“You cannot be totally sure when you're looking at something that you're seeing it clearly. You can only be sure you're going to look at it closely.”
David Hockney · Secret Knowledge lecture series, 2003
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Wisdom Quotes
WisdomTruth
286 quotes on wisdom and truth — from the classics to the everyday.
“I like people who have a sense of individuality. I think that's rare and it's to be admired.”
David Hockney · Interview, circa 1990s
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Chinese proverb
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.”
Abraham Lincoln
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
Confucius
“Do not grieve over what has passed, and do not be overjoyed by what has come to you.”
Luqman · Attributed in classical Arabic wisdom literature
“Silence is wisdom, yet few practice it.”
Luqman · Widely attributed in classical Arabic wisdom literature
“Be modest in your bearing and lower your voice, for the ugliest of all voices is the braying of asses.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:19
“Do not turn your nose up at people, nor walk about the place arrogantly, for God does not love arrogant or boastful people.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:18
“O my son, keep up the prayer, command what is right, forbid what is wrong, and bear with patience whatever befalls you. These are matters of great determination.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:17
“Afghanistan or Iraq?”
Sherlock Holmes · BBC Sherlock, Series 1, Episode 1: A Study in Pink, 2010
“Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side.”
Sherlock Holmes · BBC Sherlock, Series 2, Episode 1: A Scandal in Belgravia, 2012
“I'm not a psychopath, Anderson. I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.”
Sherlock Holmes · BBC Sherlock, Series 1, Episode 1: A Study in Pink, 2010
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
Robert Frost
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Will Durant · The Story of Philosophy, 1926
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
James Baldwin · "As Much Truth As One Can Bear," New York Times Book Review, 1962
