Wisdom Quotes
“All I know is that I know nothing” is flagged as misattributed to Socrates. The nearest thing in Plato is the end of Book I of the Republic, where Socrates concludes that he knows nothing about what justice is. That is a narrower claim than the slogan, and part of an argument rather than a statement about himself.
Most of the entries here come from poets and playwrights, with Shakespeare, Edward Young and Pope at the top, which fits: wisdom is rarely stated in a sentence of its own, more often spoken by a character or tucked into a couplet. For the sourced ones, William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890): “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” Or Blake, in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790): “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”
The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.
Books give not wisdom where was none before,
But where some is, there reading makes it more.
Man's knowledge, save before his fellow man,
Is ignorance—his widest wisdom folly.
To be gentle, tolerant, wise and reasonable requires a goodly portion of toughness.
If you try to save wisdom until the world is wise, Father, the world will never have it.
Wisdom never comes to those who believe they have nothing left to learn.
The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.
Reflect upon the providence and wisdom of God in all created things and praise Him in them all.
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
No person's gain in wisdom is diminished by anyone else's gain.
The guru is nothing but pure consciousness, Bliss and eternal wisdom.