Quotes about Wisdom

Thank you," the old man said. He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.

You're going to have things to repent, boy,' Mr. John had told Nick. 'That's one of the best things there is. You can always decide whether to repent them or not. But the thing is to have them.

Coward," Pablo said bitterly. "You treat a man as coward because he has a tactical sense. Because he can see the results of an idiocy in advance. It is not cowardly to know what is foolish." "Neither is it foolish to know what is cowardly," said Anselmo, unable to resist making the phrase.

Here's the reason why the peasant is wise. He's wise because he's beaten from the very start. Give him power and then you'll see how wise he is.

If you ever live to be as old as I am you will find many things strange." "You never seem old." "It is the body that is old. Sometimes I am afraid I will break off a finger as one breaks a stick of chalk. And the spirit is no older and not much wiser." "You are wise." "No, that is the great fallacy; the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful." "Perhaps that is wisdom." "It is a very unattractive wisdom.

Write the truest sentence you know. Then write another. -- Hemingway's advice to other young writers in A Moveable Feast.

I may not be as strong as I think,' the old man said, 'But I know many tricks and I have resolution.

He was probably a coward," she said. "He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them." "I don't know. It's hard to see inside the head of the brave." "Yes. That's how they keep that way.

It was considered a virtue not to talk unnecessarily at sea and the old man had always considered it so and respected it. But

You learn in this war if you listen.

You never look old. -The body is that which grows old. The spirit is neither older, nor much wiser.

I suppose it is possible to live as full a life in seventy hours as on seventy years; granted that your life has been full up to the time that the seventy hours start and that you have reached a certain age.