Learning and Wisdom Quotes
Top 50 Learning and Wisdom
Quotes
No 1
(Best quote!)
I know that I know nothing.
- Socrates (470-399 BC), Greek philosopher,
pictured right.
Three other philosophers agree with this need to accept your own
ignorance:
True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire
it.
- Karl
Popper (1902-94), Austrian-born British philosopher, pictured right.
The essence of knowledge is, having it,
to apply it; not having it, confess your ignorance,
- Confucius (551-479 BC), Chinese philosopher, pictured
right.
When men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken,
- David Hume (1711-76), the
Scottish philosopher, pictured right.
No 2
Truth is what works.
- William James (1842-1910),
pictured right , American psychologist and philosopher.
Here are some other views on truth:
Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is
now – always,
- Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), German philosopher and
doctor, pictured right.
Fashions fade but truth endures,
- Thomas
Kuhn (1922-96), American scientist, pictured right.
There are two kinds of truths: truths of reasoning and truths of fact,
- Gottfried
Leibniz (1646-1716), German philosopher and mathematician, pictured right
The truth is not always the same as the majority
decision,
- John
Paul II (1920-2005), pictured right, Polish pope
The truth of a thing or idea is its
meaning,
- Erich Fromm (1900-80), American philosopher and
psychologist, pictured right .
The thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I
can live and die,
- Soren
Kierkegaard (1813-55), Danish philosopher, pictured right
The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955),
German-born American scientist, pictured right
No 3
I think, therefore I am.
-René Descartes (1596–1650), French
philosopher and mathematician, pictured right.
Blaise Pascal 1623–62, the
French scientist and philosopher, pictured right ,makes two similar comments:
Man is only a reed, the weakest thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.
Thought constitutes the greatness of man
No 4
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
(from the 1934 poem The Rock)
- T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), pictured right above, American-born British writer
No 5
The price of wisdom is above rubies
(Job 28:18)
- the Bible.
Oprah Winfrey (1954-), the African
American chat show host,, pictured right agrees:
Inner wisdom is more precious than wealth
No 6
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
- Isaac Newton (1642–1727), English
scientist, pictured right.
No 7
Almighty God has created the mind free.
(from the Virginian statute for religious freedom)
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), American
president, pictured right
Herbert Agar (1897-1980), the American writer (pictured right), also comments in his 1942
book A Time for Greatness:
The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer
not to hear.
No 8
Seeing much, suffering much and studying much are the three pillars of learning.
- Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) British prime
mminister, pictured right
No 9
Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof,
Applies to all stages and objects and qualities, and is content,
Is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things, and the excellence of things;
(from the 1856 poem Song of the Open Road in Leaves of Grass)
- Walt Whitman (1819-92), pictured right above, American poet.
No 10
Wisdom is oft times nearer when we stoop than we soar,
(from the 1814 poem The Excursion)
- William Wordsworth (1770-1850),
English poet, pictured right.
No 11
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
- St Paul, early Christian leader (in his letter to the Romans 12:2)
M. Scott Peck , pictured
right, in The Road Less Travelled (1978) also comments:
The life of wisdom must be a life of contemplation, combined with action,
No 12
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
-Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62) American philosopher, pictured right.
No 13
My brain? It's my second favourite organ,
(from the 1973 film Sleeper)
- Woody Allen (1935- ), pictured right, American film actor and director.
No 14
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he
shall end in certainties.
- Francis Bacon (1561–1626), English
philosopher, pictured right.
- Lord Byron (1788-1824), the English poet (pictured right), also comments:
I deny nothing, but doubt everything.
No 15
An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.
- Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947), American philosopher and educator, pictured right.
No 16
Genius is only a greater aptitude for patience.
- Comte de Buffon (1707–88), French naturalist, pictured right.
No 17
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.
- T. H. Huxley (1825–95), English biologist, pictured right
No 18
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’—that is all
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
(from the 1820 poem Ode on a Grecian Urn)
- John Keats (1795-1821), pictured right above, English poet.
No 19
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
- William James (1842–1910),
pictured right , American philosopher and psychologist.
No 20
Truth is ever to be found in simplicity.
- Isaac Newton (1642–1727), English
scientist, pictured right.
Oscar Wilde, pictured right, in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) disagrees:
The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.
No 21
You can’t conquer an idea with an army.
- Thomas (Tom) Paine (1737-1809),
English philosopher, pictured right.
Helen Keller (1880-1968), the American
campaigner for the disabled, pictured right, agrees:
Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas
No 22
To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a
solution.
- Marcus Aurelius (121-180), Roman emperor and
philosopher, pictured right.
No 23
Doubt is the origin of wisdom.
- René Descartes (1596-1650), French philosopher, pictured
right.
No 24
Iron rusts from disuse...so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian
painter, sculptor, architect and engineer, pictured right.
Richard Cumberland (1631–1718), pictured right, the English philosopher, puts it this way:
It is better to wear out than to rust out.
No 25
I never met a man so unknowledgeable, I could not learn something from him.
- Galileo (1564-1642), Italian scientist and
astronomer, pictured right.
No 26
A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955),
German-born American scientist, pictured right.
No 27
Once you stop learning, you start
dying,
-Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-born American
scientist, pictured right.
No 28
The human mind is our fundamental
resource.
- John F.
Kennedy (1917–63), American president, pictured right.
No 29
There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent.
(from the novel War and Peace)
- Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Russian writer, pictured right.
No 30
Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.
- Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Scottish philosopher, pictured right.
No
31
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
- Lao Tzu (c604-c531 BC),Chinese philosopher, pictured right.
No 32
Superstition sets the whole world in flames, philosophy quenches them.
- Voltaire (1698-1778),French
philosopher and writer, pictured right .
No 33
Some questions don’t have answers which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn.
- Katherine Graham, American boss of the
Washington Post 1963-79, pictured right .
No 34
Learning is more effective when it is an active rather than a passive process.
- Kurt Lewin (1890-1947),
American psychologist, pictured right.
No 35
Approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than threats to be
avoided.
- Albert
Bandura (1925-), Canadian psychologist, pictured right
No 36
Thought is free.
(Stephano in The Tempest)
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright,
pictured right
No 37
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of
listening when you’d rather have been talking.
- Aristotle (384-322 BC), Greek philosopher, pictured
right.
No 38
We learn better in a free spirit of curiosity than
under fear and compulsion.
- St. Augustine (354-430), Algerian philosopher,
pictured right.
No 39
No one can give you better advice than
yourself.
- Cicero (106-43 BC), Roman philosopher and politician,
pictured right.
No 40
Learning without thought is labour lost; thought
without learning is perilous.
- Confucius (551-479 BC), Chinese philosopher, pictured
right.
No 41
Prejudice always obscures the truth.
- Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) in the 1957 film Twelve Angry Men, pictured right.
No 42
Everything must be doubted.
- Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55), the
Danish philosopher, pictured right.
No 43
Patience is the companion of
wisdom.
- St. Augustine (354-430), Algerian philosopher,
pictured right.
No 44
Men who are lovers of wisdom must be enquirers into many things.
- Heraclitus (c540-c480BC), Greek
philosopher, pictured right
No 45
Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
- David Hume (1711-76), Scottish
philosopher, pictured right
Hume also comments
Beauty is no quality in things themselves. It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them
No 46
There is no darkness but ignorance.
(Feste in Twelfth Night)
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616),
English playwright, pictured right.
No 47
Man is far too clever to be able to survive without wisdom.
- Ernst Friedrich (Fritz) Schumacher, pictured right, in
Small is Beautiful
(1973)
No 48
The meaning of your life is what you make of it.
- A.C. Grayling (1949- ), English philosophy professor and writer
(pictured right).
No 49
The energy of the mind is the essence of
life.
- Aristotle (384-322 BC), Greek philosopher, pictured
right.
No 50
My best friend is truth.
- Isaac Newton (1642–1727), English
scientist, pictured right.
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