“Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.”

“Misfortunes cannot suffice to make a fool into an intelligent man.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

“A man is a golden impossibility. The line he must walk is a hair's breadth. The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book Experience

“The wheel of fortune […] tells us that we all only want victory. We all want to triumph. But we all have to learn to endure what comes. We have to learn to treat misfortune and great fortune with indifference. That is wisdom.”

Philippa Gregory book The Lady of the Rivers

“Wisdom is, I suppose, the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”

Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) British preacher, author, pastor and evangelist

“Don't be fooled by your own wisdom”

Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) Polish writer

“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

“To a fool time brings only age not wisdom.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

“If I am a fool then it is no misfortune, for then only one more fool will wander this Earth. Amongst the millions of mentally deranged it would barely be noticed. But what if I am not a fool, and that science itself has erred? Then the tragedy is incalculable!”

Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) austrian philosopher and inventor

“He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom.”

James Huneker (1857–1921) American music critic