Aphorisms Galore!

Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/icyaq4sy  ·  submitted 1997

Half a man's life is devoted to what he calls improvements, yet the original had some quality which is lost in the process.

E. B. White, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/1bm5oz9e  ·  submitted 1997

Education is an admirable thing, but nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Oscar Wilde, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/8dhiywlp  ·  submitted 1997

I am not young enough to know everything.

Oscar Wilde, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/dflvnw5h  ·  submitted 1997

I was asked by the customs if I had anything to declare. I said: Yes, I'd like to declare -- I'm a genius!

Oscar Wilde, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/e7pa2qtv  ·  submitted 1997

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Oscar Wilde, in Science and Religion and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hevntg1m  ·  submitted 1997

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.

H. H. Williams, in Wisdom and Ignorance and Work and Recreation

tiny.ag/iurrlmux  ·  submitted 1997

I use not only all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.

Woodrow Wilson, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/lveycuka  ·  submitted 1998

Just because you've been wiping your ass for twenty years, that doesn't mean you've been doing it right.

John Winsett, (said at a training seminar), in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hxzyk2h6  ·  submitted 1997

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/evgupvn3  ·  submitted 1997

I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.

Jane Austen, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/to1nvxvz  ·  submitted 1997

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.

Burt Bacharach, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/5hbi0ras  ·  submitted 1997

Bravery and stupidity go hand in hand.

David Summers, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/s2pjkz1e  ·  submitted 1997

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

Publilius Syrus, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/wvfixygn  ·  submitted 1997

Occasionally, I have to think like myself to remember where I put something.

Sue S. Taylor, in Wisdom and Ignorance

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/klphp6u7  ·  submitted 1997

Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality.

Theodor W. Adorno, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/6hcujeiu  ·  submitted 1997

tiny.ag/hfx4m7bz  ·  submitted 1998 by David Shorr

The Satyricon (paperback)

Wisdom and beauty form a very rare combination

Petronius Arbiter, The Satyricon, XCIV, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/2ljggwxr  ·  submitted 1997

Four Plays by Aristophanes (paperback)

The wise learn many things from their enemies.

Aristophanes, The Birds, 414 B.C., in Wisdom and Ignorance