Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“I, of set will, speak words the wise may learn,
To others, nought remember nor discern.”
Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 38–39 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)
“No words suffice the secret soul to show,
For truth denies all eloquence to woe.”
Canto III, stanza 22.
The Corsair (1814)
Letter to Mrs. Blumberg (27 September 1977)
Context: There is not an idea that cannot be expressed in 200 words. But the writer must know precisely what he wants to say. If you have nothing to say and want badly to say it, then all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice.
Source: Time Must Have a Stop (1944), Chapter XXX, Character Bruno Rontini
“A word to the wise is enough.”
Dictum sapienti sat est.
Persa, Act IV, scene 7, line 19
Variant translation: A sentence is enough for a sensible man. (translator unknown)
More commonly found as Verbum sapienti (same meaning) and abbreviated to verb. sap. ; proverbially, “A word to the wise is sufficient”
Persa (The Persian)
The Himalayan Masters: A Living Tradition (2002)
“Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools.”
Interview, The Paris Review (Summer 1956)
“Good wits jump; 45 a word to the wise is enough.”
Variant: Good wits jump; 45 a word to the wise is enough.
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 38.
