Wisdom Quotes

Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.

If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact — not to be solved, but to be coped with over time.

No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.

The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.

I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.

As many faiths, so many paths.

No religion is higher than humanity.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

Sabka Malik Ek — One God governs all.

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

In a conflict between the heart and the brain, follow your heart.

Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand with a grip that kills it.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.

Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

The superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mean man is conversant with gain.

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.

He who talks more is sooner exhausted.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

All warfare is based on deception.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.

Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.

The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.

Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.

Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.

In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.

In all things, have no preferences.

To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.

If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.

Not knowing how near the truth is, people seek it far away.

All beings are from the very beginning Buddhas.

Never, ever forget history.

A person may be as clever as the sky, but as long as he does not write, he will be lost in history and drowned by time.

He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.

The notion that human life is sacred just because it is human life is medieval.

The question is not, 'Can they reason?' nor, 'Can they talk?' but, 'Can they suffer?'

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds.

We haven't the money, so we've got to think.

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.

Don't let me catch anyone talking about the universe in my department.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

All that glitters is not gold.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question.

I think, therefore I am.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.

The true way goes over a rope which is not stretched at any great height but just above the ground.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Don't raise your voice, improve your argument.

One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.

And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.

The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are.

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating.

The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.

Forever is composed of nows.

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Turn your wounds into wisdom.

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.