Wisdom

It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

The wise learn many things from their enemies.

It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.

I, schooled in misery, know many purifying rites, and I know where speech is proper and where silence.

The one knowing what is useful, and not the man knowing many things, is wise.

I would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils.

The wisest of the wise may err.

Wisdom comes alone through suffering.

It is best for the wise man not to seem wise.

Memory is the mother of all wisdom.

But time growing old teaches all things.

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

I have achieved my seventy years in the usual way: by sticking strictly to a scheme of life which would kill anybody else... I will offer here, as a sound maxim, this: That we can't reach old age by another man's road.

Too bad that youth is wasted on the young.

I've seen many troubles in my time, only half of which ever came true.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Of the demonstrably wise there are but two: those who commit suicide, & those who keep their reasoning faculties atrophied with drink.

Good judgment comes from experience. And where does experience come from? Experience comes from bad judgment.