Aphorisms Galore!

Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/jf8fhnam  ·  submitted 1997

It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Henry David Thoreau, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/cu6vdywe  ·  submitted 1997

He who learns and runs away, lives to learn another day.

Edward Lee Thorndike, in Life and Death and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/e9njxakr  ·  submitted 1997

Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?

Kelvin Throop, III, in Science and Religion and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/e2icakpf  ·  submitted 1997

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

James Thurber, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/rupnqvyt  ·  submitted 1997

Truly great madness can not be achieved without significant intelligence.

Henrik Tikkanen, in Science and Religion and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/r0a9zwmr  ·  submitted 1997

In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/byjgwlzg  ·  submitted 1997

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/uvmow3r4  ·  submitted 1997

Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.

Mark Van Doren, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/svogwyfm  ·  submitted 1997

Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.

Edgard Varese, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/t9jmvbpa  ·  submitted 1997

A witty saying proves nothing.

Voltaire, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hcrgr6oa  ·  submitted 1997

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

Voltaire, in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/kteay1fd  ·  submitted 1997

Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/1teeow0f  ·  submitted 1997

Calvin and Hobbes (paperback)

Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.

Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/htpbx3e8  ·  submitted 1997

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

Lao Tsu, in Wisdom and Ignorance and Work and Recreation

tiny.ag/nolhz29r  ·  submitted 1998

Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.

Bruce Lee, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hrlrndwx  ·  submitted 1997

If a person feels he can't communicate, the least he can do is shut up about it.

Tom Lehrer, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/pgdfkoxt  ·  submitted 1997

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius.

Larry Leissner, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/airwcz94  ·  submitted 1997

A book is a mirror; if an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.

G. C. Lichtenberg, in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/0h8wlpui  ·  submitted 1997

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.

John Lilly, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/ipa5yree  ·  submitted 1997

No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.

John A. Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), in Wisdom and Ignorance