Aphorisms Galore!

Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/o4053hxu  ·  submitted 1997

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.

E. F. Schumacher, in Science and Religion and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/dyhkrulm  ·  submitted 1997

Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.

Delmore Schwartz, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/r2oe16bv  ·  submitted 1997

He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.

William Shakespeare, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/7vrvn3zw  ·  submitted 1997

Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.

George Bernard Shaw, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/gbu74gqh  ·  submitted 1997

Crude classifications and false generalizations are the curse of organized life.

George Bernard Shaw, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/zsy8hdo3  ·  submitted 1997

My father must have had some elementary education, for he could read and write and keep accounts inaccurately.

George Bernard Shaw, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/tde4qweo  ·  submitted 1997

The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.

George Bernard Shaw, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/spdfyk43  ·  submitted 1997

Advice is like kissing. It costs nothing and is a pleasant thing to do.

H. W. Shaw, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/yzyptgt2  ·  submitted 1997

The world's greatest heroes are the world's greatest fuck-ups.

Stacy Shaw, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/aj3tzjw2  ·  submitted 1997

Sometimes a whisper speaks volumes.

Scott Sheddan, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/inmjkhxu  ·  submitted 1997

If you hear a wise sentence or an apt phrase, commit it to your memory.

Sir Henry Sidney, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/0rczsoyu  ·  submitted 1997

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

Herbert Simon, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/tf9fn0vv  ·  submitted 1997

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

Socrates, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hk1fnrrg  ·  submitted 1997

The less you know, the more you think you know, because you don't know you don't know.

Ray Stevens, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/ef1mcjvo  ·  submitted 1997

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.

Robert Louis Stevenson, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/1b7ttrhh  ·  submitted 1997

We find comfort among those who agree with us; growth among those who don't.

Frank A. Clark, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/trlcjdxx  ·  submitted 1997

The most valuable and useful of all talents and abilities is that of never using two words or descriptions when one will do or suffice.

Dr. Squid, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/cmrnisvx  ·  submitted 1997

Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance.

Will Durant, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/wujpidqy  ·  submitted 1999

The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character. The only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionaries are philosophers and saints.

Will Durant, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/htczvg3n  ·  submitted 1997

Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.

The Earl of Chesterfield, in Wisdom and Ignorance