Wise Aphorisms Quotes

If you have decided to sail to the sea with great courage and determination, even the storm on the horizon will step aside! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

As child, when the elders spoke their wise words, it only echoes in my ears. As adult, I have crystal clear insight to the wise aphorisms by the elderly. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

You shall see rude and sturdy, experienced and wise men, keeping their castles, or teaming up their summer's wood, or chopping alone in the woods, men fuller of talk and rare adventure in the sun and wind and rain, than a chestnut is of meat; who were out not only in '75 and 1812, but have been out every day of their lives; greater men than Homer, or Chaucer, or Shakespeare, only they never got time to say so; they never took to the way of writing. Look at their fields, and imagine what they might write, if ever they should put pen to paper. Or what have they not written on the face of the earth already, clearing, and burning, and scratching, and harrowing, and plowing, and subsoiling, in and in, and out and out, and over and over, again and again, erasing what they had already written for want of parchment. ~ Henry David Thoreau

A wise man once said that a person is known by
the company he keeps, but could then also add that the character of the
company is known by the people it keeps for the longest days, especially
at the strategic decision making level. ~ Anuj

It is ironic, in the manner of a dystopian nightmare, that an advanced capitalist empire which is founded on genocide and slavery, which still functions as the global police, which has an armed population, which routinely violates international human rights, which has the largest known military industrial complex in the world, which is the world's largest producer of pornography, has also produced a saccharine ideology in which 'positive thinking' functions as a form of psychological gentrification. And it is not insignificant that the neoliberal lie that one is 110% responsible for one's life - first powerfully encapsulated by the 'alternative' conservative thinker Louise Hay, and more recently echoed by Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now (1997/2005) - is directed at women. Today, gendered victim-blaming has become a form of upwardly mobile common sense 'wisdom'. Now victimblaming is expressed by voices that sound soothing, wise, calm, above all, loving. ~ Abigail Bray

To be happy without your wants is greatest contentment. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

A large number of deaf, crippled and blind people are afflicted solely through the malice of the demon. And one must in no wise doubt that plagues, fevers and every sort of evil come from him. ~ Martin Luther

The splendor of God is displayed in the stars with the magnificent of the moon. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

They keep telling you, when you're older, you'll have experience - and that's supposed to be so great. What would you say about that, sir? Is it really any use, would you say?"

"What kind of experience?"

"Well - places you've been to, people you've met. Situations you've been through already, so you know how to handle them when they come up again. All that stuff that's supposed to make you wise, in your later years."

"Let me tell you something, Kenny. For other people, I can't speak - but, personally, I haven't gotten wise on anything. Certainly, I've been through this and that; and when it happens again, I say to myself, Here it is again. But that doesn't seem to help me. In my opinion, I, personally, have gotten steadily sillier and sillier and sillier - and that's a fact."

"No kidding, sir? You can't mean that! You mean, sillier than when you were young?"

"Much, much sillier."

"I'll be darned. Then experience is no use at all? You're saying it might just as well not have happened?"

"No. I'm not saying that. I only mean, you can't use it. But if you don't try to - if you just realize it's there and you've got it - then it can be kind of marvelous. ~ Christopher Isherwood

Vain-glorious men are the scorn of the wise, the admiration of fools, the idols of paradise, and the slaves of their own vaunts. ~ Francis Bacon

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. ~ George Bernard Shaw

A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age. ~ Meat Loaf

The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty. ~ Sophia Loren

Without goodness a man cannot endure adversity for long, nor can he enjoy prosperity for long. The good man is naturally at ease with goodness. The wise man cultivates goodness for its advantage. ~ Confucius

In matters of affection, the rules of engagement at Empire High were detailed yet unambiguous, an extension of procedures established in junior high, a set of guidelines that couldn't have been clearer if they'd been posted on the schoolhouse door. If you were a girl and your heart inclined toward a particular boy, you had one of your girlfriends make inquiries from one of that boy's friends. Such contact represented the commencement of a series of complex negotiations, the opening rounds of which were handled by friends. Boy's friend A might report to Girl's friend B that the boy in question considered her a fox, or, if he felt particularly strongly, a major fox. Those experienced in these matters knew that it was wise to proceed cautiously, since too much ardor could delay things for weeks. The girl in question might be in negotiations with other parties, and no boy wanted to be on record as considering a girl a major fox only to discover that she considered him merely cool. Friends had to be instructed carefully about how much emotional currency they could spend, since rogue emotions led to inflation, lessening the value of everyone's feelings. Once a level of affection within the comfort zone of both parties was agreed upon, the principals could then meet for the exchange of mementos - rings, jackets, photos, key chains - to seal the deal, always assuming that seconds had properly represented the lovers to begin with. ~ Richard Russo

This is hard. This is fun. ~ Carol S. Dweck

To sensible men, every day is a day of reckoning. ~ John W. Gardner

The puckered-up face of the newly-born child, old as the world, wise as the roots of trees. Sin was there and goodness, love, pity and horror, and even beauty for his eyes were pure violet. ~ Mervyn Peake

Who can think wise or stupid things at all that were not thought already in the past.
[Ger., Wer kann was Dummes, wer was Kluges denken,
Das nicht die Vorwelt schon gedacht.] ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

You have to live the way you are going to end up. ~ Lujan Matus

He who asserts belief with absolute certainty knows nothing of faith and makes himself into a fool. He who is wise, upon realizing they have done this, recants and searches themselves for further enlightenment. ~ Cristina Marrero

A little group of wise hearts is better than a wilderness full of fools. ~ John Ruskin

Sex attraction is so purely a question of the taste of the individual that the wise man never argues about it. He accepts its vagaries as part of the human mystery, and leaves it at that. ~ P.G. Wodehouse

Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises. ~ Luc De Clapiers

Shelley, you're just like that oyster." God confronted me on the deeper areas of my life that I wouldn't let Him open up and heal. When Garrett saw me walk off alone over the sandy hills, he knew God was leading me to a healing moment. Standing on the edge of the salty waters of Puget Sound, I allowed God to reach into the darkest places in my heart and expose the ugly lies I believed about myself. Huge salty tears pouring out like waves, God assured me He threw my sins out as far as the east is from the west. The tremendous shame and guilt I carried for so many years was being literally washed away into the Pacific Ocean. I was no longer a broken child of sexual abuse but a cherished Champion daughter of the Most High God. ~ Shelley Lubben

Our lives may seem a tangle; but as we commit ourselves to the wise Master Worker, He will bring out the pattern of life and character that will be to His own glory. ~ Ellen G. White

The humble one is the better one. ~ Lik Hock Yap

I ask Thee for a thoughtful love, Through constant watching wise,
To meet the glad with joyful smiles,
And to wipe the weeping eyes;
And a heart at leisure from itself,
To soothe and sympathise. ~ Anonymous

In women he doesn't trust! He is an atheist. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Every morning is a fresh breath and blessings. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The truth is that since the first book, I have wanted to emulate Benjamin Franklin and put together a healthy, wealthy and wise trilogy and so healthy was 'The 4-Hour Body,' wealthy was 'The 4-Hour Workweek' and then wise is 'The 4-Hour Chef.' ~ Timothy Ferriss

As grand and glorious as love is, it is not without its perils. Anyone who has felt the cruel pangs of rejection knows that love is best approached cautiously, as one would approach an angry, cornered brush-tailed possum. Yes, before throwing yourself into a relationship, it's wise to buy a sturdy pair of leather gloves, and to be extra careful of love's front claws and rows of needle-sharp teeth. ~ Michael J. Nelson

It is better to seek light than to give into darkness. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms: and the greatest and best of men is but an aphorism. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Simplicity speaks with splendour. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

It neither is reason nor in any wise to be suffered that the young king, our master and kinsman, should be in the hands of custody of his mother's kindred, sequestered in great measure from our company and attendance, the which is neither honorable to his majesty nor unto us. ~ Richard III Of England

In this world only the paranoid survive. ~ Dean Koontz

to Russell Vernon Hunter

New York
Spring 1932

My dear Vernon Hunter

Your letter gives me such a vivid picture of some thing I love in space - love almost as passionately as I can love a person - that I am almost tempted to pack my little bag and go - but I will not go to it right this morning - No matter how much I love it - There is some thing in me that must finish jobs once started - when I can - .

So I am here - and what you write of me is there

The cockscomb is here too - I put it in much cold water and it came to life from a kind of flatness it had in the box when I opened it - tho it was very beautiful as it lay in the box a bit wilted when I opened it - . I love it - Thank you.

I must confess to you - that I even have the desire to go into old Mexico - that I would have gone - undoubtedly - if it were only myself that I considered - You are wise - so wise - in staying in your own country that you know and love - I am divided between my man and a life with him - and some thing of the outdoors - of your world - that is in my blood - and that I know I will never get rid of - I have to get along with my divided self the best way I can - .

So give my greetings to the sun and the sky - and the wind - and the dry never ending land

- Sincerely

Georgia O'Keeffe ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

I say, Théoden King: shall we have peace and friendship, you and I? It is ours to command."
"We will have peace," said Théoden at last thickly and with an effort. Several of the Riders cried out gladly. Théoden held up his hand. "Yes, we will have peace," he said now in a clear voice, "we will have peace, when you and all your works have perished--and the works of your dark master to whom you would deliver us. You are a liar, Saruman, and a corrupter a men's hearts. You hold out your hand it to me, and I perceive only a finger of the claw of Mordor. Cruel and cold! Even if your war on me was just--as it was not, for were you ten times as wise you would have no right to rule me and mine for your own profit as you desired--even so, what will you say of your torches in Westfold and the children that lie dead there? And they hewed Háma's body before the gates of the Hornburg, after he was dead. When you hang from a gibbet at your window for the sport of your own crows, I will have peace with you and Orthanic. So much for the house of Eorl. A lesser son of great sires am I, but I do not need to lick your fingers. Turn elsewhither. But I fear your voice has lost its charm. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives. Look at us. We run a tightrope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby-carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now! This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Why wouldst thou that God should in power, in act and in effect (which in him are identical) be determined as the limit of the convexity of a sphere, rather than that he should be as we may say the undetermined limit of the boundless? The limit I say, without limit, that I may differentiate the one infinity from the other. For He is the whole, comprehensive [26] and complete totality of the infinite, but the universe is the explicit though not the all-comprehensive totality (if indeed we may in any wise use the term totality where there is neither part nor boundary). Therefore the nature of the one doth comprehend boundaries; that of the other is bounded. And this is not the distinction between infinite and finite. The distinction is rather that the one is infinite, while the other doth limit according to the nature of the totality and of the whole being thereof. So that although it is entirely infinite, the infinity thereof is not completely comprehensive, for this would be repugnant to dimensional infinity. ~ Giordano Bruno

Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain. ~ Kabir

My heart is filled with endless praise. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Make sure you stand firm on the solid rock. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

I believe the stars have been there for such long time. So they must be very wise. When I look at them I feel like I am a part of them, as if for a brief moment, I am made up of stardust too, and everything, all of us, becomes connected and infinite. I sometimes wonder if they are looking at us and thinking the same thing. I wonder if it's all quiet out there. Don't you ever look up and wonder where it all came from. Where we came from? Where we fit in to it all? ~ Shae Christi

It is always wise with a course of action to consider the likely consequences before going ahead with it. ~ George Jackson

It's not how you start, it's how you finish. ~ Danielle Rocco

A wise youth counselor once told me, "Don't ask what God's will is for you." Simply ask, "What is God's will? ~ Lee Carver

Gradually I slid into the persuasion that these troubles of mine touching the scrivener, had been all predestinated from eternity, and Bartleby was billeted upon me for some mysterious purpose of an all-wise Providence, which it was not for a mere mortal like me to fathom. ~ Herman Melville