Top 120 Inspirational Wisdom Quotes And Sayings

Looking for the best wisdom quotes? We’ve compiled an amazing list of top 120 famous inspirational wisdom quotes and sayings.

120 Inspirational Quotes About Wisdom

1. “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” – Saint Augustine

2. “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson

3. “Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.” – Dale Turner

4. “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” – William James

5. “Cleverness is not wisdom.” – Euripides

6. “Wise men make more opportunities than they find.” – Francis Bacon

7. “The wise man hath his thoughts in his head; the fool, on his tongue.” – Ivan Panin

8. “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. “Even when you have doubts, take that step. Take chances. Mistakes are never a failure – they can be turned into wisdom.” – Cat Cora

10. “True wisdom listens more, talks less and can get along with all types of people.” – Kiana Tom

11. “Wisdom outweighs any wealth.” – Sophocles

12. “Wisdom begins at the end.” – Daniel Webster

13. “He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become at sixty as wise as he thought himself at twenty.” – Mary Wilson Little

14. “All human wisdom is summed up in two words; wait and hope.” – Alexandre Dumas

15. “The difference between a wise and foolish man is this–the former sees much, thinks much, and speaks little; but the latter speaks more than he either sees or thinks.” – William Scott Downey

16. “Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.” – Thomas J. Watson

17. “Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.” – Eckhart Tolle

18. “Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.” – Plato

19. “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

20. “Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.” – Elbert Hubbard

21. “Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.” – Theodore Roosevelt

22. “In life, all good things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by.” – Lucille Ball

23. “Discipline is wisdom and vice versa.” – M. Scott Peck

24. “When you’re used to being prepared to reject conventional wisdom, it leaves you open to learn more.” – Mayim Bialik

25. “The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

26. “Wisdom is nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life.” – Herman Hesse

27. “It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” – Henry David Thoreau

28. “Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.” – William Wordsworth

29. “In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.” – Ansel Adams

30. “Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.” – Francis Bacon

31. “There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius

32. “Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one’s being.” – Orison Swett Marden

33. “Wisdom comes alone through suffering.” – Aeschylus

34. “Man’s wisdom is his best friend; folly his worst enemy.” – William Temple

35. “Wisdom is knowing when you can’t be wise.” – Paul Engle

36. “The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

37. “Much wisdom often goes with fewest words.” – Sophocles

38. “Genius unrefined resembles a flash of lightning, but wisdom is like the sun.” – Franz Grillparzer

39. “Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.” – Sophocles

40. “There’s a beauty to wisdom and experience that cannot be faked. It’s impossible to be mature without having lived.” – Amy Grant

41. “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” – Immanuel Kant

42. “We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.” – Robert E. Lee

43. “Wisdom is a kind of knowledge. It is knowledge of the nature, career, and consequences of human values.” – Sidney Hook

44. “Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

45. “Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.” – Euripides

46. “Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. A constant coming and going: wisdom lies in the momentary.” – Octavio Paz

47. “It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.” – Epictetus

48. “Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.” – Charles Stanley

49. “Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.” – Walter Benjamin

50. “Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.” – Zhuangzi

51. “I actually think with age comes some level of wisdom.” – Nina Totenberg

52. “With age comes common sense and wisdom.” – Nas

53. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey

54. “Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

55. “The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching.” – Joseph Smith, Jr.

56. “Wisdom begins in wonder.” – Socrates

57. “Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.” – Aesop

58. “Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.” – Samuel Smiles

59. “If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.” – William Butler Yeats

60. “To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.” – Plutarch

61. “Losing faith in your own singularity is the start of wisdom, I suppose; also the first announcement of death.” – Peter Conrad

62. “A loving heart is the truest wisdom.” – Charles Dickens

63. “There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.” – Francis Bacon

64. “What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

65. “Remembering is painful, it’s difficult, but it can be inspiring and it can give wisdom.” – Paul Greengrass

66. “Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.” – Sophocles

67. “Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.” – Norman Cousins

68. “A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.” – Moliere

69. “To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.” – Wilson Mizner

70. “I think it’s nice to age gracefully. OK, you lose the youth, a certain stamina and dewy glow, but what you gain on the inside as a human being is wonderful: the wisdom, the acceptance and the peace of mind. It’s a fair exchange.” – Cherie Lunghi

71. “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” – Socrates

72. “The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

73. “Sometimes I am happy and sometimes not. I am, after all, a human being, you know. And I am glad that we are sometimes happy and sometimes not. You get your wisdom working by having different emotions.” – Yoko Ono

74. “The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.” – Benjamin Franklin

75. “There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.” – Charles Dickens

76. “Wisdom sails with wind and time.” – John Florio

77. “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.” – Brian O’Driscoll

78. “Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.” – Khalil Gibran

79. “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” – Jimi Hendrix

80. “Be happy. It’s one way of being wise.” – Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

81. “Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.” – Plautus

82. “Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.” – Oprah Winfrey

83. “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” – George Bernard Shaw

84. “To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” – Marilyn vos Savant

85. “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.” – Lao Tzu

86. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates

87. “Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization.” – Bo Bennett

88. “The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.” – Reinhold Niebuhr

89. “He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.” – Aeschylus

90. “Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” – Buddha

91. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” – William Blake

92. “Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.” – Epicurus

93. “Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance.” – Saadi

94. “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.” – Confucius

95. “Hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy.” – Liu Xiaobo

96. “Cunning… is but the low mimic of wisdom.” – Plato

97. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr

98. “Silence is true wisdom’s best reply.” – Euripides

99. “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

100. “The gateways to wisdom and learning are always open, and more and more I am choosing to walk through them. Barriers, blocks, obstacles, and problems are personal teachers giving me the opportunity to move out of the past and into the Totality of Possibilities.” – Louise L. Hay

101. “From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own.” – Publilius Syrus

102. “Who is wise in love, love most, say least.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

103. “This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

104. “To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.” – Samuel Johnson

105. “We respect our elders. There is wisdom that comes from experience, and I am not going to stop learning from wise counsel.” – Marcia Fudge

106. “Lord, bless me with the ability to achieve all that I can, and the wisdom to realize it doesn’t all have to be by tomorrow!” – William Eardley IV

107. “Memory is the mother of all wisdom.” – Aeschylus

108. “No man was ever wise by chance.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

109. “The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

110. “Wisdom is found only in truth.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

111. “You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can’t practice to attain wisdom.” – Herbie Hancock

112. “The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.” – Isaac D’Israeli

113. “If I don’t have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.” – Leo Buscaglia

114. “Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

115. “Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

116. “We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.” – Samuel Smiles

117. “Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.” – William J. Clinton

118. “I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.” – Thomas Jefferson

119. “Sciences may be learned by rote, but wisdom not.” – Laurence Sterne

120. “We all admire the wisdom of people who come to us for advice.” – Arthur Helps