To become wise you have to want to experience certain experiences, and so to run into their open jaws. This is very dangerous, to ...be sure; many a "wise man" has been eaten up in doing so.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A wise man will live as much within his wit as his income.... Bear this truth always in your mind, that you may be admired for you...r wit, if you have any; but that nothing but good sense and good qualities can make you be loved.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-...informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depth of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far... slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »