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/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/pdln3czv  ·  submitted 1997

You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think.

Dorothy Parker, (when asked to use the word "horticulture" in a sentence), in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hutuz2wq  ·  submitted 1997

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

Ellen Parr, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/ctg0dc6w  ·  submitted 1999 by Bill Masterson

All generalizations are false, including this one.

Blaise Pascal, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/xrmys3sk  ·  submitted 1997

Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.

Luciano Pavarotti, in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/ipsoc5wu  ·  submitted 1997

The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living.

Wendell Phillips, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/vp1lnrlz  ·  submitted 1997

Everything you can imagine is real.

Pablo Picasso, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/s6frnocs  ·  submitted 1997

The Republic (paperback)

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

Plato, The Republic, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/63vctqjk  ·  submitted 1997

Thinking is the soul talking to itself.

Plato, in Wisdom and Ignorance