129 Wisdom Quotes To Live By

In a fast-paced world where wisdom often feels overshadowed by the noise of everyday life, taking a moment to reflect on timeless truths can offer clarity and perspective. Quotes have a unique power to distill profound insights into a few words, providing inspiration and guidance when we need it most. Whether you’re seeking motivation, comfort, or a new way to look at life, our curated collection of the top 129 wisdom quotes has something for everyone. Dive in and let these nuggets of wisdom illuminate your path, spark introspection, and elevate your everyday experiences.

1. “Wisdom is having things right in your lifeand knowing why.” - William Stafford

2. “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: For wither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.~Book of Ruth~” - Anonymous

3. “We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” - Marcel Proust

4. “If you envy successful people, you create a negative force field of attraction that repels you from ever doing the things that you need to do to be successful. If you admire successful people, you create a positive force field of attraction that draws you toward becoming more and more like the kinds of people that you want to be like.” - Brian Tracy

5. “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.” - Matsuo Basho

6. “Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.” - Helen Keller

7. “Expect nothing. Live frugallyOn surprise.become a strangerTo need of pityOr, if compassion be freelyGiven outTake only enoughStop short of urge to pleadThen purge away the need.Wish for nothing largerThan your own small heartOr greater than a star;Tame wild disappointmentWith caress unmoved and coldMake of it a parkaFor your soul.Discover the reason whySo tiny human midgetExists at allSo scared unwiseBut expect nothing. Live frugallyOn surprise.” - Alice Walker

8. “The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.” - Paulo Coelho

9. “And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe.” - Anton Chekhov

10. “Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.” - Leo F. Buscaglia

11. “The beauty of collaboration between older and younger generations is that we combine strength with wisdom—a surefire way to accomplish more for the glory of God.” - Brett Harris

12. “Time ripens all things; no man is born wise.” - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

13. “As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.” - Leonardo da Vinci

14. “The best teachers have showed me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly--we only think it does. The motion of drawing back a bow and sending an arrow straight into a target takes only a split second, but it is a skill many years in the making. So it is with a life, anyone's life. I may list things that might be described as my accomplishments in these few pages, but they are only shadows of the larger truth, fragments separated from the whole cycle of becoming. And if I can tell an old-time story now about a man who is walking about, waudjoset ndatlokugan, a forest lodge man, alesakamigwi udlagwedewugan, it is because I spent many years walking about myself, listening to voices that came not just from the people but from animals and trees and stones.” - Joseph Bruchac

15. “No plaque reminds the passer-by of these glories, although there should be one; for those who invent biscuits bring great pleasure to many.” - Alexander McCall Smith

16. “You don't have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.” - Viggo Mortensen

17. “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.” - Andrew Davidson

18. “I look back now and realize that the gift of a true friend is that she sees you not the way you see yourself or the way others see you. A true friend sees you for who you are and who you can become.” - Robin Jones Gunn

19. “من نمّ لك نمّ بك, ومن نقل إليك نقل عنك, ومن إذا أرضيته فقال ماليس فيك, كذلك إذا أغضبته قال فيك ماليس فيك.” - محمد بن إدريس الشافعي

20. “Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.” - Benjamin Franklin

21. “No mortal man has ever served at the same time his passions and his best interests.” - Sallust

22. “A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell.” - Thomas Fuller

23. “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.” - Bruce Lee

24. “Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on--that is, badly.” - George Orwell

25. “Good morning," said the little prince.Good morning," said the merchant.This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need for anything to drink.Why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.Because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the merchant. "Computations have been made by experts. With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?"Anything you like..."As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

26. “For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress -- to the future.” - Erich Maria Remarque

27. “This world is your best teacher. There is a lesson in everything. There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise. Every failure is a stepping stone to success. Every difficulty or disappointment is a trial of your faith. Every unpleasant incident or temptation is a test of your inner strength. Therefore nil desperandum. March forward hero!” - Sivananda

28. “Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. ” - Ludwig Börne

29. “He is beginning to master wisdom when he tries to learn how not to try.” - Paul Brunton

30. “He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.” - Samuel Johnson

31. “It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.” - Otto von Bismarck

32. “What people want, mainly, is to be told by some plausible authority that what they are already doing is right. I don't know know of a quicker way to become unpopular than to disagree.” - John Brunner

33. “Money is the root of all evil.' Then we hear, 'A fool and his money are soon parted.' What are they talking about? If money is so evil, shouldn't it be, 'A wise man and his money are soon parted'? And another thing, how does a fool get money in the first place? I know some fools who have a lot of money, but they won't tell me how they got it, and I won't tell them.” - George Burns

34. “I love you , Valentine’ is actually a popular phrase used in greeting cards.”If you were sending me one, what would it say?” he asks.I love you, too, Roman.”And there it is, words that I dread to say and do mean, because with them comes the responsibility of owning it, moving forward together and deciding for real who we are to each other. Now we’re not just lovers discovering what we like and sharing what we know. In this mutual declaration, we’re accountable to each other. We’re in love, and now, our relationship has to build slowly and beautifully in order to hold all the joy and misery that lies ahead.” - Adriana Trigiani

35. “There are some who deploy casual wisdom for the purpose of engaging.” - Santosh Kalwar

36. “Be a craftsman in speech that thou mayest be strong, for the strength of one is the tongue, and speech is mightier than all fighting.” - Ptahhotep

37. “The Master said, “A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present.”(Analects 2.11)” - Confucius

38. “If you're going to hit a car, try to be sure that it's not a cop car” - Judy Gold

39. “I do not expect old heads on young shoulders.” - C.S. Lewis

40. “Perhaps the rare and simple pleasure of being seen for what one is compensates for the misery of being it.” - Margaret Drabble

41. “Chase away sorrow by living” - Melissa Marr

42. “He felt a little lost, after that experience. Lost as the girls on their knees. It was a never-ending story of young girls losing themselves, such that they were no longer humans with any souls or characters, but pretty girls with fat asses and nice tits.” - Jess C. Scott

43. “I would much rather be considered wise than smart. But, I still think it is wise to get an education.” - Destiny Booze

44. “Logic is immaturity weaving its nets of gossamer wherewith it aims to catch the behemoth of knowledge. Logic is a crutch for the cripple, but a burden for the swift of foot and a greater burden still for the wise.” - Mikhail Naimy

45. “If one makes a mistake, then an apology is usually sufficient to get things back on an even keel. However-and this is a big ‘however’- most people do not ever know why their apology did not seem to have any effect. It is simply that they did not make a mistake; they made a choice…and never understood the difference between the two.” - Andy Andrews

46. “Quand on parle des vices d’un homme, si on vous dit : “Tout le monde le dit” ne le croyez pas ; si l’on parle de ses vertus en vous disant encore : “Tout le monde le dit”, croyez-le.” - Chateaubriand

47. “Just because you're in a situation, doesn't mean you have to be that situation. You're not the situation you're in!” - K.M. Johnson

48. “I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,Stuffed with the stuff that is course, and stuffed with the stuff that is fine, one of the nation, of many nations, the smallest the same and the the largest” - Walt Whitman

49. “ The well of your soul will not experience the drought until in front of her will appear the moment of eternity to drink from the water of death.” - Sorin Cerin

50. “A wealth of experience and wisdom doesn't have to be a dead giveaway to your increasing years. The spin you put on it is what will keep you young. Don't let it make you bitter. Learn from it, and let it make you better.” - Jayleigh Cape

51. “You'll never reach perfection because there's always room for improvement. Yet get along the way to perfection, you'll learn to get better.” - Hlovate

52. “من ذا الذى يستطيع أن يفصح عن مكنون نفسه بمجرد الكلمات” - محمد المنسى قنديل ؛ قمر على سمرقند

53. “Seek and see all the marvels around you. You will get tired of looking at yourself alone, and that fatigue will make you deaf and blind to everything else. - Don Juan” - Carlos Castaneda

54. “Imagine others complexly.” - John Green

55. “Respect yourself and others will come to respect you. That is true about all of us, but especially true about women. That is the meaning of honour.” - Abdulrazak Gurnah

56. “There are two paths of which one may choose in the walk of life; one we are born with, and the one we consciously blaze. One is naturally true, while the other is a perceptive illusion. Choose wisely at each fork in the road.” - T.F. Hodge

57. “There are those who know and those who don't know. And for every ten thousand who don't know there's only one who knows. That's the miracle of all time--the fact that these millions know so much but don't know this.” - Carson McCullers

58. “[T]he wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile.” - Charles Dickens

59. “yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful thingsand your tongue were not concocting some evil to sayshame would not hold down your eyesbut rather you would speak about what is just” - Sappho

60. “We do not need to eat animals, wear animals, or use animals for entertainment purposes, and our only defense of these uses is our pleasure, amusement, and convenience.” - Gary L. Francione

61. “When it comes to life and love, why do we believe our worst reviews?” - Sarah Jessica Parker

62. “Only those who row the boat make waves” - Christina Dodd

63. “You don't always need to know your destination when you set out on a journey.” - Carole Wilkinson

64. “You call forth the world which God has formed and that world only. Nor is this life of yours by which you set such store your doing, however you may choose to tell it. Its shape was forced in the void at the onset and all talk of what might otherwise have been is senseless for there is no otherwise. Of what could it be made? Where be hid? Or how make its appearance? The probability fo the actual is absolute. That we have no power to guess it out beforehand makes it no less certain. That we may imagine alternate histories means nothing at all.” - Cormac McCarthy

65. “Understanding the true nature of things, or seeing things as they really are, is the ground of wisdom.” - Allan Lokos

66. “You got up off the bathroom floor. That’s a start. Now, just stay off the floor. After all—aside from winning the lottery—all any of us can ever really hope for is more days spent standing tall than spent in pieces on the floor.” - Sarah Spann

67. “We all have scars, Mia; they are supposed to make you stronger, not paralyze you.” ~Cole” - Tina Carreiro

68. “Those who want to buy wisdom remain with out wisdom, because money buys nothing except commodities.” - Meseret Geneti

69. “Wherever you are, however you got there, if it's good, you're meant to be there either because you earned it or life led you there and you were smart enough to hold on.” - Kristen Ashley

70. “Giving is the only way of taking part” - Benny Bellamacina

71. “I'm not lost, because I haven't any idea where to go that I might get lost on the way to. I'd like to get lost, because then I'd know where I was going, you see.” - Catherynne M. Valente

72. “And the fox said to the little prince: men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

73. “There’s a Chinese proverb that says “Wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you & embracing those that strengthen you” Your mind is like a Ferrari (Or your favorite car) it is Awesome!...but if you put sand on the gas tank it won’t run. Don’t put sand (negativity) on your mind. Think positive, encouraging, uplifting thoughts, & the negative will soon evaporate.” - Pablo

74. “To hate others is ugly.To hate yourself is uglier.” - Hlovate

75. “If you are what you eat, you are what you see and hear.” - E.A. Bucchianeri

76. “人間の最大の武器は、習慣と信頼だ” - 伊坂幸太郎

77. “I would rather risk failure than achieve it without risk.” - Millard Johnson

78. “Fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. Only Fools despise wisdom and discipline." Proverbs 1:7 NLT” - Eddie Johnson

79. “Let us be sure that the lady of our choice possesses certain tangible qualities that we admire; and if in other ways she falls short of our ideal, we must be patient and call to mind those qualities that first induced us to begin our courting.” - Lady Murasaki Shikibu

80. “The good and wise lead quite lives” - Euripides

81. “If she could no longer be called beautiful, she possessed something better-a knowledge of beauty; it’s inflated value, it’s inevitable loss.” - Hilary Thayer Hamann

82. “Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.Youth means a tempermental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirits back to dust.Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what's next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young. When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.” - Samuel Ullman

83. “A botanist would have been stumped, coming across a tree like this one. Yet, if we are to judge a tree by its fruit, it was clearly an avocado. I picked the fruit, sliced it open, and tasted it to make sure. There was no doubt in my mind. If it looks like an avocado and tastes like an avocado, it has got to be an avocado. However, the tree itself had a white bark like that of a birch and its sap tasted like birch juice. Its leaves were delicate like that of a cypress, while its trunk and the root system reminded me of a baobab. Could it be that someone had grafted an avocado on to a baobab tree? And if so, why the bark so white and the leaves so, well, feathery, and delicate yet bold like a dragonfly’s wing? Why is there not another tree like it nearby? Where had the seed of this tree come from? I had no answer. So, I put the seed of the fruit in my pocket and took it home with me to see if I could make it grow.” - Uguïsse Packard

84. “الحب هو ذكاء المسافة، ألّا تقترب كثيرًا فتلغي اللهفة، ولا تبتعد طويلًا فتُنسى.” - أحلام مستغانمي

85. “You become what you think about most of the time” - Brian Tracy

86. “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.” - C.G. Jung

87. “They who suspect a Mephistophiles, or sneering, satirical devil, under all, have not learned the secret of true humor, which sympathizes with gods themselves, in view of their grotesque, half-finished creatures.” - Henry David Thoreau

88. “...here's what I've learned - people will hurt you, but you don't have to respond - not every mean comment or cruel act deserves to be noticed ...” - John Geddes

89. “Some people today are wandering generalities instead of meaningful specifics because they have failed to discover and mine the wealth of potentials in them.” - Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

90. “You see, unlearning is a very important process towards becoming enlightened, because in this life you will have learned wrong ways and those wrong ways that you have learned are barriers blocking you from becoming who you really are, therefore it is vital that they are unlearned.” - Andrew James Pritchard

91. “A revolution in the eyes of man carries purpose.A revolution in the eyes of the awakened carries bliss.” - Sal Martinez

92. “You said I could be anything I wanted when I was older', I said.She smiled and said, 'And you can be. But it's not very easy to become Jewish.''I know,' I said forlornly, 'I need a number.'And she suddenly stopped smiling.” - Sarah Winman

93. “No man is an island, no man stands alone” - Dennis Brown crown prince of reggae

94. “Be thou glad sleeper and thy sorrow offcast. I am the gate to all good adventure.” - C.S. Lewis

95. “His Highness was always confident in his statements, especially about what he viewed for the first time.” - Dejan Stojanovic

96. “It does not take age to be a sage, neither does it require rage to have the courage to be a sage in this day and age.” - Ogwo David Emenike

97. “Love is almost never simple.” - Dejan Stojanovic

98. “Our desire to say more grows bigger and what to say about it, except that saying is not always about saying, growing is not always about growing.” - Dejan Stojanovic

99. “A big desire is not enough to meet the expectations of lost dreams.” - Dejan Stojanovic

100. “Nature is an outcry, unpolished truth; the art—a euphemism—tamed wilderness.” - Dejan Stojanovic

101. “Even great men bow before the Sun; it melts hubris into humility.” - Dejan Stojanovic

102. “Entering a cell, penetrating deep as a flying saucer to find a new galaxy would be an honorable task for a new scientist interested more in the inner state of the soul than in outer space.” - Dejan Stojanovic

103. “Nothing reminds us of an awakening more than rain.” - Dejan Stojanovic

104. “Unjustified ambition kills value,Kills someone else's desire to fly, Cuts their wings, sucks their air.If there is nothing else, it eats its own life.” - Dejan Stojanovic

105. “We traveled long and forgot why poetry was invented.” - Dejan Stojanovic

106. “Nothing is part of everything.” - Dejan Stojanovic

107. “I can see myself before myself—A being through dark scenery.” - Dejan Stojanovic

108. “The world contained in a seed, Determined by its program.” - Dejan Stojanovic

109. “You are hurrying to the sweet place, To the nonsense chasing your spirit And in the nonsense you look for answers.” - Dejan Stojanovic

110. “The quickest way to the top, is getting off your bottom” - Benny Bellamacina

111. “I guess when you'd lived as long, and pondered as much, as Old Tom had...a game of hopscotch could be more profound than village politics or gossip.” - Linda Medley

112. “A place without meaning is no place to be.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

113. “It is certainly true that reason is the most important and the highest rank among all things and, in comparison with other things of this life, the best and something divine. It is the inventor and mentor of all the arts, medicines, laws, and of whatever wisdom, power, virtue, and glory men possess in this life.” - Martin Luther

114. “My wisdom is as spurned as chaos. What is my nothingness, compared to the amazement that awaits you?” - Arthur Rimbaud

115. “The deeper you hate the longer you hurt” - Benny Bellamacina

116. “Just handle what is in front of you now and the future will take care of itself. Otherwise, you'll spend most of your life wondering which foot you'll use to step off the curb when you're still only halfway to the corner.” - Dan Millman

117. “Hebzucht heeft geen kleur.” - Deon Meyer

118. “I'm who i wasn't yesterday and who i won't be tomorrow.” - Emmanuel Aghado

119. “I had a magical day during one Sunday when I walked out in nature. On the outside this day only consisted of taking a walk out in the beautiful sunny weather and cleaning my apartment, but on the inside everything suddenly changed. When I walked out in nature in the sunny weather, a silent explosion suddenly happened within me and my whole perception of reality changed. In a single moment, everything had changed, although nothing on the outside had really changed. Everything on the outside was exactly as before, but my way of seeing had changed. The difference was that before I did not see and now I could see. My eyes were open. Suddenly I was one with everything, one with the stones, one with the trees and one with the people that I meet on my walk. My heart danced with joy together with a feeling of: ”I am God”. Not that I am the creator of everything, but that I am part of the Whole, part of the divine. It felt like coming home, that Existence is my home. I also saw that even if the people that I meet did not understand that they are a part of the Whole, they still are a part of the Whole. I felt the waves of Existence in my own heart and being and I felt like a small wave in a great ocean. It gave a taste of the eternal, a taste of the limitless and boundless source of creativity. In just a few moments, I learnt more than during 20 years in university. Wisdom is basically the understanding that we all are part of the Whole. We are all small rivers moving towards the ocean. I laughed at the fact that enlightenment is really our innate birthright, and that small children already live in this mystical unity with the Whole.” - Swami Dhyan Giten

120. “A person is a great process, a bridge from animal to Soul. But we do not know about it” - Anatoliy Obraztsov

121. “There are ultimately two choices in life: to fight it or to embrace it. If you fight it you will lose - if you embrace it you become one with it and you'll be lived.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

122. “But the healing place is within you. Healing is a gift you were granted at birth, just as you were granted others. Use your gifts, child. Use the beauty, the courage, the hope and the love that is in you. Call upon your strength. Use compassion and faith. Even during sad times joy is within you. Bring it forth. Wisdom is there to guide you. Use any one of your gifts and you will rouse the power of your healing place. Use all of them and you will sustain it.” - Charlene Costanzo

123. “An egoist is always intelligent, never wise.” - Raheel Farooq

124. “Christ is in me...Christ is my life, this is why i live the higher life...and the reason why i am more than a conqueror!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

125. “No matter how many sins you make or how slow you travel back toward God's valley, you are still way ahead of a person who never made a mistake and doesn't know what it is like to climb out of a pit of shame and rise above their temptations.” - Shannon L. Alder

126. “Follow your heart, but don't lose your mind along the way.” - Zack W. Van

127. “If there is anything unique about the human animal, it is that it has the ability to grow knowledge at an accelerating rate while being chronically incapable of learning from experience.” - john gray

128. “I think so. There are so many tales, so strange and beautiful and perfect. They are not what are real, but better. I thought I had something that was magic once, but I lost it, and now I don’t think it was at all.” She touched her chest where the handkerchief had been and frowned. “I wish there was magic. If all the tales were true, then maybe they could tell me what I’m doing, and what I am to do now.”“Ah, now, don’t cry over lost years and forgetfulness. The tales tell what they can. The rest is for us to learn. The question is, are we smart enough to figure for ourselves? Now, that’s what I’d like to know.” - Shannon Hale

129. “I was not 15 anymore, and choices no longer had that same clear, bright edge to them.” - Geraldine Brooks