Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life—in a firmness of mind and mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do, as well as to talk; and to make our actions and words all of a color.
Nulli sapere casu obtigit.
No man was ever wise by chance. Seneca—Epistolce Ad Lvdlium. LXXVI. </poem>
Melius in malis sapimus, secunda rectum
auferunt. y
We become wiser by adversity; prosperity
destroys our appreciation of the right.
Seneca—EpistoUe Ad Lucilium. XCIV.
Full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.
AWs Well That Ends Well. Act I. Sc. 1. L.
115.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act III. Sc. 13. L.
79.
Thou shouldst not have been old till thou
hadst been wise.
King Lear. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 48.
To that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety.
Macbeth. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 52.
Well, God give them wisdom that have it;
and those that are fools, let them use their talents.
Twelfth Night. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 14.
As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
Socrates. In Plato—Phaedrus. Sec.
CCXXXV.
A short saying oft contains much wisdom.
Sophocles—Alltes. Frag. 99.
n Happy those
Who in the after-days shall live, when Time
Hath spoken, and the multitude of years
Taught wisdom to mankind!
The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a
knowledge of our own ignorance.
Spurgeqn—Gleanings among the Sheaves. The
First Lesson.
By Wisdom wealth is won;
But riches purchased wisdom yet for none.
Bayard Taylor—The Wisdom of Ali.
"The Prophet's words were true;
The mouth of Ali is the golden door
Of Wisdom."
When his friends to Ali bore
These words, he smiled and said: "And should
they ask
The same until my dying day, the task
Were easy; for the stream from Wisdom's well,
Which God supplies, is inexhaustible."
Bayard Taylor—The Wisdom of Ali.
'Tis held that sorrow makes us wise.
| author = Tennyson
| work = In Memoriam. Pt. CVIII.
Nor is he the wisest man who never proved
himself a fool.
| author = Tennyson
| work = Locksley Hall Sixty Years After.
St. 124.
Isthuc est sapere non quod ante pedes modo est
Videre sed etiam ilia, quae futura sunt
Prospicere.
True wisdom consists not in seeing what is
immediately before our eyes, but in foreseeing what is to come.
Terence—Adelphi. III. 3. 32.
| author =
| work =
| place =
| note =
| topic = Wisdom
| page = 881
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 15
| text = The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
I Timothy. XVI. 8.
Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim
Wisdom the source of virtue, and of fame,
Obtained with labour, for mankind employed,
And then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.
W. Whitehead—OnV ' '
Wisdom sits alone,
Topmost in heaven:—she is its light—its God;
And in the heart of man she sits as high—
Though grovelling eyes forget her oftentimes,
Seeing but this world's idols. The pure mind
Sees her forever: and in youth we come
Fill'd with her sainted ravishment, and kneel,
Worshipping God through her sweet altar fires,
And then is knowledge "good."
N. P. Willis—The Scholar of Thibet. Ben
Khorat. Pt. II. L. 93.
Wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an
unspotted life is old age.
Wisdom of Solomon. IV. 8.
Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop
Than when we soar.
Wordsworth—The Excursion. Bk. III. L.
232.
| seealso = (See also {{sc|Massingeh)
And he is oft the wisest man
Who is not wise at all.
Wordsworth—The Oak and the Broom.
On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows,
In every rill a sweet instruction flows.
Young—Love of Fame. Satire I. L. 249.
Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is push'd out of life.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night I. L. 390
