Quotes on Wise

There is no satisfying the senses, not even with a shower of money. "The senses are of slight pleasure and really suffering." When a wise man has realised this, he takes no pleasure, as a disciple of the Buddhas, even in the pleasures of heaven. Instead he takes pleasure in the elimination of craving.

To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?

The wise man will not pardon any crime that ought to be punished, but he will accomplish, in a nobler way, all that is sought in pardoning. He will spare some and watch over some, because of their youth, and others on account of their ignorance. His clemency will not fall short of justice, but will fulfill it perfectly.

The wise have mastered body, word, and mind. They are the true masters.

The fragrance of sandalwood and rosebay does not travel far. But the fragrance of virtue rises to the heavens.

Mob rule and emasculation of the wise' and 'who will watch the guardians'?

As solid rock remains unmoved by the wind, so the wise remain unmoved by blame and praise.

Believe nothing because it is written in books. Believe nothing because wise men say it is so. Believe nothing because it is religious doctrine. Believe it only because you yourself know it to be true.

It is better to be wise, and not to seem so, than to seem wise, and not be so; yet men, for the most part, desire the contrary.

Since all of us desire to be happy, and since we evidently become so on account of our use—that is our good use—of other things, and since knowledge is what provides this goodness of use and also good fortune, every man must, as seems plausible, prepare himself by every means for this: to be as wise as possible. Right?

The wise man makes an island of himself that no flood can overwhelm.

'God put the rainbow in the clouds, not just in the sky'... It is wise to realize we already have rainbows in our clouds, or we wouldn't be here. If the rainbow is in the clouds, then in the worst of time, there is the possibility of seeing hope... We can say 'I can be a rainbow in the cloud for someone yet to be.' That may be our calling.

Let's say 'Yes' to life and 'No' to death.

Beware of the man whose God is in the skies.

Fools call wise men fools. A wise man never calls any man a fool.

It is wise not to seek a secret, and honest not to reveal one.

A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.

What we have learned to look for in a situation determines mostly what we see.

What you would seem to be, be really.

It’s time to stop being vague. If you wish to be an extraordinary person, if you wish to be wise, then you should explicitly identify the kind of person you aspire to become.

A word once let out of the cage cannot be whistled back again.