Our Centers for Ethics:

Quotations: Wisdom

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All receive advice. Only the wise profit from it.
— Publilius Syrus, Roman epigrammatist (fl. 42 B.C.)

If thou thinkest twice before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it.
— William Penn, Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania (1644-1718)

A wise man knows everything; a shrewd one, everybody.
— Unknown

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
— Francis Bacon, English philosopher of science and essayist (1561-1626)

The Way of the Sage is to act but not to compete.
— Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (fl. 6th century B.C., possibly apocryphal), in the Tao Te Ching

Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
— Cato the Elder, Roman censor (234-149 B.C.)

Never kick a man when he’s up.
— Thomas Tip ONeill, American politician, speaker of the House of Representatives (1912-1994)

Whatever your grade or position, if you know how and when to speak, and when to remain silent, your chances of real success are proportionately increased.
— Ralph C. Smedley, American founder of Toastmasters International (1878-1965)

To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, public philosopher and poet (1803-1882)

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
— Henri Bergson, French philosopher (1859-1941)

To sensible men, every day is a day of reckoning.
— John W. Gardner, American nonprofit leader, founder of Common Cause (1912-2002)

Always imitate the behavior of the winner when you lose.
— Unknown

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