“There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for.”

—  movie Dead Poets Society

John Keating character

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Desiderius Erasmus photo

“No Man is wise at all Times, or is without his blind Side.”

Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian

The Alchymyst, in Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14031/14031.txt

Charles Darwin photo

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

volume I, chapter VI: "The Voyage", page 266 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=284&itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=image; letter to sister Susan Elizabeth Darwin (4 August 1836)
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
Source: The Life & Letters of Charles Darwin

Laxmi Prasad Devkota photo

“I call education that, which makes man a complete human, which teaches to utilize time…manufactures belief…”

Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909–1959) Nepali poet

शिक्षा (Education)

Laura Anne Gilman photo

“Call it not paranoia, but caution.”

Source: Flesh and Fire (2009), p. 96

Miguel de Cervantes photo

“Time ripens all things. No man is born wise. Bishops are made of men and not of stones.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 33. Note: "Time ripens all things" is the translator's interpolation and does not appear in the original Spanish text.

Mark Twain photo
Frank Herbert photo

“When a wise man does not understand, he says: "I do not understand."”

The fool and the uncultured are ashamed of their ignorance. They remain silent when a question could bring them wisdom.
The Godmakers (1972)

T.S. Eliot photo

“Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
Context: Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all: —
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.

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