Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [61-80] of 653 Wisdom quotesWisdom QuotesWisdom Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes One of the Seven [wise men of Greece] was wont to say: That laws were like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught and the great break through.~ Sir Francis Bacon Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.~ Sir Francis Bacon They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they see nothing but sea.~ Sir Francis Bacon There are in fact four very significant stumblingblocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge.~ Roger Bacon Youth will be served, every dog has his day and mine has been a fine one.~ George Barrow Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.~ Matsuo Basho Actually, it is not strange that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the human race was regarded as inert matter, ready to receive everything -- form, face, energy, movement, life -- from a great prince or a great legislator or a great genius. These centuries were nourished on the study of antiquity. And antiquity presents everywhere -- in Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome -- the spectacle of a few men molding mankind according to their whims, thanks to the prestige of force and of fraud. But this does not prove that this situation is desirable. It proves only that since men and society are capable of improvement, it is naturally to be expected that error, ignorance, despotism, slavery, and superstition should be greatest towards the origins of history. The writers quoted above were not in error when they found ancient institutions to be such, but they were in error when they offered them for the admiration and imitation of future generations. Uncritical and childish conformists, they took for granted the grandeur, dignity, morality, and happiness of the artificial societies of the ancient world. They did not understand that knowledge appears and grows with the passage of time; and that in proportion to this growth of knowledge, might takes the side of right, and society regains possession of itself.~ Frederic Bastiat One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences.~ O. A. Battista What's right with America is a willingness to discuss what's wrong with America.~ Harry C. Bauer There are three schoolmasters for everybody that will employ them - the senses, intelligent companions, and books.~ Rev. Henry Ward Beecher Pursue what catches your heart, not what catches your eyes.~ Roy T. Bennett If you don't know where you're going, when you get there you'll be lost.~ Yogi Berra Even Napoleon had his Watergate.~ Yogi Berra It's never over 'till it's over.~ Yogi Berra The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff.~ Ambrose Bierce You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.~ William Blake A truth that's told with bad intent, beats all the lies you can invent.~ William Blake More! More! is the cry of a mistaken soul.~ William Blake To be paranoid means to believe in delusions of danger and persecution. If the danger is real, and the evidence credible, then it cannot be delusional. To ignore the evidence, and hope that it CANNOT be true, is more an evidence of mental illness.~ William Blase Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.~ James Boswell Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print