Wisdom Quotes
Sad Quotes about Wisdom

Always be a first-rate version of yourself,
instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
- Judy Garland

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil.
- Japanese pictorial maxim (the Three Wise Monkeys)

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation
and go to the grave with the song still in them.
- Henry David Thoreau

Speak when you are angry -
and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret.
- Laurence J. Peter

I am a Passionate Observer of Life.
I See the events, feel the emotions,
and recognize the difference.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning.
We give our own meaning to time as to life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin

The words of truth are always paradoxical.
- Lao Tzu

Don't Take Anything Personally.
Nothing others do is because of you.
- Miguel Angel Ruiz (don Miguel Ruiz)

What's done is done.
- William Shakespeare

He is richest who is content with the least,
for content is the wealth of nature.
- Socrates

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again,
but expecting different results.
- Rita Mae Brown, also attributed to Einstein

Life is a succession of lessons
which must be lived to be understood.
- Helen Keller

Beware the Rattlesnake of the Mind.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The life of inner peace,
being harmonious and without stress,
is the easiest type of existence.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Happiness cannot thrive within the prison of obligation
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The Main Thing is to Keep
The Main Thing The Main Thing.
- Stephen Covey

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences.
No one can eliminate prejudices -
just recognize them.
- Edward R. Murrow

The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson

The world is perfect. It's a mess.
It has always been a mess.
We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
- Joseph Campbell

Change what you see,
by changing how you see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Happiness walks on busy feet.
- Kitte Turmell

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

Life is without meaning.
You bring the meaning to it.
The meaning of life is
whatever you ascribe it to be.
Being alive is the meaning.
- Joseph Campbell

Everything has beauty,
but not everyone sees it.
- Confucius

Silence is a source of great strength.
- Lao Tzu

Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

This above all, to thine own self be true.
- William Shakespeare

People only see what they are prepared to see.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When It's Darkest, Men See the Stars.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is really simple,
but we insist on making it complicated.
- Confucius

"Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

What we think, we become.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.
- The Buddha

A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu

The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

The truly rich are those who enjoy what they have.
- Yiddish Proverb

Bringing a childlike wonder
and a beginner's mind to life
maximizes both success and joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There are no facts, only interpretations.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr (Serenity Prayer)

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
- Lao Tzu

Footprints in the sands of time...
Where have you been?
Where are you going?
Why are you going there?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The book of life is filled with incoherent riddles.
Life's true lessons are inscribed in a corner of the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

He who knows others is wise.
He who knows himself is enlightened.
- Lao Tzu

I am a Passionate Observer of Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Where there's a will, there's a way.
- old English proverb

I do not need anyone's permission to be my true self.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Talent is God-given; be humble.
Fame is man-given; be thankful.
Conceit is self-given; be careful.
- John Wooden

To the mind that is still,
the whole universe surrenders.
- Lao Tzu

The person who you're with most in life is yourself
and if you don't like yourself,
you're always with somebody you don't like.
- Marc S. Lewis

In human intercourse the tragedy begins,
not when there is misunderstanding about words,
but when silence is not understood.
- Henry David Thoreau

A well-developed sense of humor
is the pole that adds balance to your steps,
as you walk the tightrope of life.
- William Arthur Ward

It is a mistake to look too far ahead.
Only one link in the chain of destiny
can be handled at a time.
- Winston Churchill

Momma always said dyin' was a part of life.
I sure wish it wasn't.
- the movie Forrest Gump

"Hurry up" ranks right up there with "you need to"
as a destroyer of our humanity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero

Life's burdens are lighter when I laugh at myself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked,
in which you can walk with love and reverence.
- Henry David Thoreau

Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Treat those who are good with goodness,
and also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
Be honest to those who are honest,
and be also honest to those who are not honest.
Thus honesty is attained.
- Lao Tzu

Play with life, laugh with life,
dance lightly with life,
and smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life's only true lessons
are writ small in the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

He who is contented is rich.
- Lao Tzu

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen

Is today a day to gather strength from the storm -
a day to to learn life lessons for the next battle?
Or is today a day to sit by the fire
and watch the storm rage outside?
Either way, the storm is just life.
Give thanks for all of Life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When I let go of what I am,
I become what I might be.
- Lao Tzu

For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, "It might have been.
- John Greenleaf Whittier

We take refuge in pride,
because we are afraid to tell the truth to ourselves.
- Kakuzo Okakura

There is beauty and adventure in the commonplace
for those with eyes to see beyond.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
- Mark Twain (attributed)