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Wisdom Quotes
"The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by 'the veil of familiarity.' The child enjoys his cold meat, otherwise dull to him, by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savory for having been dipped in a story, by putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it."
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"Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don't listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don't listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what's behind the words."
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"The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth."
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"A long time ago someone told me that a story will tell itself, when it's ready."
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"A wife who discomforts you with truth is better than a mistress who massages you with lies."
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"Laws of silence don't work. When something is festering in your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work, it's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out."
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"When you sit down to write, write. Don't do anything else except go to the bathroom, and only do that if it absolutely cannot be put off."
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"What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure he that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after, gave us not that capability and god-like reason to fust in us unused."
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"A fish is a genius in water. An eagle is a genius in air. A fox is a genius on land. A sage is a genius in life."
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"Let go of something old that no longer serves you in order to make room for something new."
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"You can't have everything, I've often noticed it."
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"Discipline your mind to see the good in every situation and look on the best side of every event. Discipline your mind to think positively, to see the good in every situation and look on the best side of every event."
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"Don't burn your bridges until you build better ones."
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"Whenever you come upon a free supply of high-quality corn, provided unexpectedly right there in the middle of the forest, be careful! The people who put it there are probably sitting nearby in a stand, just waiting to take a shot at you. Keep your eyes and ears open!"
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"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."
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"Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science."
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"I never met a man that I didn't like."
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"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it."
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"As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser."
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"I always advise people never to give advice."
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"Contrary to Expectation. A wise man, the wonder of his age, taught his disciples from a seemingly inexhaustible store of wisdom. He attributed all his knowledge to a thick tome which was kept in a place of honour in his room. The sage would allow nobody to open the volume. When he died, those who had surrounded him, regarding themselves as his heirs, ran to open the book, anxious to possess what it contained. They were surprised, confused and disappointed when they found that there was writing on only one page. They became even more bewildered and then annoyed when they tried to penetrate the meaning of the phrase which met their eyes. It was: 'When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge."
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"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way."
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"Never cut down a tree whose shade you might need tomorrow."
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"There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted."
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"Be slow to teach, and quick to learn. Avoid impious people, run from fools, and seek out the wise."
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