocks upon which most people trip as they go through life."Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"The quality of life depends not on what happens to you, but the meaning you give to what happens."Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Culture is crucial because it provides stability and meaning to existence."Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Complexity without meaning is just noise. Complexity with meaning is information."Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Every man is to take care of himself, and in doing so he subserves the welfare of all."Herbert Spencer
"The wise man doesn't give the right answer, he possesses the right insights."Herbert Spencer
"Memory, like a drug, should be used with caution."Herbert Spencer
"Most people think too little before speaking and too much after."Herbert Spencer
"Silence is the ornament of the wise."Herbert Spencer