“Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Other
“Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
“If you don’t look for snakes, you cannot complain when one bites you.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer
Lini
(15 October 1993)
Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine
Source: Dandelion Wine (1957), p. 142
Context: “I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Well.” She started pouring tea. “To start things off, what do you think of the world?”
“I don’t know anything.”
“The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you’re seventeen you know everything. When you’re twenty-seven if you still know everything you’re still seventeen.”
“You seem to have learned quite a lot over the years.”
“It is the privilege of old people to seem to know everything. But it’s an act and a mask, like every other act and mask. Between ourselves, we old ones wink at each other and smile, saying, How do you like my mask, my act, my certainty? Isn’t life a play? Don’t I play it well?”
They both laughed quietly.
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Other
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
Isocrates (-436–-338 BC) ancient greek rhetorician
Variant: True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Source: The Analects, Chapter II
“Wisdom… is knowing what you have to accept.”
Wallace Stegner book Angle of Repose
Source: Angle of Repose