Quotes on Wise

I write almost always in the third person, and I don't think the narrator is male or female anyway. They're both, and young and old, and wise and silly, and sceptical and credulous, and innocent and experienced, all at once. Narrators are not even human - they're sprites.

The silence of a wise man is always meaningful.

No one is wise or safe, but they that are honest.

You create your own universe as you go along.

In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it - thou art a fool.

Almost anything that you pay close, direct attention to becomes interesting.

We do know that no one gets wise enough to really understand the heart of another, though it is the task of our life to try.

Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.

The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.

The best things in life aren't things.

I could be content that we might procreate like trees, without conjunction, or that we were any way to perpetuate the world without this trivial and vulgar way of coition; it is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life.

Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.

Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool out of you that you will know yourself for one, and begin to be wise.

Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.

Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise.

It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not to venture all his eggs in one basket.

Dogs are wise. They crawl away into a quiet corner and lick their wounds and do not rejoin the world until they are whole once more.

Part of what makes a language 'alive' is its constant evolution. I would hate to think Britain would ever emulate France, where they actually have a learned faculty whose job it is to attempt to prevent the incursion of foreign words into the language. I love editing Harry with Arthur Levine, my American editor-the differences between 'British English' (of which there must be at least 200 versions) and 'American English' (ditto!) are a source of constant interest and amusement to me.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.