Greatest Wise Quotes & Sayings

In prosperous fortunes be modest and wise, The greatest may fall, and the lowest may rise: But insolent People that fall in disgrace, Are wretched and nobody pities their Case. — Benjamin Franklin

In old England the greatest lords think it great glory to be slapped by a queen, and made garter-knights of; but, be your boast, Stubb, that ye were kicked by old Ahab, and made a wise man of. Remember what I say; be kicked by him; account his kicks honors; and on no account kick back; for you can't help yourself, wise Stubb. — Herman Melville

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not. — Seneca.

To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of evils. — Socrates

Among wise men there is no place at all left for hatred. For no one except the greatest of fools would hate good men. And there is no reason at all for hating the bad. For just as weakness is a disease of the body, so wickedness is a disease of the mind. And if this is so, since we think of people who are sick in body as deserving sympathy rather than hatred, much more so do they deserve pity rather than blame who suffer an evil more severe than any physical illness. — Boethius

When Scripture describes Satan as an angel of light, it should make the hair on your neck stand up with terror. Man's greatest enemy is most present when we are most certain he is not. He comes as an angel of light. Satan is working his deception through disguise. We think we are doing the right thing, taking the needed stand, fighting the most important foe, but if we are not careful, extremely wise, and cautious, we are doing the opposite. Intending to advance the agenda of our King, we slip very easily into fighting the Lord and assisting satanic schemes. In every section of this book, we will spend one study assessing how Satan deceives us into believing we do well even when we fail to act like men. — James MacDonald

The path of life is strewn with many perils and the folly of knowledge is one of the greatest dangers. Wisdom is a treacherous weapon, little master, for it is sundered from compassion. All too often the end of the journey gains more import than it should and the wise become blind to the road and the method of their passing. — Robin Jarvis

The greatest education is learning to know the divinity of thy soul. — Lailah Gifty Akita

To be happy without your wants is greatest contentment. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Always do I recall the parting words uttered by my old governor: "My boy, never ... " I won't set 'em down. I disregarded them fool-like and paid, and paid; had I a son I'd hand 'em on and ram 'em home. What fools we be when young. We fancy we be wise, forgetting that the old boys have graduated in the 'varsity of the world, the greatest 'varsity of all, and each day we should learn from they. — Robert Baden-Powell

If you use disappointments as sort of mid- semester exams, for learning, you will learn that every disappointment you overcome makes you stronger- and wiser. The greatest success stories have been lived by those who had to grow strong and wise in that very way. — Loretta Young

To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of this weary pilgrimage." ~Samuel Johnson — Edward M. Hallowell

I couldn't stop the snort that escaped me. If he really was friends with Cinder, it was no wonder why. They were two peas in a pod."
He arched a brow at me and folded his arms stiffly over his chest. "I thought you just said Cinder was one of the greatest characters of all time."
I matched his stubbornness. "Every great character makes mistakes. Cinder was wise by the end and able to rule over his people only because Ellamara taught him how to think beyond himself. He was a great character, but - "
"I know, I know," Brian interrupted with an over-the-top sight. "Ellamara was the real hero. — Kelly Oram

Philosopher has given a rational, objectively demonstrable, scientific answer to the question of why man needs a code of values. So long as that question remained unanswered, no rational, scientific, objective code of ethics could be discovered or defined. The greatest of all philosophers, Aristotle, did not regard ethics as an exact science; he based his ethical system on observations of what the noble and wise men of his time chose to do, leaving unanswered the questions of: why they chose to do it and why he evaluated them as noble and wise. Most philosophers took the existence of ethics for granted, as the given, as a historical fact, and were not concerned with discovering its metaphysical cause or objective validation. Many of them attempted to break the traditional monopoly of mysticism in the field of ethics and, allegedly, to define a rational, scientific, nonreligious morality. But their attempts consisted of trying to justify them on social grounds, — Ayn Rand

To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know. No man knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessing for a human being; and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that is is the greatest of evil. (Socrates in The Apology) — Plato

Our greatest stupidities may be very wise. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

Contentment is the greatest joy. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Life is the greatest grace. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue; and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it. — Edmund Burke

You need to challenge your fear of life becoming unreasonable - because it is already unreasonable. In truth, your life has never been reasonable, it's just that you keep hoping tomorrow will be different and that you will find a way to bring more control into your world. Recognize that life will always be full of challenges and crisis. The wise way is not to attempt to find one path that promises you will never have to endure the pain of loss and illness, but instead to learn how to endure and transcend when unreasonable events come your way. Learning to defy gravity in your world - to think, perceive, and act at the mystical level of consciousness - is the greatest gift you can give yourself, because it is the gift of truth. And as we are bound to learn again and again in this life, the truth does indeed set us free. — Caroline Myss

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life. — Epicurus

Free love, man, Free Love! Which, by the way, was the single greatest concept a young man has ever heard. About three years late, women got wise an my frustration returned to normal levels. — Steve Martin

To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know? — Socrates

The greatest patient is to wait for God to act. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Love is the greatest force in the universe. — Lailah Gifty Akita

In all tests of character, when two viewpoints are pitted against one another, in the final analysis the thing that will strike you the most, is not who was right or wrong, strong or weak, wise or foolish ... but who would go to the greatest lengths in considering the other's perspective. — Mike Dooley

The greatest things cannot be bought with money. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Self-master is the greatest success. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Love is the greatest gift you can possess. — Lailah Gifty Akita

There are always two kinds of people in every country: Progressives and reactionaries; wise people and ignorant; democrats and fascists; libertarians and oppressive. All struggles happen between these two parties. If you are in the first group, your greatest reward will be dignity and victory! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Be still, then, thou uneasy mortal; know that God is unerringly wise; and be assured that, amidst the greatest multiplicity of beings, He does not overlook thee. — James Hervey

The greatest misfortune of the wise man and the greatest unhappiness of the fool are based upon convention. — Franz Schubert

One effect of benefit-cost analysis is to give any respectable engineer or economist a means for justifying almost any kind of project the national government wants to justify ... Exclusive reliance on benefit-cost analysis has been one of the greatest threats to wise decisions in water development. — Gilbert F. White

And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. — O. Henry

The greatest realization is dawn of my sacred existence. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The written word is greatest sacred documentation. — Lailah Gifty Akita

You just try to absorb as much as you can from someone who has won as many races and championships as he has. Career wise, he's been the greatest thing that's happened to me. — Larry Dixon

In a word, if this country can steer clear of European politics, stand firm on its bottom, and be wise and temperate in its government, it bids fair to be one of the greatest and happiest nations in the world. — George Washington

The greatest obsession is I believe in myself. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings. Let food be your medicine. — Hippocrates

Experience gives the greatest lessons of life. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The greatest thing we can do is love another. — Lailah Gifty Akita

He who doesn't sin, is the greatest sinner of all. — Desiderius Erasmus

Because the math is, if you - 5 percent of a million is a lot more than 5 percent of a thousand. So yeah, someone who makes more money, numerically, it's gonna be higher. But the greatest gains, percentage-wise, for people, are gonna be at the lower end of our plan. — Ted Cruz

Love is the greatest divine-self. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The magi, as you know, were wise men
wonderfully wise men
who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi. — O. Henry

So often our greatest triumph is a willing surrender. — Robert Breault

Life, time and nature are the three greatest gifts to mankind. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Greatest fools are the most often satisfied. — Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

Humankind is the greatest resources. Don't lose faith in the people. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Rarely has a man been more comfortable with his own greatness. He spent much of his leisure time penning long and flattering portraits of himself, declaring that there had never 'been a greater botanist or zoologist', and that his system of classification was 'the greatest achievement in the realm of science'. Modestly, he suggested that his gravestone should bear the inscription Princeps Botanicorum, 'Prince of Botanists'. It was never wise to question his generous self-assessments. Those who did so were apt to find they had weeds named after them. — Bill Bryson

God's love is not cautious, not wise, not sensible, and not remotely conservative. In fact, loving another person the way God loves them is the greatest adventure we can have. — Susan May Warren

Tragedies can contain some of life's greatest rewards and valuable lessons. Struggle makes you stronger. Pain makes you alert. Clouds bring forth the rain. As a wise man once said, 'You seek problems because you need their gifts.' Why would you rob someone of these benefits? — Brownell Landrum

This is my toughest time but the greatest. — Lailah Gifty Akita

For me, a song doesn't really take flight until it has a lyric on it ... Without a lyric that I'm happy with, it could be the greatest song ever melodically or arrangement-wise, but it doesn't have any resonance. — Ben Gibbard

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle. — Helen Keller

This moment is our greatest treasure. We cannot replay the past events. We have no control over future events. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Our toil must be in silence, and our efforts all in secret; for this enlightened age, when men believe not even what they see, the doubting of wise men would be his greatest strength. — Bram Stoker

The greatest health shall be happiness. — Lailah Gifty Akita

...it was the business of such men as were prudent and wise to deceive the people in matters of religion, and in that very thing not only to worship, but also to imitate the demons, whose greatest lust is to deceive. For just as the demons cannot possess any but those whom they have deceived with guile, so also men in princely office, not indeed being just, but like demons, have persuaded the people in the name of religion to receive as true those things which they themselves knew to be false; in this way, as it were, binding them up more firmly in civil society, so that they might in like manner possess them as subjects. — Augustine Of Hippo

The greatest event for the world is the arrival of a new and wise person. — Thomas Carlyle

With the greatest force within, you can go farther. — Lailah Gifty Akita

One of the greatest of liberals, Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic Party, once remarked: A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. — Ronald Reagan

those who are weak enough to think this a degrading task, and the time and labour which have been devoted to it misemployed, I shall content myself with opposing the authority of the greatest man of any age, JULIUS CAeSAR, of whom Bacon observes, that 'in his book of Apothegms which he collected, we see that he esteemed it more honour to make himself but a pair of tables, to take the wise and pithy words of others, than to have every word of his own to be made an apothegm or an oracle.' Having said thus much by way of introduction, I commit the following pages to the candour of the Publick. — Anonymous

Everyone loved her, but her greatest sorrow was that she could find no one to love in return, since all the men were much too stupid and ugly to mate with one so beautiful and wise. — L. Frank Baum

The greatest secret of life is never give up. Don't give up on yourself, your dreams and your family. — Lailah Gifty Akita

A wise nation preserves its records, gathers
up its monuments, decorates the tombes of its illustrious dead, repairs its
greatest structures and fosters national pride and love of country, by perpetual
references to the sacrifices and glories of the past. — Joseph Howe

I never imagined when I wrote my first book on Strauss that the unscrupulous elite that he elevates would ever come so close to political power, nor that the ominous tyranny of the wise would ever come so close to being realised in the political life of a great nation like the United States. But fear is the greatest ally of tyranny. — Shadia Drury

A wise man once said the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he was someone else ... — Cameron Jace

Knowledge of thyself is the greatest enlightenment. — Lailah Gifty Akita

To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No one knows with regard to death wheather it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to man; but people dread it as though they were certain it is the greatest evil. -The Last Days of Socrates — Plato

I definitely take after my dad, looks-wise. But my mum is my greatest inspiration. All the women in my family are amazing. They're hilarious. I love funny people. — Shari Sebbens

The greatest education is the knowledge of God. — Lailah Gifty Akita

It is in the half fools and the half wise that the greatest danger lies. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The people of the United States don't recognize it, but the oil industry has given the greatest gift to the people of the nation, and that gift is the low cost of energy. Bottom line is this enables the country to be very competitive manufacturing-wise and in the world economy. — Ray Lee Hunt

The greatest strength is the spirit of endurance. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The greatest duty is to know, love and obey God. — Lailah Gifty Akita

For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man. — Plato

Yet with great toil all that I can attain by long experience, and in learned schools, is for to know my knowledge is but vain, and those that think them wise, are greatest fools. — William Alexander

Nothing beats love. Love is the greatest healing power there is; nothing else comes close. Not ancient cures, modern medicines and technologies, or all the interesting books we read or the wise things we say and think. Love has a transformational power. — Naomi Judd

Birth is the greatest miracle. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The greatest energy must be use for work. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Wise leaders understand that the single greatest determinant of whether followers will ever own a vision deeply is the extent to which whose followers believe the leader will own it. — Bill Hybels

Love was the greatest of enchantments; if Echidna and her children succeeded in killing Kypris, Thelxiepeia would no doubt, would doubtless ... Become the goddess of love in a century or less, said the Outsider, standing not behind Silk as he had in the ball court, but before him - standing on the still water of the pool, tall and wise and kind, with a face that nearly came into focus. I would claim her in that case, long before the end. As I have so many others. As I am claiming Kypris even now because love always proceeds from me, real love, true love. First romance. The Outsider was the dancing man on a toy, and the water the polished toy-top on which he danced with Kypris, who was Hyacinth and Mother, too. First romance, sang the Outsider with the music box. First romance. It was why he was called the Outsider. He was outside - — Gene Wolfe

The greatest sacred sayings; I love you. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The ignorant man marvels at the exceptional; the wise man marvels at the common; the greatest wonder of all is the regularity of nature. — George Dana Boardman Pepper

The greatest wisdom often consist in ignorance. — Baltasar Gracian

But we are pledged to set the world free. Our toil must be in silence, and our efforts all in secret. For in this enlightened age, when men believe not even what they see, the doubting of wise men would be his greatest strength. It would be at once his sheath and his armor, and his weapons to destroy us, his enemies, who are willing to peril even our own souls for the safety of one we love. For the good of mankind, and for the honor and glory of God. — Bram Stoker

The greatest religion you can ever have throughout your entire existence, is Love. — Abhijit Naskar

Make careful choice of the books which you read:
let the holy Scriptures ever have the preeminence.
Let Scripture be first and most in your hearts and
hands and other books be used as subservient to it.
While reading ask yourself:
1. Could I spend this time no better?
2. Are there better books that would edify me more?
3. Are the lovers of such a book as this the greatest
lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life?
4. Does this book increase my love to the Word of God,
kill my sin, and prepare me for the life to come?
"The words of the wise are like goads, their collected
sayings like firmly embedded nails - given by one Shepherd.
Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of
making many books there is no end, and much study
wearies the body." Ecclesiastes 12:11-12 — Richard Baxter

God is greatest physician. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Ive been waiting for this moment,
The one where looking back doesn't seem fascinating anymore & looking forward doesn't seem to be the greatest seek, I am so darn content with creating and living right now that there honestly isn't any room left for the ordinary. — Nikki Rowe

Where have i=I read that at the end, when life, surface upon surface, has become completely encrusted with experience, you know everything, the secret, the power, and the glory, why you were born, why you are dying, and how it all could have been different? You are wise. But the greatest wisdom, at that moment, is knowing that your wisdom is too late. You understand everything when there is no longer anything to understand. — Umberto Eco

Plan for the difficult while it is still easy. The greatest things in the world are done while still slight. So wise leaders never do big things; that's how they achieve greatness. — Lao-Tzu

The greatest gift at Christmas is love. The love that bind us together us one Human Family. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Would that the majority could inflict the greatest evils, for they would then be capable of the greatest good, and that would be fine, but now they cannot do either. They cannot make a man either wise or foolish, but they inflict things haphazardly. — Socrates

A wise man once told me, Life's greatest fear is having knowledge of something, and dying before having the opportunity to share it." -Charles Blair — Charles Blair

The greatest thing for me football-wise is that it's a test of will. — Troy Polamalu

Even more than the time when she gave birth, a mother feels her greatest joy when she hears others refer to her son as a wise learned one. — Thiruvalluvar

Seeing, observing, listening, these are the greatest acts — Jiddu Krishnamurti