Aphorisms Galore!

Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

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

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/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/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/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/aj3tzjw2  ·  submitted 1997

Sometimes a whisper speaks volumes.

Scott Sheddan, 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/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/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/pwfxhqlj  ·  submitted 1997

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/9bdy4k6s  ·  submitted 1997

All thought is naught but a footnote to Plato.

George Santiano, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/4mch5yty  ·  submitted 1997

I'm always fascinated by the way memory diffuses fact.

Diane Sawyer, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/mgn8bwur  ·  submitted 1997

With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.

Friedrich von Schiller, in Wisdom and Ignorance

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/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/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/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/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/kjdwev6x  ·  submitted 1999 by Mark Richards

I am only serious about 20% of the time; one of the great joys of my life is the fact that I alone know when that is.

Mark Richards, in Wisdom and Ignorance