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Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/bza7uu5d  ·   Fair (633 ratings)  ·  submitted 1999 by Erwin van Moll

My advanced age has taught me the resignation of being Borges.

Jorge Luis Borges, "El informe de Brodie", in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/inomue9p  ·   Fair (1073 ratings)  ·  submitted 1999 by Erwin van Moll

There is no intellectual exercise which is not ultimately useless.

Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote", in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/wagakfth  ·   Fair (945 ratings)  ·  submitted 1999

Learning to shrug is the beginning of wisdom.

Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/ow2rizet  ·   Fair (1056 ratings)  ·  submitted 1998

In order to keep an open mind, I am trying to avoid learning anything.

Ashleigh Brilliant, Brilliant Thoughts (copyright info: www.ashleighbrilliant.com), in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/kl2zmoog  ·   Fair (1000 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997 by Barry Cantor

Today's children are required to learn what most people in former times were forbidden to know.

Ashleigh Brilliant, Brilliant Thoughts (copyright info: www.ashleighbrilliant.com), in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/rci53dro  ·   Fair (39 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.

Henry Peter Brougham, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hk1fnrrg  ·   Fair (23 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

The less you know, the more you think you know, because you don't know you don't know.

Ray Stevens, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/3laiwzst  ·   Fair (88 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

Harry S Truman, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/ef1mcjvo  ·   Fair (138 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.

Robert Louis Stevenson, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/5hbi0ras  ·   Fair (37 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Bravery and stupidity go hand in hand.

David Summers, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/s2pjkz1e  ·   Fair (49 ratings)  ·  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  ·   Fair (26 ratings)  ·  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  ·   Fair (265 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Henry David Thoreau, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/cu6vdywe  ·   Fair (38 ratings)  ·  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  ·   Fair (136 ratings)  ·  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  ·   Fair (49 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

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

James Thurber, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/byjgwlzg  ·   Fair (142 ratings)  ·  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/r0a9zwmr  ·   Fair (121 ratings)  ·  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/bucadpxy  ·   Fair (340 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said, "I don't know."

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/uvmow3r4  ·   Fair (76 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.

Mark Van Doren, in Wisdom and Ignorance