Wisdom

No generalization is wholly true—not even this one.

 

Death never takes the wise man by surprise; he is always ready to go.

As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved, by their speeches, whether they be wise or foolish.

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

We are never late. We arrive precisely when we mean to. J. R.

 

In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

[ Socrates speaking :] Life without this sort of examination is not worth living.

Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;

[ Of Socrates :] Such, Echecrates, was the end of our comrade, who was, we may fairly say, of all those whom we knew in our time, the bravest and also the wisest and most upright man.

To recognize that the soul of a man is unknowable is the ultimate achievement of Wisdom. The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in a balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.

Degenerate sons and daughters, Life is too strong for you— It takes life to love life.

There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, And proud men in old age learn to be wise.

The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid.

Just as there are false dawns before the dawn itself, and winter-days so full of sudden sunlight that they will cheat the wise crocus into squandering its gold before its time, and make some foolish bird call to its mate to build on barren boughs, so there were Christians before Christ. . . . The unfortunate thing is that there have been none since.

And one trembles to be so understood and, at last, To understand, as if to know became The fatality of seeing things too well.

The wise learn many things from their enemies.

Man has made use of his intelligence, he invented stupidity.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one you’ll become a philosopher .

As you get older, you find that often the wheat, disentangling itself from the chaff, comes out to meet you.

To know how to grow old is the masterwork of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

Their plans were improved with the best advice. J. R.