Wisdom

He who can properly define and divide is to be considered a god.

Haven't you noticed that opinion without knowledge is always a poor thing? At the best it is blind—isn't anyone who holds a true opinion without understanding like a blind man on the right road?

Excellence" is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act "rightly" because we are "excellent", in fact we achieve "excellence" by acting "rightly".

Excellence of understanding comes from something divine, whereas the other excellences are probably close to the body.

Either we shall find what it is we are seeking or at least we shall free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.

Eat and drink and sit with the mighty, and make yourself agreeable to them; for from the good you will learn what is good, but if you mix with the bad you will lose the intelligence which you already have.

As it is, the lover of inquiry must follow his beloved wherever it may lead him.

Artist or sage or ruler errs at the time when he is what his name implies.

Wonder is the only beginning of philosophy

All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance

A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it. Whoever therefore claims to be zealous of truth, of happiness, of wisdom or knowledge, must become a lover of books.

A freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of knowledge of any kind. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

Oppression makes the wise man mad.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

A genius is a promontory jutting out into the infinite.

A learned fool is a greater fool than an ignorant fool.

There’s no system foolproof enough to defeat a sufficiently great fool.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding that limit.

Silence is all the genius a fool has.

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

To be intimate with a foolish friend is like going to bed to a razor.

Folly pursues us throughout our lives, and the man whom we call wise is he whose follies are proportionate to his age and to his fortune.