They also chose someone who is capable of change and admitting error, two qualities one associates with wisdom.
~ Jennifer Senior / NYT
Confucius on Wisdom
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
~ Confucius
Confucius on Questions
“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”
~ Confucius
William Shakespeare on Wisdom
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
~ As You Like It
Plato on Wisdom
“Just as bees make honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so do the wise profit from the most difficult of experiences.”
~ Plato
Chrysippus on Want
“Wise people are in want of nothing and yet need many things. On the other hand, nothing is needed by fools, for they do not understand how to use anything but are in want of everything.”
~ Chrysippus
Coco Chanel on Sin
Sin can be forgiven, but stupid is forever.
~ Coco Chanel
Charlie Munger on Pain
Pain-Avoiding Psychological Denial: one should recognize reality even when one doesn’t like it.
~ Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger on Mistakes and Memory
Forgetting your mistakes is a terrible error if you’re trying to improve your cognition. Reality doesn’t remind you. Why not celebrate stupidities in both categories?
~ Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger on Difficult Things
We have three baskets: in, out, and too tough. … We have to have a special insight, or we’ll put it in the “too tough” basket.
~ Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger on Learning
I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart.
~ Charlie Munger
George V. Higgins on Life and Stupidity
“This life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid.”
William Butler Yeats on Wisdom
“If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.”
~ William Butler Yeats
Søren Kierkegaard on Life
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
~ Søren Kierkegaard
Hunter Thompson on Learning from Mistakes
“Those who fail to learn from the brutal stompings visited on them in the past are doomed to be brutally stomped in the future.”
~ Hunter Thompson
Buddha on Wisdom
“The fool who knows he is a fool is that much wiser.”
~ Buddha
William Shakespeare on Life
“Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none.”
~ William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare on Wisdom
“But I remember now
I am in this earthly world—where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly.”
~ William Shakespeare
Richard Feynman on Wisdom
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
~ Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman on Wisdom
“I’m smart enough to know that I’m dumb.”
~ Richard Feynman
Cato The Younger on Silence
“I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.”
~ Cato the Younger
Aristotle on Wisdom
“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”
~ Aristotle