Aphorisms Galore!

Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/sutptyxa  ·  submitted 1997

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.

Paul Fix, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/chnlsua0  ·  submitted 1997

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

Malcolm S. Forbes, in 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/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

tiny.ag/dc6pcq9o  ·  submitted 1997

All men naturally desire knowledge.

Aristotle, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/6wydulw8  ·  submitted 1997

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Aristotle, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/khtxcyl0  ·  submitted 1997

It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

Aristotle, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/q2cvf8pi  ·  submitted 1997

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

Aristotle, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/viymqgdo  ·  submitted 1997

Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am."

Ambrose Bierce, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/yfqykgpj  ·  submitted 1997

The Devil's Dictionary (paperback)

Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the fool their lack of understanding.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/6kh8ljvj  ·  submitted 1997

Knowledge is the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify.

Ambrose Bierce, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/y5vxd29g  ·  submitted 1997

Knowledge is like money: the more he gets, the more he craves.

Josh Billings, in Wisdom and Ignorance