Wisdom

I had to lean firmly into my grief until I didn’t need to anymore. I still believed that I deserved to feel the way that I was feeling. I still believed that I needed my grief in order to recognize myself. I needed to have him, so that I could know me.

"How am I supposed to help guide this family through a circumstance that I just barely made it through myself when I was younger?"

"My grief was insidious. He looked like me, and spoke in the tone of my voice. He knew my inflections, and influenced my facial expressions. He was more comfortable in my skin than I had ever dared to be. My grief appeared meek, but he stood firmly atop the crown of my heart. Always. But, I didn’t try to escape him. I believed that I needed to hold onto my grief, because I loved the memory of what gave him to me. I truly loved the person who left the charred, blistering imprint on my chest."

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; Third by experience, which is the bitterest.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

The wise man does not speak to those seeking the truth but to those who know it.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

To know how to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

No man was ever wise by chance.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Common sense is not so common.

In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence; the second, listening; the third, remembering; the fourth, practicing; the fifth, teaching others.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

The wisest among us is the one who is humble enough to recognize what he doesn't know.

Listen to understand, not to reply.

Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

Real wisdom is knowing the right thing to do, and doing it even when it's difficult.