“It seems the part of wisdom.”
Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 336.
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William Cowper174
(1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist 1731–1800Related quotes
“Not to know certain things is a great part of wisdom.”
Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) philosopher
As quoted in Wendy Toliver (ed.), The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Inspirational Quotes, p. 466
“Folly will run its course and it is the part of wisdom not to take it too seriously.”
John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 216
Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN
John Stuart Mill, as quoted by Stevenson in Call to Greatness (1954), p. 102; this has also been misquoted as "That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another."
Misattributed
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer
Sanctuary http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/wharton/books/snctr10.txt, (1903) part II, ch. IV
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist
K 37
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook K (1789-1793)
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book III, Ch. 8. Of the Art of Conversation
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)