Elihu Burritt Quotes

My Master used to say, when a pitcher is being filled (by immersion), it gurgles, but when full, it is noiseless.

Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever's not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet.

I know to shut up when I don't know what I'm talking about.

Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools.

The wiser a man is, the less talkative will he be.

Water runneth smoothest where it is deepest.

It has often occurred to me that a seeker after truth has to be silent.

Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; and if he was sensible of this he would not be ignorant.

The wise man is one who knows what he does not know.

Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise.

Genuine wisdom is usually conspicuous through modesty and silence.

What I learned is that it's arrogant to be certain of anything. The world is a complex place and only idiots or assholes think they know it all.

Wisdom grows in quiet places.

He who knows he is a fool is not the biggest fool; He who knows he is confused is not in the worst confusion.

I tell you what I love - and I think you get better as you get older - when you're younger and you don't know what you don't know, you tend to talk more about what you think you know. You shut out the opportunity to learn what you don't know.

The well-ordered mind knows the value, no less than the charm, of reticence. The fruit of the tree of knowledge ... falls ripe from its stem; but those who have eaten with sobriety find no need to discuss the processes of digestion.

It is a flat'ning Thought, that the more we have seen, the less we have to say.

I am so wise I had my mouth sewn shut.

Wisest is she who knows she does not know.

Ask dumb questions and listen quietly for the answers. That's a wisdom stair climber.

They only are wise who know that they know nothing.

The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given. When, momentarily, there is a flash of greater power, it is termed a hunch, or insight, or intuition.

Acknowledging what you don't know is the dawning of wisdom.

Let the poor man mind his tongue