WISE QUOTES, WISE SAYINGS, WISE WISDOM

Bacon Francis 1561-1626
Essays ‘Of Marriage and the Single Life'
He was reputed one of the wise men that made answer to the question
when a man should marry? ‘A young man not yet, an elder man not at all.'

The Bible (Authorized Version)
Old Testament: Job ch.32 v.9
Great men are not always wise.

The Bible (Authorized Version)
Old Testament: Proverbs ch.10 v.1
A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish
son is the heaviness of his mother.

Blake William 1757-1827
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

Blake William 1757-1827
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.

Brecht Bertholt 1898-1956
Poverty makes you sad as well as wise.

Browning Robert 1812-1889
Oppression makes the wise man mad.

Burke Edmund 1729-1797
On American Taxation
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.
Carlyle Thomas 1795-1881
God Almighty never created a man half as wise as he looks.

Douglas Norman 1868-1952
It takes a wise man to handle a lie. A fool had better remain honest.

Dryden John 1631-1700
Epistle ‘To my honoured kinsman John Driden'
The wise, for cure, on exercise depend;
God never made his work, for man to mend.

Euripides c.485-406 BC
I hate the philosopher who is not wise for himself.

FITZHENRY R. I.
Timing, degree and conviction are the three wise men in this life.

Francis of Sales, Saint 1567-1622
Nothing is more like a wise man than a fool who holds his tongue.

Franklin Benjamin 1706-1790
Who is wise? He that learns from everyone.
Who is powerful? He that governs his passions.
Who is rich? He that is content.
Who is that? Nobody.

Gracian Baltasar 1601-1658
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Gracian Baltasar 1601-1658
Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good.

Gracian Baltasar 1601-1658
The wise have a solid sense of silence and the ability to keep a storehouse of secrets. Their capacity and character are respected.

Hobbes Thomas 1588-1679
Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon
by them; but they are the money of fools.
Housman A.E. 1859-1936
A Shropshire Lad
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies,
But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

James William 1842-1910
The Principles of Psychology
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Johnson Samuel 1709-1784
Boswell - Life (on the death of Mr Levett)
Offcious, innocent, sincere,
Of every friendless name the friend.
Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.

Johnson Samuel 1709-1784
Boswell - Life (of Oliver Goldsmith)
No man was more foolish when he had not a pen
in his hand, or more wise when he had.

Jonson Ben c.1573-1637
Volpone
Almost
All the wise world is little else in nature
But parasites or sub-parasites.

La Rouchefoucauld François Duc de 1613- 1680
He who lives without folly is not as wise as he thinks.

Locke John 1632-1704
Some Thoughts Concerning Education
You would think him a very foolish fellow, that should not value a virtuous, or a wise man, infinitely before a great scholar.

Melbourne William Lamb 2nd Lord 1779-
(of the Catholic Emancipation Act)
What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the d-d fools said would happen has come to pass.

Milton john 1608-1674
Paradise Lost
Heaven is for thee too high
To know what passes there; be lowly wise:
Think only what concerns thee and thy being.

Milton John 1608-1674
Sonnet 12"I did but prompt the age"
Licence they mean when they cry liberty;
For who loves that, must first be wise and good.

Montaigne Michel de 1533-1592
A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.

Osler Sir William 1849-1919
Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.

Pepys Samuel 1633-1703
Diary
While we were talking came by several poor creatures carried by,
by constables, for being at a conventicle ... I would to God they
would either conform, or be more wise, and not be catched!

Prior Matthew 1664-1721
‘To the Hon. Charles Montague'
From ignorance our comfort flows,
The only wretched are the wise.

Proverbs and Sayings
Jewish
With money in your pocket, you are wise, and you are handsome, and you sing well too.

Proverbs and Sayings
Jewish
A wise man hears one word and understands two.

Punch 1841-1992
There was an old owl lived in an oak
The more he heard, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard
O, if men were all life that wise bird!

Quinault Philippe 1635-1688
It is not wise to be wiser than is necessary.

Roosevelt Theodore 1858-1919
Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Richard III
So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Troilus and Cressida
Modest doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wise.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Troilus and Cressida
To be wise, and love,
Exceeds man's might.

Shaw George Bernard 1856-1950
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience,
but to their capacity for experience.

Spenser Edmund c.1552-1599
The Shepherd's Calendar „March. Willy's Emblem"
To be wise and eke to love,
Is granted scarce to God above.

Stevenson Adlai 1900-1965
It is said that a wise man who stands firm is a statesman,
and a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe.

Stevenson Robert Louis 1850-1894
Across the Plains ‘A Christmas Sermon'
A mortified appetite is never a wise companion.

Swift Jonathan 1667-1745
No wise man ever wished to be younger.

Tawney R.H. 1880-1962
Clever men are impressed in their differences from their fellows. Wise
men are conscious of their resemblance to them.

Yeats William Butler 1865-1939
Letters on Poetry ... to Dorothy Wellesley
Think like a wise man but express yourself like the common people.

Young Edward 1683-1765
The Love of Fame
Be wise with speed;
A fool at forty is a fool indeed.

Young Edward 1683-1765
Night Thoughts ‘Night 1'
Be wise to-day; ‘tis madness to defer.

Wise quotes, wise sayings, wise quotations