Quotes about Wisdom
God himself, sir, doesn't propose to judge man until the end of his days. (So why should you and I? ~ this latter part is added by Napoleon Hill)
— Samuel Johnson
There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable that I would not rather know it than not know it.
— Samuel Johnson
Angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
— Samuel Johnson
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.
— Samuel Johnson
When a king asked Euclid, the mathematician, whether he could not explain his art to him in a more compendious manner? he was answered, that there was no royal way to geometry.
— Samuel Johnson
what reason did not dictate, reason cannot explain.
— Samuel Johnson
People have now a-days, (said he,) got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach chymistry by lectures.—You might teach making of shoes by lectures!
— Samuel Johnson
How gloomy would be these mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he shall never die; that what now acts shall continue its agency, and what now thinks shall think on for ever. Those that lie here stretched before us, the wise and the powerful of ancient times, warn us to remember the shortness of our present state; they were, perhaps, snatched away while they were busy, like us, in the choice of life.
— Samuel Johnson
Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.
— Samuel Johnson
ACROAMATICAL (ACROAMA'TICAL) adj.[ Gr. I bear.]Of or pertaining to deep learning; the opposite of exoterical.
— Samuel Johnson
His genius was belowThe skill of ev'ry common beau;Who, tho' he cannot spell, is wiseEnough to read a lady's eyes;And will each accidental glanceInterpret for a kind advance.Swift'sMiscell.
— Samuel Johnson
Those who take little thought find it easy to pronounce an opinion. - On Optimism
— Samuel Johnson