"The discovery of truth by slow progressive meditation is wisdom. Intuition of truth, not preceded by perceptible meditation, is genius."

Johann Kaspar Lavater Literature See all quotes by Johann Kaspar Lavater →

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“The public seldom forgive twice.”

“The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint — the affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety.”

“There are but three classes of men — the retrograde, the stationary, the progressive.”

“Too much gravity argues a shallow mind.”

“He who, when called upon to speak a disagreeable truth, tells it boldly and has done, is both bolder and milder than he who nibbles in a low voice, and never ceases nibbling.”

“Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom."

— Thomas Henry Huxley

Science1825–1895

#wisdom

"I've often thought that if our zoning boards could be put in charge of botanists, of zoologists and geologists, and people who know about the earth, we would have much more wisdom in such planning tha…"

— William O. Douglas

Law1898–1980

#wisdom

"Prokofiev had a particular talent for creating a fully identifiable mood within the first notes of a piece, passage, or theme."

— Boris Berman

Politics1901–1939

#wisdom

"Such men and women are not confined to any one country or to any one period. They are in the great tradition of humanism. Their work is as typical of the social heritage of the twentieth century as th…"

— Lyndall Urwick

Literature1891–1983

#life