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Words of Wisdom |
Wisdom is a rare commodity highly praised and cherished through all the centuries of the human history. Here is the collection of the words of wisdom; clever phrases and famous quotes and citations that you might find interesting. For easier reference all citations are placed in the appropriate sections. Just click on the subject you find interesting for yourself or on the appropriate page and you will jump to the collection of clever and wise phrases for this theme. Last update: 27th of August, 2002 |
History Imagination Knowledge Life Love Mind Originality and Standards Ourselves Politics Prayers Science and Technology Society |
Spiritual Truth Universe War Wealth and Poor Wise Advices Wisdom and Foolishness With Smile about Serious Women Work World around Us Writing |
SOMETHING ABOUT ADVICES... |
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. Erica Jong Most people when they come to you for advice, come to have their own opinions strengthened, not corrected. Josh Billings He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it. Karl Von Knebel |
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Whatever advice you give, be short. Horace In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise. Ralph Waldo Emerson Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. Erica Jong No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious. G. B. Shaw |
SOMETHING ABOUT ANIMALS... |
All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. Samuel Butler Creatures which, lacking mankind's superior brain power, did not concern themselves with finding someone to blame, and instead tried to find someone to eat. Terry Pratchett "Jingo" Dogs come when you call them. Cats take a message and get back to you. |
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Experimental animals, under carefully controlled laboratory conditions, do what they damned will please. Harvard Law of Animal Behavior There are two means of refuge from the misery of life - music and cats. Albert Schweitzer In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him. Dereke Bruce |
SOMETHING ABOUT CHILDREN... |
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. James Baldwin Having children makes one no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist. Michael Levine Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you. Robert Fulghum |
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You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they're going. P. J. O'Rourke The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. Theodore Kesbourgh You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. Franklin P. Adams Sometimes we can be so anxious to provide our children with what we did not get in our childhood, that we might forget to give them what we did get. |
SOME CLEVER OBSERVATIONS... |
How easy it was to produce scape-goats and how readily they were accepted! This was especially true when the alternative was to find yourself either guilty or stupid or both. Frank Herbert "Heretics of Dune" Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Antoine de Saint Exupery It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Lena Horne Indecision and delays are the parents of failure. George Canning Quality is not an act. It is a habit. Aristotle Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman. Ludwig Van Beethoven People who cannot bear to be alone are generally the worst company. Albert Guinon Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley. James Rogers |
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It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them. Alfred Adler There's a mighty big difference between good sound reasons, and reasons that sound good. Burton Hillis A law guaranteeing privacy simply insures that bugs are that much harder to spot. Bad hunter chases, good hunter waits. Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. Mark Twain Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. There is nothing about a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. A Gresham's Law: the fakes would undermine the value of the real. Everything enjoyable is either immoral, illegal, or fattening. Oscar Wilde Everything is idiocy if you choose to look at it in the proper light. David Eddings "Belgarion" |
SOMETHING ABOUT COMMUNICATION... |
Demagogues are so easy to identify. They gesture a lot and speak with pulpit rhythms, using words that ring of religious fervour and god-fearing sincerity. Sincerity with nothing behind it takes so much practice. The practice can always be detected. Repetition. Great attempts to keep your attention on words. Frank Herbert "Chapterhouse: Dune" Silence is often the best thing to say. Frank Herbert "Chapterhouse: Dune" When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of custom and training. Frank Herbert "Heretics of Dune" Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter. Samuel J. Hurwitt Setting an example is not the main mean of influencing another, it is the only mean. Albert Einstein A speech is like a love affair. Any fool can start one, but to end it requires considerable skill. Lord Mancroft The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Tact is the ability to make a person see lightning without letting him feel the bolt. Orlando A. Battista We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation, for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers. Seneca |
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The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said. Peter F. Drucker Reason is the first victim of strong emotion. Frank Herbert "Dune Messiah" Most deadly errors arise from obsolete assumptions. Frank Herbert "Children of Dune" Surely it's no coincidence that the word "listen" is an anagram of the word "silent"! There is nothing so annoying as to have two people go right on talking when you're interrupting. Mark Twain Nothing so much needs reforming as other people's habits. Mark Twain Few things are harder to put up with than a good example. Mark Twain You can see a lot just by listening. People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But they won't forget the way you made them feel. A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's. Jean Paul Richter Nothing improves a person's hearing better than praise. For someone to be taken seriously it was valuable to have the appearance of someone who deserved to be taken seriously. Frederik Pohl "Starburst" |
SOMETHING ABOUT THE DEATH... |
If you're going to risk dying, there's no sense doing it wet, cold and hungry unless absolutely necessary. Raymond E. Feist "Silverthorn" Despite rumor, death isn't cruel - merely terribly, terribly good at his job. Terry Pratchett To that which is born, death is certain; to that which is dead, birth is certain. L. E. Modesitt, Jr. |
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Every man dies. Not every man lives. Tim Robbins To suspect your own mortality is to know the beginning of terror; to learn irrefutably that you are mortal is to know the end of terror. Frank Herbert "Children of Dune" |
SOMETHING ABOUT EXPERIENCE... |
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. Miguel de Cervantes It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. Epictetus What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens. Thaddeus Golas Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again. F. P. Jones |
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Experience is the name everyone gives to his mistakes. Oscar Wilde Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand. Chinese Proverb Some of us learn from the mistakes of others; the rest of us have to be the others. Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him. Aldous Huxley |
SOMETHING ABOUT THE FAMILY... |
By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. Socrates Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your children. Any married man should forget his mistakes - there's no point in two people remembering the same thing... |
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Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage: he didn't have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn't have to hear about the way his mother cooked. You have finally grown up when you can have a good laugh - at yourself. You don't marry someone you can live with - you marry the person who you cannot live without. |
SOME FAMOUS QUOTES... |
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Santayana As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can. Julius Caesar He that does good to another does good also to himself. Seneca He who has begun has half done. Horace If a man would move the world, he must first move himself. Socrates We will either find a way, or make one. Hannibal When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I would rather die on my feet than continue to live on my knees. Zappatta Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. |
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I think, therefore I am. Decartes Necessity is the mother of invention. Give me a place to stand, and I will move the world. Archimedes No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. Heraclitus Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. Confucius An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity. Winston Churchill The truth is the only one thing that nobody will believe. George Bernard Shaw Ultimately, no one can extract from things, books included, more than he already knows. What one has no access to through experience one has no ear for. Nietsche That which does not destroy us makes us stronger. Nietsche |
SOMETHING ABOUT FRIENDS AND ENEMIES... |
An ignorant friend is worse than a learned foe. Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson "Prelude to Dune: House Corrino" The true warrior often understands his enemy better than he understands his friends. A dangerous pitfall if you let understanding lead to sympathy as it will naturally do when left unguided. Most perilous are the unconscious sympathies directing you to preserve your enemy intact because the enemy is your justification for existence. Frank Herbert "Chapterhouse: Dune" Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them. W. Clement Stone Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults. Benjamin Franklin Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes. Antisthenes The wise learn many things from their enemies. Aristophanes Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Napoleon Bonaparte A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire. François Duc de La Rochefoucauld |
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Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends. Euripedes However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship. François Duc de La Rochefoucauld Do not count a human dead until you've seen his body. And even then you can make a mistake. One should forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged. Heinrich Heine Before you borrow money from a friend, decide which one you need more. Most victories came from instantly exploiting your enemy's stupid mistakes, and not from any particular brilliance in your own plan. O.S. Card "Shadow of the Hegemon" True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost. Charles Caleb Colton People need an enemy to feel a sense of purpose. Terry Goodkind "Wizard's First Rule" If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. Mark Twain |
SOMETHING ABOUT GOVERNMENT... |
Major flaw in government arise from a fear of making radical internal changes even though a need is clearly seen. Frank Herbert "Chapterhouse: Dune" Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate. Frank Herbert "Chapterhouse: Dune" "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Wrong. Power attracts the corruptible. Frank Herbert "Chapterhouse: Dune" We should grant power over our affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase the reluctance. Frank Herbert "Chapterhouse: Dune" Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation which produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept? Frank Herbert "Heretics of Dune" It used to be only death and taxes were inevitable. Now, of course, there's shipping and handling, too. The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. Milton Friedman No nation ever taxed itself into prosperity. Rush Limbaugh Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent. H. L. Mencken It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Voltai |