wisdom - quotes

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742-1799

was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile

One's first step in wisdom is to question everything — and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

William Ralph Inge, 1860-1954

was an English author and Anglican prelate

The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.

Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

was an US (German-born) physicist

Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the life — long attempt to acquire it.

Jane Austen, 1775-1817

was an English novelist

Wisdom is better than wit, and in the long run will certainly have the laugh on her side.

( from a letter to her niece, November 18, 1814 )

Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804

was a German philosopher

The inscrutable wisdom through which we exist is not less worthy of veneration in respect to what it denies us than in respect to what it has granted.

( “Critique of Practical Reason”, 1788 )

Walt(er) Whitman, 1819-1892

was an US poet

Wisdom is not finally tested in the schools, Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.

André (Paul Guillaume) Gide, 1869-1951

was a French critic, essayist, and novelist

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

( “Le traite du Narcisse”, 1891 )

Bertolt Brecht, 1898-1956

was a German Communist and dramatist

The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.

( “Life of Galileo”, 1937 - 1939 )