Top 100 Not So Wise Quotes
#1. He who lives without committing any folly is not so wise as he thinks.
[Fr., Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.]
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#2. Man lives such a dull and drab life that he wants some sensation. Those who are a little wiser, they read scientific fiction or detective stories. Those who are not so wise, they read spiritual fiction.
Osho
#3. Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second. For there is a youth in thoughts, as well as in ages. And yet the invention of young men, is more lively than that of old; and imaginations stream into their minds better, and, as it were, more divinely.
Francis Bacon
#4. There has never been any country at every moment so virtuous and so wise that it has not sometimes needed to be saved from itself.
Havelock Ellis
#5. God, help me. Help me to be wise and full of courage and sound judgment. Harden my heart to the sights that I must see so soon again, grant me only the power to think clearly, boldly, resolutely, no matter how unnerving the peril. Let me not fail them.
Anton Myrer
#6. I am blind and limited. I would be a fool think myself wise. And so, not knowing what the universe means, I can only try to be responsible with the knowledge, the strength, and the time given to me. I must be true to my heart.
Jim Butcher
#7. An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kunti, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.
Anonymous
#8. If a man says that it is right to give every one his due, and therefore thinks within his own mind that injury is due from a just man to his enemies but kindness to his friends, he was not wise who said so, for he spoke not the truth, for in no case has it appeared to be just to injure any one.
Plato
#9. The wise are not so much wiser than others as respecters of their own wisdom.
Henry David Thoreau
#10. I am just another blind man. I do not get the whole picture of what transpires in all places. I am blind and limited. I would be a fool to think myself wise. And so, not knowing what the universe means, I can only try to be responsible with the knowledge, the strength, and the time given to me.
Jim Butcher
#11. To be engaged to marry some one with whom you are not in love is an inevitable step in a world where the existence of passion is only a traveler's story brought from the heart of deep forests and told so rarely that wise people doubt whether the story can be true.
Virginia Woolf
#12. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
#13. People do not naturally become morally excellent or practically wise. They become so, if at all, only as the result of lifelong personal and community effort.
Aristotle.
#14. What makes you wise is not what you learn, but what you practice. What makes you wealthy is not what you earn, but what you invest. So, invest in what to practice, and practice what to invest.
Michael Peshkam
#15. We are not wise in ourselves.7 So we must support one another,8 be tolerant of each other,9 help, teach and advise one another. It is in times of trouble that we really discover the true value of our helpers. They do not weaken us, but reveal their true nature.
Thomas A Kempis
#16. But he could not help wondering, as he did, that if he was so damn wise, why was his life in such a mess?
Margaret Weis
#17. I was so shy. I used to cross the street so I wouldn't even have to talk to my relatives, much less strangers. That's not shy, that's wise. But I found that that when you had a journalist's notebook in your hand it wasn't really you, you see.
Geraldine Brooks
#18. No one survives in times of war unless they make war their home. How did I get so old and wise, but for welcoming war into my house and making friends with him? Better to befriend the enemy and hang on. Something worse might come along, which might be amusing or might not.
Gregory Maguire
#19. Out of all those centuries the Greeks can count seven sages at the most, and if anyone looks at them more closely I swear he'll not find so much as a half-wise man or even a third of a wise man among them.
Desiderius Erasmus
#20. There would not be so much harm in the giddy following the fashions, if somehow the wise could always set them.
Christian Nestell Bovee
#21. Holy Scripture is so exalted that there is no one in the world ... wise enough to understand it so fully that his intellect is not overcome by it. Nevertheless, man can stammer something about it.
Angela Of Foligno
#22. I had rather seem mad and a sluggard, so that my defects are agreeable to myself, or that I am not pinfully conscious of them, than be wise, and chaptious.
Horace
#23. God in his infinite wisdom
Did not make me very wise-
So when my actions are stupid
They hardly take God by surprise.
Langston Hughes
#24. Boys need healthy self-esteem. They need love. And a wise and loving feminist politics can provide the only foundation to save the lives of male children. Patriarchy will not heal them. If that were so they would all be well.
Bell Hooks
#25. As a good gardener prepares the soil, so a wise leader creates an environment that promotes community ... community involves a common place, a common time, and a common purpose. Just getting people in the same place at the same time does not produce a team. Community requires a common vision.
Diane Dreher
#26. A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.
Mark Twain
#27. Eating-wise, I'm fairly disciplined. I have to be, because if you're not eating correctly, you're not giving your body the fuel it needs. So, I stay away from carbs after the morning, and I eat a lot of protein - fish, chicken, and no red meat.
Kate Levering
#28. We must not return to the practice of hiding our defects so they may not be seen. That would be neither honest nor revolutionary.
Che Guevara
#29. No, I'm not smart," he whispered against her ear, "but I was wise enough to fall in love with you and clever enough to convince you to marry me. I hope I'm not so stupid that I would ever let you go.
Sara Lindsey
#30. I am not a 'wise man,' nor . . . shall I ever be. And so require not from me that I should be equal to the best, but that I should be better than the wicked. It is enough for me if every day I reduce the number of my vices, and blame my mistakes.
Seneca.
#31. The water cleansed his soul of the clutter and junk he had acquired through advice from those who were loud, but wrong. Many who had claimed to be wise had filled him, like so many others, with fear, hate, and judgement - all emotions that could not be carried be carried into Eternity.
Scott Thompson
#32. And it has always been the opinion and judgment of wise men that nothing can be so uncertain or unstable as fame or power not founded on its own strength.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#33. I am not a day dreamer, I am a believer, that after every painful love I have gone through, it is just an experience to crack open the deepest parts of my core and allow to me to delve into a passion so rare, that I will find a love that was almost, never meant to be.
Nikki Rowe
#34. It is better to be wise, and not to seem so, than to seem wise, and not be so; yet men, for the most part, desire the contrary.
Plato
#35. Leaves are light, and useless, and idle, and wavering, and changeable; they even dance; and yet God in his wisdom has made them a part of oaks. And in so doing he has given us a lesson, not to deny the stout-heartedness within because we see the lightsomeness without.
Augustus William Hare
#36. The United States must not adopt the tactics of the enemy. Means are important, as ends. Crisis makes it tempting to ignore the wise restraints that make men free. But each time we do so, each time the means we use are wrong, our inner strength, the strength which makes us free, is lessened.
Frank Church
#37. Ah! how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathers it up like water, but like water it runs between his fingers, and yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools call out, 'See, he is a wise man!' Is it not so?
H. Rider Haggard
#38. The one who wanders independent in the world, free from opinions and viewpoints, does not grasp them and enter into disputations and arguments. As the lotus rises on its stalk unsoiled by the mud and the water, so the wise one speaks of peace and is unstained by the opinions of the world.
Gautama Buddha
#39. I wondered at him, so wise and so foolish, to have lived with me all these months and not know that the worst storms break inside a man.
Maria McCann
#40. Total commitment is about being wise and smart, not necessarily being noble or virtuous. It's not so much about self-denial but about logic and common sense. It's not so much about what you lose; it's about what you gain.
Chip Ingram
#41. Fools are more healthy then the so-called wise. Thy live in the moment and they know that thy are fools, so thy are not worried about what others think about them.
Rajneesh
#42. God made humans for a purpose: not simply for themselves, not simply so that they could be in relationship with him, but so that through them, as his image-bearers, he could bring his wise, glad, fruitful order to the world.
N. T. Wright
#43. It is a common observation that any fool can get money; but they are not wise that think so.
Charles Caleb Colton
#44. By looking at a person's features, clothing, and speech, even Confucius would not be able to say what sort of a person he is. But by testing him in a position and seeing what he he does, even someone with so-so judgment would be able to know if he is wise or not.
Han Fei
#45. What you are comes from the blood of those who set you on this journey. That is likewise unchangeable. What you see in the reflecting pool of truth is who you are. You cannot change that, so it is wise not to curse it. The wiser choice is to embrace it and make it your strength.
Joseph M. Marshall III
#46. O, if I say, you look upon this verse,
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay;
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
William Shakespeare
#47. If each man, on hearing a wise maxim, immediately looked to see how it properly applied to him, he would find that it was not so much a pithy saying as a whiplash applied to the habitual stupidity of his faculty of judgement.
Michel De Montaigne
#48. Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves in vision as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action. Between these two the wise ones chose aright; the foolish not so.
Zoroaster
#49. In all I wish, how happy should I be,
Thou grand Deluder, were it not for thee?
So weak thou art that fools thy power despise;
And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise.
Jonathan Swift
#50. The wise stand out because they see themselves as part of the Whole. They shine because they don't want to impress. They achieve great things because they don't look for recognition. Their wisdom is contained in what they are, not their opinions. They refuse to argue, so no-one argues with them.
Laozi
#51. Growth is there for everybody, but it is not everybody who 'grows'! So many people grow to stop growing, but aging never stops for mankind until we come to the ebb of our days! Grow in something as you grow and leave something unique!
Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
#52. 1 Corinthians 3:18-19
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become 'fools' so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight.
Anonymous
#53. For 10 years, I'd been working as a freelance writer and editor, making money but not a living. It was a good arrangement family-wise, allowing me to stay home with our daughter, but not so great financially or, sometimes, ego-wise.
Will Allison
#54. And I wasn't old enough to be wise, so I loved her more, not less, because I knew she would be taken from me soon.
Naomi Novik
#55. It was so easy to be wise in the explanation of an experience one has not personally witnessed.
("The Wendigo")
Algernon Blackwood
#56. It is fatal to suppose the great writer was too wise or too profound for us ever to understand him; to think of art so is not to praise but to murder it, for the next step after that tribute will be neglect of the masterpiece.
John Erskine
#57. Christmas is the time for celebration, so I'm not against decorating, putting on lights, buying gifts. In fact, the whole reason we give gifts is the wise men gave gifts to Jesus at the first Christmas, and that started the gift-giving process.
Rick Warren
#58. People should learn to see and so avoid all danger. Just as a wise man keeps away from mad dogs, so one should not make friends with evil men." - Buddha
Gavin De Becker
#59. A wise man once said that any human being is capable of infinite achievement, so long as it's not the work they're supposed to be doing.
K.J. Parker
#61. You see, Marcus, some things have value yet have no price, and a wise man learns them and their worth. So do not let the standard of the marketplace be your guide. A man goes there for flour and greens, but not for virtue.
Paul Waters
#62. And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you. Wise as you have become, with so much experience, you must already have understood what these Ithacas mean.
Constantine P. Cavafy
#63. As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color & fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world.
Gautama Buddha
#64. Logic is a large drawer, containing some useful instruments, and many more that are superfluous. A wise man will look into it for two purposes, to avail himself of those instruments that are really useful, and to admire the ingenuity with which those that are not so, are assorted and arranged.
Charles Caleb Colton
#65. A wise man can and should stand above his times, not so the poet, but he should be their apex.
Franz Grillparzer
#66. Women are not so well united as to form an Insurrection. They are for the most part wise enough to love their Chains, and to discern how becomingly they fit.
Mary Astell
#67. Not asserted, therefore known, Not boasted of, therefore of worth, Not contentious, so enduring. It's because the wise do not contend, That no one can contend with them.
Lao-Tzu
#68. It is not enough to protect the source of the light; the paths of the light must be protected as well so that either we may reach the light or the light may reach us!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#69. Religious unity does not come so easily. It is not a piece of pie, which you can buy in the shop. It takes sincere efforts from every single human being on this planet.
Abhijit Naskar
#70. Not so wide that a woman would feel as if she might fall in, and not so small it looked as if he'd just sucked a lemon like Ronald Trump's, or whatever his name was. All in all, Richard's lips looked just right.
Linda Howard
#71. A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.
Gautama Buddha
#72. We did not ask if he had seen any monsters, for monsters have ceased to be news. There is never any shortage of horrible creatures who prey on human beings, snatch away their food, or devour whole populations; but examples of wise social planning are not so easy to find.
Thomas More
#73. It is not enough that your designs, nay that your actions, are intrinsically good, you must take care they shall appear so.
Henry Fielding
#74. I spend a lot of time in L.A., and I think it would probably be easier if I lived there work wise, but there's no city like London, there is so much going on. I can jump on the Tube and be anywhere in 20 minutes, and all my friends and family are here and I'm not prepared to give that up.
Jeremy Irvine
#75. As in our lives so also in our studies, it is most becoming and most wise, so to temper gravity with cheerfulness, that the former may not imbue our minds with melancholy, nor the latter degenerate into licentiousness.
Pliny The Elder
#76. A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle ...
Vladimir Nabokov
#77. There's a lot of people I've encouraged and helped to get into the House of Commons. Looking at them now, I'm not so sure it was a wise thing to do.
Edward Heath
#78. On the whole it's not wise to remind the devil that he's the devil, especially when we were getting on so well.
Philip Kerr
#79. One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.
Joseph Addison
#80. A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.
Thomas A Kempis
#81. If thy words are wise, they will not seem so to the foolish: if they are deep the shallow will not appreciate them. Think not highly of thyself, then, when thou art praised by many.
John Lancaster Spalding
#82. So imagination crowns the experience of my hands. And they learned their cunning from the wise hand of another, which, itself guided by imagination, led me safely in paths that I knew not, made darkness light before me, and made crooked ways straight.
Helen Keller
#83. The primary joy of life is acceptance, approval, the sense of appreciation and companionship of our human comrades. Many men do not understand that the need for fellowship is really as deep as the need for food, and so they go through life accepting many substitutes for genuine, warm, simple.
Joshua L. Liebman
#84. He bids fair to grow wise who has discovered that he is not so.
Publilius Syrus
#85. A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it.
W.K. Marriott
#86. I used to write on a big old couch, but I gave that away. I was wise enough to give it to my son, so if it turns out that the couch was essential to my work, at least the decision to be rid of it is not irreversible.
Marilynne Robinson
#87. I am not wise enough to know if there is ever purpose in tragedy, if there is ever virtue in resisting it. If it cannot be overcome, then grief has beaten you, and you are right to say so.
Dan Groat
#88. Kundalini Yoga is the yoga of power. Without wisdom, a powerful person does not become more powerful. Their power will turn back on them and eventually destroy them. So those who are truly wise become most powerful.
Frederick Lenz
#89. Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hinderances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.
Henry David Thoreau
#90. Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.
Maya Angelou
#91. Just as the dweller in this body passes through childhood, youth and old age, so at death he merely passes into another kind of body. The wise are not deceived by that.
Anonymous
#92. I had all kinds of allergy problems with certain meats, and with fruits and vegetables with pesticides. So I turned to bear, caribou, venison, hippopotamus, buffalo, elk and moose. Taste-wise, buffalo and elk are tied for first. Not gamy, and loaded with protein. And very expensive, I might add.
Billy Casper
#93. Wise decisions have not given us this position of freedom," N7 said. "Wild, nearly insane decisions have proven best so far. Perhaps we should stick to what works.
Vaughn Heppner
#94. There is no one, no matter how wise he is, who has not in his youth said
things or done things that are so unpleasant to recall in later life that
he would expunge them entirely from his memory if that were possible.
Marcel Proust
#95. Affliction comes to the believer not to make him sad, but sober; not to make him sorry, but wise. Even as the plow enriches the field so that the seed is multiplied a thousandfold, so affliction should magnify our joy and increase our spiritual harvest.
Henry Ward Beecher
#96. It is not sufficient merely to be a great master in painting and very wise, but I think that it is necessary for the painter to be very moral in his mode of life, or even, if such were possible, a saint, so that the Holy Spirit may inspire his intellect.
Michelangelo
#97. [Grace talking to Billy.] "It's like people who want to feel only happy but not sad," she said. "It never works. You either feel things or you don't. You don't get to pick and choose. At least, I don't think so.
Catherine Ryan Hyde
#98. Life is so short that it is not wise to take roundabout ways, nor can we spend much time in waiting ... We have not got half-way to dawn yet.
Henry David Thoreau
#99. L am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground. So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind: Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
#100. The islanders know how to find it. But they are too wise to come here, to take its gold. They say that the cave makes you evil: that each time you visit it, each time you enter to take gold, it eats the good in your soul, so they do not enter.
Neil Gaiman
