Wisdom

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.

How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo’s lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets Where no crude surfeit reigns.

Virtue could see to do what Virtue would By her own radiant light, though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom’s self Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, Where, with her best nurse Contemplation, She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings.

Here lies a King that rul’d, as he thought fit The universal monarchy of wit; Here lies two flamens, and both those the best: Apollo’s first, at last the true God’s priest.

Who are a little wise, the best fools be.

He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one; Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading; Lofty and sour to them that lov’d him not; But, to those men that sought him sweet as summer.

When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools.

Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest.

This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool, And to do that well craves a kind of wit.

For to be wise, and love, Exceeds man’s might; that dwells with gods above.

Modest doubt is call’d The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches To the bottom of the worst.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, Bear ’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

Sell when you can, you are not for all markets.

Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

Patch griefs with proverbs.

There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distill it out.

All places that the eye of heaven visits Are to a wise man ports and happy havens. Teach thy necessity to reason thus; There is no virtue like necessity. Think not the king did banish thee, But thou the king.

For if he like a madman lived, At least he like a wise one died.

For whan a man hath over-greet a wit, Ful oft hym happeth to mysusen it.

Ful wys is he that kan hymselven knowe!

I have found power in the mysteries of thought, exaltation in the chanting of the Muses; I have been versed in the reasonings of men; but Fate is stronger than anything I have known.

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 ideal condition Would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct; But since we are all likely to go astray, The reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach.