Aphorisms Galore!

Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/b8pl5th4  ·   Fair (343 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hevntg1m  ·   Fair (160 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.

H. H. Williams, in Wisdom and Ignorance and Work and Recreation

tiny.ag/hcrgr6oa  ·   Fair (349 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

Voltaire, in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/t9jmvbpa  ·   Fair (178 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

A witty saying proves nothing.

Voltaire, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/svogwyfm  ·   Fair (76 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.

Edgard Varese, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/uvmow3r4  ·   Fair (76 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.

Mark Van Doren, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/byjgwlzg  ·   Fair (142 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/r0a9zwmr  ·   Fair (121 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/bucadpxy  ·   Fair (340 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said, "I don't know."

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/ahogqesm  ·   Fair (350 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/g8ncpo30  ·   Fair (517 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody has read.

Mark Twain, in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/kteay1fd  ·   Fair (112 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/8dhiywlp  ·   Fair (458 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I am not young enough to know everything.

Oscar Wilde, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/1teeow0f  ·   Fair (377 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Calvin and Hobbes (paperback)

Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.

Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/lt8nmg5i  ·   Fair (124 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

H. G. Wells, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/icyaq4sy  ·   Fair (116 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Half a man's life is devoted to what he calls improvements, yet the original had some quality which is lost in the process.

E. B. White, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/1bm5oz9e  ·   Fair (461 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Education is an admirable thing, but nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Oscar Wilde, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/dflvnw5h  ·   Fair (438 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I was asked by the customs if I had anything to declare. I said: Yes, I'd like to declare -- I'm a genius!

Oscar Wilde, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/e7pa2qtv  ·   Fair (554 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Oscar Wilde, in Science and Religion and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/zsy8hdo3  ·   Fair (236 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

My father must have had some elementary education, for he could read and write and keep accounts inaccurately.

George Bernard Shaw, in Wisdom and Ignorance