21 English quotes

Wise quotes

Short, wise sayings from philosophers, scientists and writers, with what they really mean.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
– Often attributed to Socrates
Meaning: Wise people understand how much they still don't know. Admitting that is the first step to learning.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
– Socrates, Plato, Apology (c. 399 BC)
Meaning: To live well, you need to think about your choices, your beliefs and why you do what you do.
unexamined
– not looked at or thought about carefully
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
– Often attributed to Aristotle
Meaning: Before you can understand the world, you need to understand your own mind, strengths and weaknesses.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
– Often attributed to Aristotle
Meaning: A truly educated person can listen to and think about an idea fairly, even one they don't agree with.
mark
– a sign that shows a quality
entertain
– consider or think about (an idea)
“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it: this is knowledge.”
– Confucius, The Analects 2.17
Meaning: Real knowledge means being honest about what you know and also about what you don't know.
hold
– believe or say
allow
– admit
“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.”
– Often attributed to Confucius
Meaning: You can become wise by thinking deeply, by copying wise people, or by living through hard times. The last way teaches you, but it hurts.
reflection
– careful, serious thinking
noblest
– the finest or most honourable
imitation
– copying someone else
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”
– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 33
Meaning: Understanding other people is clever, but understanding yourself is harder and more valuable.
“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 56
Meaning: People who truly understand something often stay quiet, while those who talk the most often understand the least.
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
– William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c. 1599)
Meaning: Foolish people are sure they are clever. Wise people know their own limits and mistakes.
doth
– an old form of "does"
“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1600)
Meaning: Listen to everyone, but be careful about whom you share your own opinions with.
thy
– an old form of "your"
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”
– Often attributed to Plato
Meaning: Wise people talk only when they have a real point. Foolish people talk just to fill the silence. The joke is in the word play: "have something to say" and "have to say something".
“Common sense is not so common.”
– Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary (1764)
Meaning: A play on words: "common sense" means basic good judgement, but Voltaire notes that many people don't have it, so it is not "common" at all.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”
– Voltaire, Letter to Frederick the Great (1770)
Meaning: Being unsure feels uncomfortable, but being completely sure about everything is foolish.
absurd
– silly and unreasonable
“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Locksley Hall" (1842)
Meaning: Facts are easy to pick up, but real wisdom grows slowly and stays with you for a long time.
lingers
– stays for a long time
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Nathaniel Macon (1819)
Meaning: You cannot be wise without first being honest, with others and with yourself.
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
– Albert Einstein
Meaning: School cannot give you wisdom. You become wise only by trying to learn and understand all through your life.
acquire
– get or gain
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the opinions about things.”
– Epictetus, Enchiridion (c. 125)
Meaning: What upsets us is usually not what happens, but how we think about it. Change your view and you change how you feel.
disturbed
– upset or worried
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (c. 180)
Meaning: Stop talking about how to be a good person and simply act like one.
“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
– Bertrand Russell, "The Triumph of Stupidity" (1933)
Meaning: Foolish people tend to be very confident, while clever people see the problems and hesitate. So the loudest, surest voices are often wrong.
fundamental
– most basic and important
cocksure
– too confident, in an annoying way
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
– Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988)
Meaning: We learn new facts and invent new things very quickly, but we are much slower to learn how to use them wisely.
aspect
– one part or side of something
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
– Miles Kington
Meaning: A joke that shows the difference: knowledge is knowing facts, while wisdom is knowing how to use them sensibly in real life.

Quotes